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Tape to CD

You have to connect the line-out of the cassette-player to the line-in of your PC's soundcard and then record a WAV file with some audio application. Then you burn the WAV to a CD or convert it to mp3.
 
(But if your cassette-player doesn't have an integrated amplifier then you'd have to use the line-out of your separate amplifier. The signal from a cassette deck is too weak).
 
Not necessarily! I've had great results from my aiwa "walkman". I plug the PC Line In to the tape player headphone jack. In fact, I've converted a lot of my irreplaceable tapes to wav, then whatever format. I had tried from my large cassette deck but had a lot of problems with some sort of interference and hissing.

Just be sure to convert to .wav first!!!
 
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I've converted tapes and records by using the headphone jack to the input on my PC and recording it with Audacity. Audacity is great for this and is free. While visiting my mother I recorded some old LPs by wiring a cable right to her speaker hook-ups as her record player had no kind of jacks, just the old screw-your-wire-here speaker connections. Still worked pretty well. Audiophiles would hate me.
 
El Greco said:
(But if your cassette-player doesn't have an integrated amplifier then you'd have to use the line-out of your separate amplifier. The signal from a cassette deck is too weak).
Click to expand...

Most (all?) stand-alone tape decks have an output of a few hundred mV into 10k-ohm or greater, which should be plenty for a line-input of a sound card. Though I suppose there may be sound cards with particularly insensitive inputs.
 
If you care about the sound quality invest in a good sound card. Cheap ones don't have shielded inputs and you'll get a lot of noise from your computer. Good sound cards are relatively cheap nowadays, I remember spending $400 on one way back when...
 
The line output of a cassette deck is usually well matched to the line input of a sound card. I don't know of any cassette deck that sends the signal from the heads out without amplifying and equalizing it to the standard line input level. Although you can also do it through an amplifier or receiver, the tape loop used by the amp is usually just a routing convenience, and does not add gain. I have recorded numerous cassettes to CD running directly from a good quality cassette deck to the line input of my laptop computer. A walkman will also work all right, but make sure you have all the bass boost and junk like that turned off, and don't turn the volume up too high.

There are some freeware programs that can handle this job, as well as commercial ones. The one I use is called Cakewalk Pyro, which I bought a couple of years ago at Staples for about 40 bucks. It allows you to record the input to a wav file, then to chop it into tracks using a graphic display. There is some noise reduction, pop and hiss filters, etc. for records and tapes, and various other basic editing features, and the program can handle the CD burning as well. The recording is done in real time, as is any post processing, so it can be a rather lengthy process, but it can be done unattended for the most part.
 
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