I have heard that I can copy my analog tapes to my computer via my
soundcard, but a friend told me that it comes out sounding horrible. What
is the optimal way of doing this without spending a lot of money on
equipment (understanding that I may have just stated an oxymoron: high
quality without spending money).

Thanks!

On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 01:39:00 GMT, "VBM"
wrote:

I have heard that I can copy my analog tapes to my computer via my
soundcard, but a friend told me that it comes out sounding horrible.

That depends on the quality of the player, the soundcard and the
connections. If your stuff is good, it is the way to go.

Kal

Even a very average sound card can probably do recordings better than any
analog source you are likely to be using. Here is a resource of info:

http://www.a-reny.com/iexplorer/restauration.html


Mark Z.

--
Please reply only to Group. I regret this is necessary. Viruses and spam
have rendered my regular e-mail address useless.


"VBM" wrote in message
ink.net...
I have heard that I can copy my analog tapes to my computer via my
soundcard, but a friend told me that it comes out sounding horrible. What
is the optimal way of doing this without spending a lot of money on
equipment (understanding that I may have just stated an oxymoron: high
quality without spending money).

Thanks!

VBM wrote:
I have heard that I can copy my analog tapes to my computer via my
soundcard, but a friend told me that it comes out sounding horrible. What
is the optimal way of doing this without spending a lot of money on
equipment (understanding that I may have just stated an oxymoron: high
quality without spending money).

Thanks!


There's no reason it needs to sound horrible if you take a bit of care
and have a reasonably decent sound card.

Kalman Rubinson wrote:

On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 01:39:00 GMT, "VBM"
wrote:

I have heard that I can copy my analog tapes to my computer via my
soundcard, but a friend told me that it comes out sounding horrible.

That depends on the quality of the player, the soundcard and the
connections. If your stuff is good, it is the way to go.

Kal

Hi,

important is the quality of the analog in of your soundcard. Sometimes that
is the weak part of the equipment. If you have an digital in (that will not
be resampled) you can buy an old dat recorder and use it as a a/d
converter. Sometimes old dat recorders that are broken already, but can
still be used as a/d and d/a converters are sold (e.g. ebay)

Regards Eric

It depends on the soundcard. Even a merely adequate soundcard will blow
away your original recording medium: the tape recorder. The general
feeling is that the built-in soundcard on your computer's motherboard
will provide adequate sound, then there's creative with their
soundblaster series of cards. They seem to have an infamous reputation.

If you're really serious about commiting your analog audio to digital,
be it recoards or cassettes, look at companies like M-audio, Echo Audio,
etc. I have the Echo MIA, a 24/96 card from echoaudio.com. It's been
replaced by the MiaMidi. 24 bit cards are awesome. They are pretty much
becoming the de-facto standard for soundcards nowadays. 16-bit was nice.
I used to have a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. It was a good card, 16 bit,
but once I heard what the MIA could do, I retired that Santa Cruz right
quick The greatest difference was in the dynamic range. My analog
music is much more powerful when recorded through the 24-bit MIA than
with the 16-bit Santa Cruz.

Here's a link to the PCAV site whcih compares soundcards. The data is
somewhat old, but it will give you a good idea of what to look for in a
good soundcard (Scroll down to see the comparo chart);

http://www.pcavtech.com/soundcards/compare/index.htm



CD




VBM wrote:
I have heard that I can copy my analog tapes to my computer via my
soundcard, but a friend told me that it comes out sounding horrible. What
is the optimal way of doing this without spending a lot of money on
equipment (understanding that I may have just stated an oxymoron: high
quality without spending money).

Thanks!

"VBM" vwrote:

I have heard that I can copy my analog tapes to my computer via my
soundcard, but a friend told me that it comes out sounding horrible. What
is the optimal way of doing this without spending a lot of money on
equipment (understanding that I may have just stated an oxymoron: high
quality without spending money).

My first setup was very inexpensive:

a) JVC dual well tape deck
b) Fisher stereo EQ
c) Pioneer Sound Expander
d) Pioneer Receiver
e) Soundblaster/Ensoniq

Items a through d were all home stereo grade components laying around
collecting dust. The only thing I had to buy was a couple cables and
a copy of Quartz Audio Master to get started. The quality was pretty
good but all depends on the original tape.

That was about 11 months ago and...

Andy