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Copying cassettes to CDs?

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PAUL161

PAUL161

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My wife has every song that Elvis ever recorded and some that were never published. Their in a special brief case designed just for them. Their on about 50 or more cassettes. I want to burn them to cds. My question is, can I multiply the amount of tapes I put on a CD? I figure I can get quite a few on double layer disks. Is this possible, if so how is it done? She has a disk player that holds 10 disks. PJ
 
Do it to DVD and you get even more
Though, I would do it to a thumb drive first
 
Personally, I'd skip the CD's and go straight to a memory card. AFAIK there aren't any dual layer CD's, only DVD and Blu-ray. The big question is what format does the 10 disk CD player read? If it doesn't read mp3's, wma, aac, etc the collection probably won't fit on 10 CD's. There are a lot of variables, starting with what sample rate you choose to record with.
 
I agree with Greg about skipping CDs - that's so 1990's! LOL. If it were me, I might look at something like this:
Cassette-to-MP3 converter and just save the .MP3 files to a computer hard drive. You can use any .MP3 player to play them (or play them from your computer using iTunes or similar software).
By the way, I recently completed converting all my old VHS tape (including many home movies) to digital using the Elgato converter. For anyone wanting to capture old VHS movies, etc., to digital, this thing works great.
 
GregW said:
Personally, I'd skip the CD's and go straight to a memory card. AFAIK there aren't any dual layer CD's, only DVD and Blu-ray. The big question is what format does the 10 disk CD player read? If it doesn't read mp3's, wma, aac, etc the collection probably won't fit on 10 CD's. There are a lot of variables, starting with what sample rate you choose to record with.
Click to expand...

Greg, It's a home entertainment system that she plays her music CDs on. I never use it, so I don't know that much about it. I guess I'll have to get the book out! :rolleyes: PJ
 
Basil said:
I agree with Greg about skipping CDs - that's so 1990's! LOL. If it were me, I might look at something like this:
Cassette-to-MP3 converter and just save the .MP3 files to a computer hard drive. You can use any .MP3 player to play them (or play them from your computer using iTunes or similar software).
By the way, I recently completed converting all my old VHS tape (including many home movies) to digital using the Elgato converter. For anyone wanting to capture old VHS movies, etc., to digital, this thing works great.
Click to expand...

Basil, What else do I need along with the converter to copy the VHS tapes to disks? We have a bunch of them. PJ
 
I'm certainly not one to knock technology, but ...

Keep in mind that it's not a "push the button and sit back" process. You'll likely have to play each and every record all the way through - and hope it's recorded well. Or you'll have to listen to the digital version all the way through to check the quality. Then do some editing, then play it again, then "save". Then put on the next disk and repeat.

Can be a bit time consuming. If you love Elvis - probably not a problem. If not ... you may be going nuts.

How 'bout teaching your wife to do it?!?

Of course, if money is no object, then just buy all the Elvis stuff new, in digital format!
Tom
PS - I volunteered to copy a disabled friend's LP collection into digital form when she had to move to an assisted living center. Took way more time than I expected. Never again.
 
The thing is, you're starting with cassettes... The sound quality has probably gone down substantially since they were new, there's probably some hiss etc. MP3's are OK under some circumstances and I understand the convenience factor, but going analog to MP3 compresses the sound and makes it hard to listen to, to me.

You could spend a little money and save a whole bunch of time:
https://elvis complete song collection
 
Steve - +1

:encouragement:
 
When I converted my albums, I would record the whole side, then open that huge file in an audio editing program (Sound Forge) to split it ip into the individual songs. Had to type in the album name and song title though there services that might recognize songs and do it for you. One issue with doing it that way is having to go back and re-record a hot track that has distorted the recording. Having a album and song name is way better than the CD days of "track 1, track 2, etc."
 
I have also digitized most of my vinyl records using an ion Turntable that plugs into my iMac and does a direct conversion to MP3.
 
AN5Sprite said:
The thing is, you're starting with cassettes... The sound quality has probably gone down substantially since they were new, there's probably some hiss etc. MP3's are OK under some circumstances and I understand the convenience factor, but going analog to MP3 compresses the sound and makes it hard to listen to, to me.

You could spend a little money and save a whole bunch of time:
https://elvis complete song collection
Click to expand...

That's why I have iTunes Match. Any songs I have ripped from my Albums are matched at higher quality in ITunes essentially giving me better quality on most of my ripped tunes.
 
AN5Sprite said:
The thing is, you're starting with cassettes... The sound quality has probably gone down substantially since they were new, there's probably some hiss etc.
Click to expand...
I agree, depending on how they were recorded, the cassettes may top out at 12khz.

AN5Sprite said:
MP3's are OK under some circumstances and I understand the convenience factor, but going analog to MP3 compresses the sound and makes it hard to listen to, to me.
Click to expand...
That would depend on how you sample the music and what final compression is used. I sample albums at 24bit with a 256 or 320 bit rate. For a cassette, that would be overkill.

AN5Sprite said:
You could spend a little money and save a whole bunch of time:
https://elvis complete song collection
Click to expand...
Yours to own for $749 plus tax and shipping :D https://www.myplaydirect.com/completeelvis
 
Yours to own for $749 plus tax and shipping :D
Click to expand...

Seems like a deal to me. Cd quality audio, a nice book, a happy wife, The King in all his uncompressed audio glory AND you don't have to spend many, many hours converting this to that.
 
PAUL161 said:
Greg, It's a home entertainment system that she plays her music CDs on. I never use it, so I don't know that much about it. I guess I'll have to get the book out! :rolleyes: PJ
Click to expand...
Just a thought, if it won't accept MP3, you could probably add an inexpensive MP3 player. Most stereos have some sort of auxiliary input. For example
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sans...=sr_1_12?s=mp3&ie=UTF8&qid=1391435704&sr=1-12

Personally, I rather like having my own "master" MP3 files on a hard drive. I can burn whatever I want back to CD (in either audio or MP3 format), or MP3 player, or play directly from the hard drive. Back up the hard drive & then never worry about a CD being left out in the sun, or stepped on, or lost. Create a "mix tape" with only the cuts & artists that you like, etc. If the thought of losing information bugs you, then use one of the "lossless" formats like FLAC and convert from that to create the media.

In the car, I use an in-dash CD-MP3 player. It lets me put 10 hours or more of audio on each CD, then choose from a wallet of 50 CDs. I rather enjoy listening to audio books while driving, it makes the daily commute much more pleasant. With the CD-MP3 format, I can get 2 or 3 books on a single CD rather than having a whole stack for just one book.
 
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