13 replies to this topic

[twirlz]

im trying to find a music ripper to rip some old tapes of mine, but all i can find is cd rippers. now not to sound like the stupidest person in all of exsistence but, would a cd ripper work if i was ripping a tape?

[ChZ]

A cd ripper won't work. Try recording the tapes from the line-in of your soundcard and convert the wavs into mp3s using lame.

[twirlz]

problem i don't use linux. i need a windows ripper.

:edit: sorry... so i don't need a ripper to record the tapes? cool

Thanx

[StankDawg]

right, you don't need a "ripper" you need a "converter" only to convert them files to MP3. You get them into files by using the input on your sound card. Then, use any recording software to save the .WAV file. Then convert them.

You might find a sound recorder that converts on the fly in one step, similar to CD ripping programs.

[twirlz]

cool thanx guys. it good to learn new things.

Again Thanx

[dual]

LAME is available for win32, as used by Audacity and dBpowerAMP.

[twirlz]

still got some questions here. after you get done recording is your wav suppose to sound all choppy or will the mp3 conversion fix that? because if not then i have a 1 gig wav file!!! if not what would i be doing wrong. i've been playing with audacity and i don't know what i would be doing wrong.

[hacnslash]

It probably wont sound all that well, since is off tape, and mp3 conversion might make it worse since its compression, you know how you have a bigass 5 meg bitmap then you make it into a 500kb gif and it sorta gets grainy, the same thing happens with sounds, I know, cuz I've done it before, I was rippin some metallica songs off of an old bootleg tape and I ended up with about 5oo megs of metallica, after I converted it souned crappy, so I figured ill just leave it in wav format, since i dont listen to metallica that much anymore i converted them to mp3 just a cuple of weeks ago to save on space.

[bland_inquisitor]

ok. a .wav file is about 1 mb for every 10 seconds of audio. I think the reason your wav is choppy is because a gig of audio is alot to ask of any system. trying to pre-cache that much raw data is going to give your box a hernia. try splitting your wav into more processor-friendly chunks and see if the quality is a little closer to what you want. Failng that, just convert the whole thing into mp3, that should reduce the size dramaticaly, and also the strain on your computer. If the conversion makes the quality better, it would be the size reduction's effect on the file.

Also, there are good ways and bad ways to transfer a tape to your comp. The worst way is to hold a shitty mic up to the speaker on your boombox. The best way is to run an audio cable out of your stereo and into the line in jack on your soundcard.

[twirlz]

well shit... i've cut the file down to 20mins 201 mbs and its still choppy. i have no idea what i am doing wrong. i plug my shit in and press play and record and i get shit. could it be my recorder or maybe my box?

:edit: well i have it hooked up by the headphones jack to the line in on my sound card....
or should i try another tape deck because the one i'm using right now is a boom box and the other one is an actuall tape deck.

[bland_inquisitor]

i don't want to insult you or anything, but make sure you have the line in port on your volume control turned up at least half way, and make sure that you crank the volume on your output device as far as it will go without clipping. Also in your sound card properties, make sure that your have "stereo quality" selected. On most cards, the default is telephone quality, and it sux. If you don't have luck with the line in, you can plug the jack into the microphone port on your SC. That's the way I record my acoustic instruments. In your audio software, pump up the system allocation, and increase the buffer size. The best homebrewed way to go from your stereo to your computer is from the headphone jack into the comp with a standard "guitar cable" with 1/4 to 1/8 inch adapters so that the cord will fit in your HPJ and your sound card. It doesn't matter what system you use to play your tape, although going with the higher-watted system will give you the ability to increase the volume of your stream without clipping or overmodulating.

[nick84]

i don't want to insult you or anything, but make sure you have the line in port on your volume control turned up at least half way

Windows 2k/XP's record volume control is slightly hidden, make sure you turn line in up on it, along with the line in speaker output level. (on the volume control pannel hit properties, recording, ok)

[twirlz]

i don't want to insult you or anything

hey none taken... but i have no problem with the volume of the music i'm pumping in. my wife also uses the same program i'm using and she was saying that everytime she converts to wav that it get chopy, so i'm thinking of getting a diff progy. anyone recomend another good one or could i use the default sound recorder with windows?

[hacnslash]

the sound recorder in windows isn't all that bad, it just has a limit of 60 seconds, so if you want to enlarge that, just record a 60 minute wav file with silence and then after you save it just paste it into the current recording to get the desired length. Ive recorded a lot with sndrec but it doesn't really give you a lot of flexibility, but if u just want to recordon the fly without any frills its a rather good minimum-featured program