CD to cassette tape

[harley88]

hello folks

i want to put some music cds on a cassette tape , are there a way to do this with my PC.  i can put cassette on a cd.

sure hate to bother you fine folks so much but this old man needs a lot of help.

thanks much
harley

[vinylite]

Hello Harley,

somewhat of a novice here, but I know about audio. Without knowing any other details, I guess you could do it pretty easily with an Audigy Card. But if you could provide more details it may be easier to give you the best solution to this. Such as, which model Audigy, model of tape recorder, and maybe what method you use currently to go from tape to CD.

I will first say that there is more than one way to do this, but this would be one of the cheapest.

As long as your tape recorder has "standard" inputs on it (like RCA, which most consumer level tape decks have) and your Audigy has an 1/8 inch analog stereo minijack output (I think all audigy series do, and if so might be coded w/ green color) you can purchase a 1/8 inch stereo minijack to RCA cable. You can probably get this at a local Radio Shack or electronics store. Again, this would not be the best way, but for casual listening purposes it should suffice.

The only catch is that you'll need to think about the timing. Make sure you know the length of the tape per side, as you could be recording your favorite track from the CD and that side of the tape could end halfway through it. So you may need to also do a little math and be sure the songs for each side of the tape don't exceed the recording length of that side. 

Hope this helps, and if you post more details I may be able to help further.

[harley88]

hello vinylite

this old goat sure does appreciate your reply.  i have the standard cable with a 1/8 inch (3.5mm) plug on both ends.
i have a built in audio card (realtek AC97) and it has only line in , line out ,and microphone jack.  when i record tapes to my computer for cds i plug one end to the headphone jack on the tape player in my karaoke machine(memorex MKS8503) and the other end to the microphone jack on my realtek ac97 i use audacity. 
i been thinking that maybe i could plug one end to microphone jack on tape player and the other end to line in jack on my realtek AC97.

anyway help me out if you can.
thanks again
harley

PS:  i have another comp. that i could hook up that has a audic xt 9800 audio card , but i will have to get a nic card for it

[soybean]

i been thinking that maybe i could plug one end to microphone jack on tape player and the other end to line in jack on my realtek AC97.

You meant line out, didn't you?

[vinylite]

Yeah Soybean is right. Use your line out on the Realtek.

However, as far as using the mic input on your karaoke machine, it is possibly (probably) only a mono channel and depending on how it is wired it may only record either the left or right side of your stereo minijack cable. It would spread that one side across the whole stereo spectrum, but you will still only be hearing a mono recording of one side of the original stereo mix from the computer. I guess you could get a cable that is 1/8 inch minijack stereo on one end (plugged into the stereo line out of your realtek) and splits into two separate mono 1/8 inch minijacks. You could plug each of these into the two mic inputs on the karaoke machine as long as you keep them recording into the karaoke at the same volume. Meaning if each mic input has a gain/volume knob, keep them both identical. This way you would have a mono recording still, but it would have both sides of the stereo mix blended together. May not sound the greatest though.

There is maybe another and better way to do this, which would be to get the 1/8 inch minijack stereo cable on one end (plugged into the realtek) that is RCA on the other end. Then plug the RCA end into the back of the karaoke unit's AUX inputs (page 4, input "40", called the AUX IN Left and Right Jacks, http://www.memorex.com/manuals/MKS8503.pdf). You will have to test to see if it records the AUX in to the tape though, as the manual does not say. If it does, then you'll be able to retain a stereo recording to tape. If not, you may be limited to a Stereo summed to mono recording.

If the stereo CD recordings you are putting to tape are of high quality, you can still get a decent blended mono mix, but the method using the AUX inputs would be the best way, as long as the unit records the Aux Ins.

One last note if you plan to do this alot. If you can afford it, I would invest in a consumer or professional level cassette or dual cassette deck. I won't recommend any as there are too many to choose from, but you can easily research on the net depending on what you are looking for. I guess the only important thing in this case is to make sure you have a cassette recorder that can record with a stereo input if you want to maintain the music recording on tape in stereo.

If you need clarification on anything let me know.

[Dias de verano]

I am kind of curious to know why anybody (who was not hearing impaired) would want to transfer from CD to cassette, considering how cheap CD (both fixed and portable) and mp3 players are these days. PS I am 56 years old so not some spotty young dumbass. Isn't the compact cassette dead, effectively?

[JJ 3000]

I am kind of curious to know why anybody (who was not hearing impaired) would want to transfer from CD to cassette, considering how cheap CD (both fixed and portable) and mp3 players are these days. PS I am 56 years old so not some spotty young dumbass. Isn't the compact cassette dead, effectively?

I used to like to make mixed tapes from CDs, to listen to while I was riding my skateboard. I would make a mash-up of all of my favorite music.

I still have a lot of my tapes. Most of them are titled "skate mix vol. (whatever)"

The reason that I used tapes instead of CDs, was the fact that the portable CD players would skip horribly while you were riding down the street. If you wanted to listen to music while you were riding, you had to use a cassette player.

ipods put an end to this

[Dias de verano]

OK I'm with you now. I have to agree about the skipping. One thing puzzles me, is why so many people just have to have ipods when there are so many cheaper/better portable media mp3 players around. Like Archos. I admit I am deeply biased against Apple products.

[harley88]

vinylite , soybean , Dia de verano , and jj 3000

thank you fine folks for helping me out.
yes i meant line out.
i am going to try to hook my cassette player from mic.1 to my realtek LINE OUT and give it a try , but i will have to get some kind of adapter because the the plug on my cable is 1/8 inch and the jack on mic 1 is way bigger.
shoot i paid 16.00 for this cable , lord knows what one of those rca cables will cost,

i just want to convert a couple of cds to tape , because my car (1984 t-bird)
does not have a cd player and i want to keep it orig.

thanks again to all you fine folks
harley

PS: vinylite , the more i look at this karaoke mac. the more i am thinking that maybe i could record a cd to tape with it.
put cd in - put tape in-set to cda - start cd - push record on tape cassette
what you think?

i am 66 years old , what a diff. 10 years make. can remember 56.

[vinylite]

Hey Harley,

you know that will probably work using the CD player in the karaoke and recording to the tape player in the same unit. Only way to be sure is test it out. But look at page 18 of the on line manual (http://www.memorex.com/manuals/MKS8503.pdf), it looks like this will work.

Let me know if you need help with the setup, but I think this way would be best, and you won't have to purchase a thing except the tapes. In case you ever need one, the 1/8 inch minijack stereo to RCA is around $10.00 at RadioShack.

About the tape issue, I agree that tapes are pretty much out due to their tendency to wear out quickly, lack of ability to "skip" to the track you want to hear, and sound quality versus CDs. However, that means they're going to be collector's items sooner or later (some are already)! Also some people (including myself) feel that analog tape adds a warmth and mild compression to a song that CDs can't. These days there are alot of analog software and hardware emulators out there, but some still prefer vinyl, 8-track, and cassette. Vinyl is a better example, as it is also sought after for it's warmth and added depth to a mix.

If it's a casual listen CDs are fine, but sometimes it's not the same without cranking up an old favorite on vinyl...

[JJ 3000]

or you could just get one of these for your car

[harley88]

hello gentlemen

the karaoke machine recorded the cd to tape,but this old man is out of the cassette business
i am having a problem saving sound tracks with this program called audacity
are there anyone here familer with it , or does this belong on some other forum?
thanks much
harley