AnsweredRecording cassettes to mp3's - Opinions wanted!

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craigb
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2016/05/28 00:34:10 (permalink)

Recording cassettes to mp3's - Opinions wanted!

Ok, I'm preparing to move and I've got some cassette tapes that I see no reason to take with me.  Except, that I'd like to keep the information on them!  So, I'm thinking of hooking up an old Sony Walkman and sending the headphone out to my PC's microphone in jack.  Then I need some way to record each cassette to an mp3.
 
Right now, my DAW is not available (and it no longer has a sound interface anyway) so, what I'm wondering before I go off searching Google, do any of you know of a decent, FREE way to accomplish my goal here?  Is one way better than another?  
 
I realize that, even once I have a method, it's going to be slow since each cassette must play at "normal" speed - oh well.  I'm also wondering how it works when a tape side ends; I'm guessing I'll have to just notice and stop recording, yes?  Then go back and remove all the empty space at the end.
 
Since these are seminar-type recordings, sound quality isn't that important as long as I can understand the speaker.
 
TIA!

 
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slartabartfast
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Re: Recording cassettes to mp3's - Opinions wanted! 2016/05/28 01:02:19 (permalink) ☼ Best Answerby craigb 2016/05/28 02:28:11
There is going to be quite a bit of manual work involved, regardless of any software you might use. Audacity can be had with an integrated MP3 encoder (LAME) and will do the recording and editing as an uncompressed file, and export as MP3.
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craigb
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Re: Recording cassettes to mp3's - Opinions wanted! 2016/05/28 01:41:18 (permalink)
I think I have that somewhere already, I'll have to give it a try.  I just did a test with the Windows included Sound Recorder and it did work, but the sound level was pretty low and there were NO options.

 
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craigb
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Re: Recording cassettes to mp3's - Opinions wanted! 2016/05/28 02:13:17 (permalink)
Oh yeah, Audacity will work for this!  I can adjust the recording volume and cut blank areas (hmm... I did forget to try saving as an .mp3, oops!  I guess I'll try that later.).  I was also impressed with the playback sound so I think this will fill the bill.  Thanks Slart! 

 
Time for all of you to head over to Beyond My DAW!
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soens
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Re: Recording cassettes to mp3's - Opinions wanted! 2016/05/28 04:15:12 (permalink)
If you have a SoundBlaster... () it used to come with Creative WaveStudio, a stand alone wave recorder that can save files to Wave, RAW, WMA & mp3. It can be downloaded & does not need a soundblaster to be installed. I reinstall mine on every computer since I'm used to it. Creative Audio Converter is also part of the SB package.
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