Analog-to-Digital Audio:

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Sat, Dec 6, 2008 at 4:01 PM, Jeff Maxwell <vohnmaxwell at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>        I am in need of a way to process an analog stereo input device
>        to
>        digital.
>
>        I basically have old cassettes and reel-to-reels that I would
>        like to
>        convert to digital.
>
>        I do have an old CD recorder that I have been using but it has
>        started
>        to have issues not being able to read the CDs I insert.
>
>        I would think the better method would be some way to connect the
>        audio
>        output of the cassette/reel-to-reel device to the input of my
>        sound card
>        and do some type of capture.
>
>        Has anyone had any success at this and how do handle 2 rca type
>        outputs
>        from the analog to the single sound card input?

I've done this with a cassette deck. I had a friend make me a cable
that joins both tape stereo output channels into a single soundcard
input plug (this is a standard connector but I'm
electronics-illiterate so don't ask me for details :-). I used
Audacity for the capture. It's a highly manual process needless to say
(start Audacity recording, hit tape button, wait for the whole thing
to finish at normal speed, hit tape stop, stop recording) but I did
capture several audiobooks to listen to on my iPod.

Or you can buy a ready-made USB tape player, but I'm not sure how much
pain it would mean to get it working under Linux. Turntables are also
available. Ironically, a lot of these actually come with Audacity even
though they're marketed for Windows.

poc