Tape Trail

I basically agree with BobP

12.210.50.86

soundnut

In Reply to: RE: Plusdeck 2C - anybody used this thingy? posted by BobP on October 08, 2007 at 11:41:01

But if all you're ever going to do is speech recordings at lo-fi, the Plusdeck may be good enough. I would think the quality on music tapes wouldn't be that great though.

I would also say that the quality of a properly encoded high-bitrate mp3 (256 kbps or better) is better than most cassettes. Usually I can't tell the difference between a high-bitrate MP3 and a CD. But I usually can tell a tape copy from a CD. Though the difference when it's recorded on CrO2 tape on my Nak is pretty minimal.

Cheers,
Bobbo :-)

Follow Ups:

Lo-Fi is being charitable in many cases... - caffeinator 16:13:54 10/08/07 (2)
The lecture tapes' quality ranges from okay down to pretty poor, everything from background noise, off stage noises, dynamic range problems (bombastic speaker plus no recording engineering leaves one choosing to barely hear all but the sudden outbursts, or hear most and risk hearing loss from time to time). I think it's fair to say that it would actually be easy to remedy some of the more glaring of these problems and end up with more listenable program material on CD's or even MP3's for that matter.

Of course, I do have a few tape transports around the house, and it might make more sense to invest the cash I'd spend on this in a good sound card and editing software.
- Sound card & editing software BOTH for under $20. - soundnut 16:59:10 10/08/07 (1)
  Hey Caffeinator....
  
  You can spend VERY little if you already have a tape deck to get good results.
  
  If you have a PCI slot free, pick up a Turtle Beach Montego (doesn't matter if it's A3D or II) on eBay for under $10. I used one for a long time & the recording quality is crystal-clear and dead quiet. There are more "audiophile" cards out there, but you won't beat it for under $100. For a USB solution, you could try a Behringer or Edirol USB audio interface. The Behringer is $30 and the Edirol is about $60. I have the Edirol & it works great on my notebook.
  
  For software, you can download Audacity editing software free of charge. Not a demo or a feature-crippled version, it's totally freeware. If you want to spend a few bucks, you can download CoolEdit Pro for $15 on eBay. It even has a multitrack studio, plugins & lots more, should you ever get adventurous. It's terrific software. I have much more expensive editing software, but I prefer the CoolEdit Pro. It will also let you use noise reduction & compression to make low-level audio much clearer.
  
  So there's a couple of ideas, anyway. Have fun!
  
  Cheers,
  Bobbo :-)
  - thanks for the tips - especially the software - caffeinator 08:49:33 10/09/07 (0)
    Cooledit Pro sounds like it might be the sweet spot for me - not too much to learn, but noise reduction and compression would do wonders for some of these tapes.
    
    I'm leaning toward the sound card / tape deck approach based on the posts here - sounds like I'd be better off spending the $ on the card and software than on another tape transport.
    
    I have to admit, though, the thing does have some geek appeal to it...interesting that such a narrow niche product is hitting the market now, when cassettes have been overtaken in the marketplace by CDs for such a long time.

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