Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Converting Audio tapes into MP3s

How to convert the sounds recorded in audio tapes/cassettes into MP3s?

You need the following hardware

1. A PC with sound card
2. An audio cassette player/ walkman which has "headphones socket"
3. A stereo Cable which has "Stereo Pins on both ends"

Connections
1. Insert the Stereo Pin of one end of the cable into the walkman/cassette player's headphones socket.
2. Insert the Stereo Pin on the other end of the cable into the "Line-in" socket of your PC.

The PC sound card interface looks like this....

| o |<-- Headphones Socket
| o |<-- Line-In Socket
| o |<-- Microphone Socket

Playing Music

1.Switch on your PC and switch on your PC Speakers
2.Switch on your Cassette Player, Insert an audio cassette and press the play button.

At this point you should be able to listen to the music played by audio cassette player from your PC speakers.

If you could not hear any sounds  then...

a. Check whether you've inserted the Stereo cable pins into appropriate sockets
of the Player and PC
b. Check whether the cable is OK. 

Recording the Sound

You need to get a software to record the sounds which are directed into your PC from an "external, sound producing hardware"..(in this case your.. Your "audio cassette player").
You can find lot of commercial/shareware/freeware to record the sounds and convert them into MP3s

For example "Rosoft Audio Recorder" 

You can download the software at

http://download.com.com/3000-2140-10242667.html?tag=lst-0-2

or you can look at the other available recorders

http://download.com.com/3120-2001-0-1-0.html?qt=audio+recording&author=&titlename=&desc=&dlcount=&daysback=&swlink=&os=&li=49&dlsize=&ca=


Have Fun!!