On 6/30/2004 09:04, Brigitte J. wrote:

"Adrian Brentnall" wrote in message
...
HI Brigitte

I apologize if this is the wrong group for this question. If there's a
better group to ask, please point me in that direction.

I have an audio cassette I need to record onto my hard drive, so that I
can
decrease the speed, then put it onto a CD-ROM.

To record the cassette onto your computer you could use any number of
free or shareware programs. I've been using Audacity (search for the
download on Google).

Alternatively - you could use Goldwave (free for evaluation purposes)
- which will record your tape onto your PC as a .wav file.

To change the speed of the recording you can use Goldwave - it has an
effect called 'timewarp' - which will slow down or speed up the
digitised audio. If you have a CD-writer on your PC you can then
'burn' the speed-corrected audio onto a CD - failing that you should
be able to record it back onto your cassette tape recorder (on a
different tape!)

You should not need any new hardware - as it sounds as if you already
have 'proved' that you can get sound from your cassette tape onto your
PC via Windows recorder.

If it's only for speech then you could reduce the 'sample rate' of the
recording - which will make the resulting file smaller and easier to
handle on the PC.

Good luck!

Adrian
Suffolk UK

Hi Adrian,
Thanks for your quick response. I've been using a microphone strung across
the room to the "boombox" that's playing the tape. I suspect I'll need some
sort of different connection??...Like a device that plugs into the tape
player, then into the sound card on my computer??...Would I need this sort
of device in order to use the programs you recommend?

If your tape player has a line-out connector, connect that to the line-in
connection on the sound card. If you don't have a line-out connector, you
can use the headphone jack, but it will be much louder. If you have to
go this route, make sure you start with the volume on the tape player
really low, and take some test recordings to see how it sounds.

As far as the physical connection, radio shack will have any cable you
might need. The line-in connection on the sound card is probably a 1/8"
female two channel (stereo) jack, so you'll need a cable that terminates
with a 1/8" make two channel (stereo) jack. The other end of the cable
just needs to be what ever the connector on your tape player needs.



Thanks,
Brigitte