How To Transfer and Convert Cassette to CD

Tape Cassette to CD and Reel to Reel transfer - The DIY Option

There are quite a number of visitors to this website who are searching for a guide on the equipment you need to transfer cassette to CD, plus the software necessary so here is a basic guide how it can be done.

You can actually get some reasonable results with cheap and even free software, not quite the standards of the professionals, but reasonable never the less. Anyway I hope this helps.

The first thing to do is to connect your tape/cassette tape deck to your computer.....

For this you will need a stereo lead with phono plugs at one end (sometimes referred to as RCA plugs) to connect to the 'Line Out' of your cassette or tape deck, and a stereo 3.5mm Jack Plug on the other end to connect to the 'Line In' of your soundcard. It may be easier to get a lead with phono/RCA plugs on both ends as shown below. (A few sound cards use Phono Sockets so check this before you buy a lead)

	3.5mm Stereo RCA Male Cable.
	RCA to RCA Cable


	The socket on your computer will probably be labeled 'Line In' - very often colour coded Blue and may have a symbol like the one to right.

Rear View of a Typical 'On Board' Soundcard

Now you are connected you will need some Software to Record your Cassette

There are quite a few to choose from, some are very good, some are awful! Here is my personal favourite for performance, ease of use, and value for money.

SPIN IT AGAIN by Acoustica
A dedicated Software Package that will Record, Restore and Burn and Print to CD

I have evaluated this software and find it easy to use and follow. It even has a voice (which you can switch off once you are familiar with the software) to guide you through set up and operation.

Restoration tools with Spin It Again software are very effective and very easy to use.

A great bonus with Spin It Again is that you can load an audio file into spin it again and convert it to MP3, OGG or WMA formats and to any 'quality' (file size) you choose, so you can transfer your LP's and Cassettes to your PC and convert them ready to use with your MP3 player or IPod.

Setting up the software is quite straight forward. 'Spin It Again' takes you through this process, plus it's well explained in their 'help' files. You can burn your transferred audio file to CD in a format that will play both on your computer and a normal home CD player. The process is all included in the wizard and is very easy to do.

There is also a CD label printing option so if you want to make a professional looking as well as sounding CD, use this option too.

Very Impressive - More Information on Spin It Again

NEW IN VERSION 2 (VERSION 2.5 Available Now)

Record your old 78s and then just change the rate with a simple Recording Speed Adjustment drop down. No need to buy a record player that supports 78 rpm. Just record it a 45 rpm and use the adjustment.

Automatically look up album information and track times over the Internet.

Hear what you are recording! If you have a USB or other sound device that does not let you hear what it is recording, just click the Monitor checkbox and no more guessing!

Type in track information during recording! Waste even less time during recording. Even if you are a slow typer, you should be able to type faster than it takes to record an album. This results in more saved time! It also aids and helps in track detection!

Change the volume for each track!

Improved track detection for live recordings or hard to detect song transitions.

Combine value and 'wizard driven' ease of use - it's a winner!

Download FREE TRIAL Now

You can buy Spin It Again here

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Some alternative options to Spin It Again I have tried

Audacity - A very good Free Audio Editor with built in restoration tools. I don't actually rate the audio restoration tools very highly as they aren't that effective and tend to add undesirable noises if even slightly over used. You can convert files to MP3 using Audacity but you will need to install 'LAME' Decoder (Free download).

Goldwave (Costs $49) is a fully featured audio editor with built in restoration tools. I haven't tried the restoration tools yet, but I'll let know when I have. You can convert files to MP3.

Steinberg Clean This is very good, if you can get hold of a copy, but I think it has been dropped. Some suppliers are still advertising it at the time of writing this, plus of course there is always ebay.

If you would like to transfer your LP's 45's and 78's to CD then the above software is excellent for the job. The connection procedure is slightly different though, plus there are a few extra bits of information you should know, so click here to go to the Transferring LP to CD page.

*TIP*!	If you have a lot of Cassette to CD transfers or still use cassette tape, then I came accross a piece of kit called 'Plusdeck' which is really interesting. Check it out here

I hope to add more information about tape to CD transfer as and when I get chance but in the mean time -
have fun...........

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