converting cassettes to mp3

[sAr]

helo everybody
i wz just trying to convert my cassettes to mp3 and bought a good mono to mono cable, plug one end to my decks earphone output and one to line-in of the sound card. now the thing is there's too much noise coming in. but when i try to plug into the microphone input of sound card there much less noise. but the catch is that if i record from mic in, the input is mono while from the line-in the input is stereo. so what can i do in this situation

any suggestions would be welcome

thanx

 

[sAr]

can't

i thought about that too, but my BPL deck only has one stereo connection which is for phono(ie input) not for output. so i can't use a stereo to mono cable.

 

[sAr]

can't

i thought bout that too but my BPL deck has got only one stero connection which is for phono(ie line in for deck) and not for the output. so i can't use the stereo to mono cable here.

 

[anupamsinha]

Hi SAR

In case you can not use the stereo to RCA cable then. Whenever you record through the earphone jack make sure the volume on your BPL is to the max and Bass,treble and other such setting should be as per your taste.

 

[GunshotSilence]

hey i have tried this and i have been successfull too
i have also recorded off the radio.
firstly: what does ur cable look like?
mine is a double wire cable for stereo.

mono cable is a single wire like a mic. wire
i have been doing this even before it appeared in the DIGIT sept 2003 issue(i suppose)
also since u have plugged it into earphone socket of ur deck(like i have done it) its gotta be stereo.
secondly for noise-try headcleaning with a good cassette /soln. like that of 'meltrack' and also turn this wires in their sockets to see for any cracking sounds and hence
and clean both the sockets of deck and sound card with 'contact cleaner' (only Digit know what it is-i dint get it anywhere)

also softwares like cooledit pro2.1 and polderbits sound editor and recorder do a good job in telling u the volume level
lower the level until its in the yellow section at the peak

for quick recording use polderbits sound editor and recorder
it also allows to record while playing songs in media player.
and loads very fast (good for radio recordings)

 

[cruisetjj]

use a 2+1 shelided wire. it has two normal wires with a third wire wrapped around them. This is meant to reduce noise an interference. You also get 1+1 sheilded wires (Mono). Noise dosen't depend on mono/stereo. It depends on the wire quality and recording/playback volumes. If the volume of your deck is too high you will get a background noise and chances of distortion is high. If it is too low you may not get anything So keep it at an appropriate position ( you will have to play with a bit). This is the advantage of using Line Out. Line out gives a constant audio output i.e constant volume no bass boost and other effects. So make sure you remove all effects while recording. Keep the bass and treble at mean positions. Also, plug out other audio connections from your computer and system. Sometimes having multiple devices connected creates a hum. Hope this helps.

Last of all...if you are really interested in cassette to cd conversions i would recommend you to buy a good Sound card preferably Creative and use good quality wires. You will have to shell out some money that's for sure.

 

[sAr]

thanx ppl for all th suggestions but tell me how to identify whether the input sound is mono or stereo. of couse i could compare the data in both channels but that would be heady. ne other ways to tell whether i'm capturing mono or stereo.
also if i keep the decks volume at max, it increases the hum so i keep decks vol mid level and increase the sound card's volume for better catch

 

[GunshotSilence]

i told u to use "polderbits sound recorder and editor" it will show u whether the sound is mono or stereo
also my cable is a double wire plugged in to headphone sockets so its gotta be stereo
stereo is just 2 just for left and right

also wann a 5.1 dolby sound on ur stereo headphones
go ot *www.lake.com.au/driver.asp?page=main/products/dolby headphone

*www.lake.com.au/driver.asp?page=main/products/dolby virtual speaker

this is a plug-in for musicmatch jukebox *www.musicmatch.com/info/plug-ins/?plugin=dsp_lakepls&version=6.10.0162&os=pc

also keep the input volume at about 1/5 of total untill the bars are in the yellow zone at peak
both polderbits and cool edit will show thais
and single channel will ,mean mono and u will see only one progress bar

 

[sAr]

thanx ppl
so after trying quite a few softwares, below are my views :

for recording purpose : PolderBitS is the best and not only because it's ease of use, but mainly cause it's very light on the system (only 3.64MB) as compared to Sonic Foundary's Sound Forge 6.0d(32.9MB) and Cool Edit Pro 2.1 (22MB). thus u can work around without jerks (thanx GunShot for the reference)

for editing purpose : Sound Forge 6.0d comes on top for stereo single track editing cause of it's clean interface, fast responses, keyboard shortcuts (even though u can program shortcuts in CEP, it's not as good for editing)

and finally for audio processing like noise reduction or applying effects : Cool Edit Pro 2.1 takes the crown. it's noise reduction is way better than sound forge's n an extra hiss removal works pretty well for light processing. also the best feature is the batch processing and the scripting. just record the script n leave all ur files to CEP.

i even put up a test file comparing Sound forge's DirectX noise reduction and Cool Edit Pro's Noise reduction, using the usual noise we get through the line-in socket(but with a bit amplification).
download the file (157KB) at :

*www.lyricsworld.musicdot.com/stuff/test.mp3

the file has the following :
1) the first few seconds is plain noise part

2) the next 5 seconds is a song(guess which) recorded from tape thru line-in with the same noise as in first part

3) then i applied noise reduction using the plain noise part as the noise profile in Cool Edit pro. these 5 seconds are it's result

4) then comes the part where Sound forge's noise reduction wz applied.

also worth noting is that when u apply the noise reduction to only noise in CEP, u get only silence(which ideally u should get),i.e. all noise is eliminated but when done in Sound Forge, the noise part still remains, only it's level is brough down.

note : the file is encoded using mp3pro(VBR 50%) so as to save on size, so play it using a compatible player. for those who don't have ne, download mp3pro decoder winamp plugin from the follo. link :
*www.mp3prozone.com/assets/mp3PROAudioDecoder.exe

test file : *www.lyricsworld.musicdot.com/stuff/test.mp3

do listen to it n tell me what u think of it

also Sonic Foundary has been taken over by Sony and has just released Sound Forge 7 with major improvements(goes without saying for sony). hope digit puts it in the cd

 

[GunshotSilence]

ur test file if u listen clearly
sounds diff. on WMP9 and diff. on cooledit
u wont realize this as both channels are played together. try playing in WMP9 and u will see on headphones that proper guitar
is on one channel and noise, echo, plucking sound is on the other with little time gap
i havent worked with cool edit much.

firstly, use polderbits for purely recording and after removing the unwanted parts
and save the file as a *.wav file. so as to edit later.

secondly, for converting from one format to another use,advanced encode decode tools-its very easy to use and best.
dont use mp3, instead use ogg vorbis ( at quality 5= near cd quality) to prevent panga with the law.

as far as sound forge7 goes, i knew it about 2 months go that it is owned by sony and cool edit pro is now
owned by adobe and is now adobe audition.

i have already requested to digit to include these softwares as they r very biig and i got a reply-that they will
have to take permission (to include demos/trials from specific companies) and will try their best.

i even got a new pair of headphone from intex just for sound editing and listening in detail.
the song ur recording seems good. very good. which one is it.? and how to upload all kind of files to some free site so as to share with people??
i dont have a site of my own.

now when i whistle and record, i keep the mic near my chin to stop direct entry of air
but while recording i record some air too so as to tell the software what noise to remove
also before going for noise reduction, go for high hiss reduction. this will make it clearer.
in my whistling i gave it a "swoosh" air as a profile for removal. both hiss and noise reduction removed it completely.

the starting 2 sesonds of noise in ur test file is alright but u need to give it a profile
-like a low comotion,or fan air sound. that will be the noise to remove.

also switch off the fan and close any windows, doors and prevent movement of people or footsteps.
turn the cord in the socket to hear any unwanted sound and clean it with a cloth.
gold plated pins are the best but they are verrry costly and come with high end sound cards.
if u are a home user dont go for them.

i wanna upload my editted files too
they have a lot of diff.

how to?

 

[sAr]

told u use an mp3pro compatible player so if the test file sounds different u need to download mp3pro decoder for WMP. it will download automatically once ur online n open the file. mp3pro files can be played on mp3 decoders but the higher frequencies(above 22050Hz) won't be heard as it's encoded using SBR.
now bout ogg. it's very good but it takes hell lot more time to encode and on my pIII 500, i don't have that patience and also my favorite player MusicMatch doesn't support it as of yet.
also i use LAME for mp3 encoding and it's open source so no law panga here(and what kind law panga in INDIA neway). and it's better than Fraunhofer's mp3 encoder.
bout the noise, u need to use a good uni-directional mic so as to cut off the surrounding sounds.
and if u need to store files online, there are thousands of free online storage space providers. just search. the test file wz uploaded on freewebsites.com's server. they are pretty fast n uptime is good, provide 50MB space,with ad options(whether embedded or pop-up),gives forwarding e-mail add. using ur subdomain.

hey how many of u here worked on creating karaoke files, cause i got a strange thing happening here

 

[GunshotSilence]

well ur plugin was for winamp
i dont use winamp
but my musicmatch jukebox supports mp3pro
also i dont have and dont know how to get a unidirectional mic. also i m just amaeuter and don tneed one right now

also see my files which i have editted in cooledit pro

test_original.wma is original
and test_editted.wma is editted in CEP using noise and high hiss reduction.
www.geocites.com/badguy1986/index.html
find it in the downloads/audio section
the song is "yeh jo mohabbat hai" from Amar Prem
also ur song was good

 

[sAr]

the link u gave reveals a blank page. did u upload ur edited html file?
the song wz Hotel California by Eagles.(one of the greatest number)
uni-diretional mics are common now n u can check them out at ne hardware stores. and WMP9 will automatically download the mp3pro codec from it's codec server once ur online so their's no link for it.

 

[sAr]

i got a nice little article on the mic placements and other techniques related to mics. u may find it useful for decent recording. i forgot the original link but it's from prorec.com by Barry Rudolph, i uploaded my copy , here's it :

*www.lyricsworld.musicdot.com/stuff/mic.htm

 

[GunshotSilence]

also see my files which i have editted in cooledit pro

test_original.wma is original
and test_editted.wma is editted in CEP using noise and high hiss reduction.
www.geocites.com/badguy1986/index.html
find it in the downloads/audio section
the song is "yeh jo mohabbat hai" from Amar Prem

 

[prathapml]

Cool Edit Pro is good according to me - but if you only are going to record from cassettes to MP3, use MusicMatch Jukebox 9.