Transferring audio tapes to digital media?

[Celso Alvarez Cáccamo]

Leila, there are many many ways to digitalize audio. Some suggestions:

1) A special tape player that hooks to a computer via USB directly and comes with a digitizing program. I've never used them, but I understand they are basically to transfer old music (particularly the Bee Gees), so I don't know about their quality. They are sold all around: "Transfer Your Tapes To MP3", etc. If you go for this, make sure the brand is reliable and the sound is excellent.

2) A regular cassette player hoooked to the computer via:

2a) Line-in ; digitalization is done with the computer's built-in software or with a program such as Audacity (free, I believe; good and versatile, but a little cumbersome).

2b) A digitalizer/converter gadget which links via USB, such as Roxio. Scheme is: Cassette player => converter => computer.  I've used a Roxio one and the sound is quite good. One that only does video can be used; all you have to do afterwards is extract only the audio, PROVIDED that it can record in WAV (see below).

3) An iPod with a microphone, such as Belkin, which connects to the base: Cassette player with audio cables => microphone => Record in iPod in WAV format.  I've used an iPod Classic (don't know about iPod touch). Very easy. Very good sound quality, though I'm not sure now if the recording picks up the noise of the iPod hard disk; when the Belkin is used externally, it does. Then, iPod => Computer, it uploads the recordings automatically. iPod is small, easy to carry around, with mike and audio cable, and you may digitalize anything wherever there is a tape player.

4) Video hard drive:
4a) A home digital video recorder/player with a hard drive, HD-DVD (Panasonic, Phillips; Sony menus are horrible; Panasonic is user-friendly). Cassette player => DVD recorder, only audio cables. You set the video at lowest quality, as it will show black. You select PCM linear sound (=WAV, but I'm not sure now if it needs conversion), uncompressed (not Dolby). You transfer clips from the hard drive to rewriteable DVD's, then => computer, extract audio only, discard original file. The process is a little complex, but the sound is excellent. You can store megaloads of audio. Better yet if the HD-DVD recorder/player can hook to a computer (not frequent, as each brand has its propriety obsessions).

4b) Variant: A HD-DVD recorder/player with an USB port where you can digitalize sound directly. Player => HD-DVD => USB pendrive. I've used a Phillips one. Problem: It only digitalizes in MP3, which is not adviseable.

5) Same as 4a above, but using an external "Media Hard Drive" (iOmega, for example), which can then be hooked to the computer directly or to another HD (in "chain") via USB. Player => Media HD => TV (to follow menus and know what you are doing ;-)  and then Media HD => Computer or => additional HD => Computer.

6) Tape player to digital recorder directly: Archos, SONY, etc. I've tried it with a mediocre MP3 player/recorder, one of these clonics, but I would only recommend it if everything else is unavailable. Besides, they usually don't record in WAV (perhaps Archos?). 

There may be more methods I've used which I forget.  A few tips:

- The quality of the tape player and heads is extremely important. I still use a SONY Walkman Pro bought in 1984 ;-), with excellent sound.
- Don't digitalize on batteries, but AC line.
- Recording directly to computer via line-in (method 1) is not advised in noisy clonic PCs: there may be background "hissing" from all the circuitry, and pops from the hard drive. Mac is supposed to be better for this, but I haven't tried it in mine.
- Digitalizing directly to computer takes time and processing power. It ties up the computer for other tasks; if you do it and the CPU goes mad, you may have artifacts or problems in the recording. Same may be said of method 2b), unless the gadget stores recordings in its own media, not in the computer HD.
- Line-out from the tape player can be done via line-out mini-jack or via headphones mini-jack. In this second case, output volume is variable; adjusting it to avoid saturation may be tricky, but you may also get a "fuller" sound than unamplified sound.  Volume of sound output from the built-in line-out is fixed, but it needs to be amplified with software (not with the volume button in the player.
- I would recommend to digitalize ALWAYS in WAV, uncompressed format, at 44Khz, stereo, 16 bit, that is, the highest quality possible. 60 minutes, around 600MB. Storage space is cheap nowadays. That's the format for CD's, which covers well the range of human hearing. You can always compress the files in "loosy" formats, such as MP3 (choose always the BEST quality, 320 kbps), or FLAC (slightly compressed but "loseless")

In short, I would recommend trying method 4 with a GOOD HD-DVD recorder (mine is Panasonic; excellent sound) or method 5, or method 1 with one of those digitalizing cassette players if you know the quality is good, or try the iPod also, as it records in 44Khz WAV.  The HD video/audio recorders are made for this; computers are not. The computer is not tied up; you don't have to adjust volume settings; amplification of line out is done automatically by the device; you may store loads of data; you may even trim unwanted segments with the HD-DVD built-in menu (though not sound editing can be done).

Post-processing audio is another story (again, with Audacity, for example). Depending for what, you may want to clean background noise (moderately!), normalize volume, etc. though you should always do this with a COPY of the file and keep original files well stored, titled, and organized. If you're going to distribute them freely (an MP3, for example) for a class or in a web page, don't forget to add (embed) as many "tags" as possible to the file: Title, Artist (yes; the format of tags is designed for music :-( ), date, copyright, etc. Freeware is available to embed these tags in the MP3 (Audacity does it). Not doing this is like distributing a handout or a paper without a title, an author, or a date. Archaelogists of the 30th century will spend YEARS tracing back what the hell were all those MP3, PDF's and JPGs circulating around in the 21th century without any embedded information, where did they belong?  Seems we haven't LEARNED from trying to date medieval manuscripts.

There's more, I suppose, if you're going to do this. For example: Muster A Lot Of Patience ;-) .

-celso
Celso Alvarez Cáccamo

(PS: My English is becoming poorer and poorer, a good sign ;-) ; I haven't corrected it in this post.)


A 2010/11/08, às 03:24, Leila Monaghan escreveu:

> Hi,
> 
> One of the requests I've had for the Linguistic Anthropology Tool Kit site (
> http://kit.linguisticanthropology.org/about/) is information on how to
> transfer audiotapes to digital format.  Does any one have suggestions?  I'll
> post answers on the Tool Kit site and would also be happy to make any
> interested parties regular bloggers on the site.
> 
> all best,
> 
> Leila
> 
> -- 
> Leila Monaghan, PhD
> Department of Anthropology
> University of Wyoming
> Laramie, Wyoming