Cassette to Digital

RINGWAYMAN · 28-08-2016, 13:20

My question doesn't precisely for a category here but chose this one.

Can anyone recommend the cheapest or best option to transfer contents of Cassettes onto PC?

Many thanks

anthony david · 28-08-2016, 14:43

If you are in W.H.Smiths have a quick look at the article in this months Mac Format (PCs will be similar) Audacity is a free and very good audio recording tool but takes some time to learn, they have on line tutorials. Your PC may have an audio input in which case you will not need an A-D convertor.

RINGWAYMAN · 28-08-2016, 14:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by anthony david

If you are in W.H.Smiths have a quick look at the article in this months Mac Format (PCs will be similar) Audacity is a free and very good audio recording tool but takes some time to learn, they have on line tutorials. Your PC may have an audio input in which case you will not need an A-D convertor.

I obviously need a cassette player, what input does it have to have to connect with the pc?

chrisjr · 28-08-2016, 14:58

As mentioned above Audacity plus a 3.5mm stereo jack plug to two phono socket lead if you have a Hi-Fi separates cassette machine or 3.5mm stereo jack to 3.5mm stereo jack lead if you have a walkman type player. That assumes you computer has a Line In socket. A desktop PC will likely have one but I have seen quite a few laptops with no line in, maybe a mic connection for a headset which is of no use.

If you don't have a suitable line input on the computer try a USB soundcard. But be careful. A lot of the smaller USB plug types (look like a USB flash drive) only have a mono mic input which is no use to you. I would recommend this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-U...dp/B000KW2YEI/

which is surprisingly decent quality for 25 quid.

anthony david · 28-08-2016, 14:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN

I obviously need a cassette player, what input does it have to have to connect with the pc?

Line in. You may need to use a cassette player with a variable o/p as the sensitivity on my ancient HP PC is quite high and I have to attenuate the signal to stop it overloading. If you Google your problem there will probably be a you tube how to do it video out there.

RINGWAYMAN · 28-08-2016, 19:21

Many thanks for the reply.

I have done this in the past and the sound has come out quite distorted, like its recording at too high a volume. Would Audacity be able to control this?

Aetnla · 28-08-2016, 19:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by anthony david

Line in. You may need to use a cassette player with a variable o/p as the sensitivity on my ancient HP PC is quite high and I have to attenuate the signal to stop it overloading. If you Google your problem there will probably be a you tube how to do it video out there.

What do you mean by variable o/p?

anthony david · 28-08-2016, 19:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN

Many thanks for the reply.

I have done this in the past and the sound has come out quite distorted, like its recording at too high a volume. Would Audacity be able to control this?

Not if the distortion was due to the PC or A-D convertor input being overloaded. If you are using the headphone socket of a portable player just turn the players volume down. Another alternative is an inexpensive mixer with a digital USB output. Suggest you read the Audacity tutorials as a primer, you may think it is all too complex. It took me some time to master Audacity, I was the same age as you at the time and I learnt by trial and error, you will have to do the same.

Perhaps something like this may be useful but do your research and shop around.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-3...2410569&sr=1-3

If quality isn't paramount there are several devices like this available.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Handheld-Po...assette+player

chrisjr · 28-08-2016, 21:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN

Many thanks for the reply.

I have done this in the past and the sound has come out quite distorted, like its recording at too high a volume. Would Audacity be able to control this?

If you plugged a line level source into the microphone input on the PC then you will get overload and distortion and Audacity is unlikely to be able to do much if anything about it.

Microphones produce a very small output voltage compared to line level devices such as a cassette player or radio tuner for example. Thus they need a lot more amplification to bring that level up to the same sort of voltage as a line source. If you feed a line level source into a mic input you overload the amplifier leading to distortion.

That is why you need to ensure the PC has a line level input or you use an external soundcard with line level inputs such as the one I linked to above. On PC soundcards the convention is for the line in to be coloured blue and mic red.

The other problem with mic inputs is they tend to be mono so you end up recording just the left input rather than left and right.

tealady · 28-08-2016, 22:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aetnla

What do you mean by variable o/p?

Variable output I think.
Basically, you want to be able to control the signal coming in which can be a mixture of the output and input levels. Or preferably output at max or min which means only one variable to adjust.

biggles001 · 28-08-2016, 22:46

I had a similar problem,needing to transfer vinyl,disks and cassettes to mp3,so that they could be played on more modern equipment,and as my audio stuff was on it's way out and very old,took the plunge and bought a cheap music centre which did the job with no need for audacity.Now I have the ability to play all my old music in the car,through my bluray player and the mini music centre which my wife uses!!

Orangecrab · 28-08-2016, 22:46

I would agree with what people have been saying, using Audacity is probably the cheapest way. You'll need to buy the connecting cable which will be a minijack at the PC end which goes into the line-in (usually coloured blue), and a jack plug to match whatever output your cassette player has at the other, quite often this will be called the aux output, or you could try the headphone output.

Audacity is a free download from the net, it isn't difficult to learn, experiment with it to see what gives best results.

RINGWAYMAN · 29-08-2016, 08:00

So in summary, these two products are probably what I need?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-3...2410569&sr=1-3

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AGPtek%C2%A...assette+to+mp3

koantemplation · 29-08-2016, 08:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN

So in summary, these two products are probably what I need?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-3...2410569&sr=1-3

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AGPtek%C2%A...assette+to+mp3

The main problem I found with the USB Portable Cassette player is that the drive mechanism can be a bit weak which means that tapes that are tight play at a variable speed.

TBH unless the tapes are very rare or personal recordings I wouldn't bother digitising them.

The only ones I did were Kids of Fame cassettes that were rare and not available as CDs or Mp3s.

The best USB Cassette digitiser I had was from Aldi and was a stand alone device that could digitise to a USB Stick at variable mp3 rates. But again tape speed was a problem with old tapes.

The Tevion Cassette Converter was the stand alone device from Aldi.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TEVION-CASS.../dp/B00IIRUAZC

chrisjr · 29-08-2016, 10:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN

So in summary, these two products are probably what I need?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-3...2410569&sr=1-3

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AGPtek%C2%A...assette+to+mp3

No.

One or the other, or the USB soundcard I linked to above. But not both. If you buy the USB cassette player you don't need the mixer. If you buy the mixer or soundcard you don't need that cassette player.

The mixer/soundcard would be used with a conventional Hi-Fi or walkman type cassette deck. The mixer/soundcard act as the interface between cassette machine and computer. The USB cassette player plugs direct to the computer so doesn't need any additional equipment.

Nigel Goodwin · 29-08-2016, 10:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisjr

No.

One or the other, or the USB soundcard I linked to above. But not both. If you buy the USB cassette player you don't need the mixer. If you buy the mixer or soundcard you don't need that cassette player.

The mixer seems rather overkill, for little purpose - you just need a USB 'sound card' such as this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-U...eywords=ufo202

There are two versions, this one includes a switchable phono preamp so you can convert records as well as tapes.

I've been using one for years, mainly to give improved sound quality (in and out) compared to built-in sound cards.

chrisjr · 29-08-2016, 11:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

The mixer seems rather overkill, for little purpose - you just need a USB 'sound card' such as this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-U...eywords=ufo202

There are two versions, this one includes a switchable phono preamp so you can convert records as well as tapes.

I've been using one for years, mainly to give improved sound quality (in and out) compared to built-in sound cards.

May I point the Honourable Gentleman to the reply I made earlier (post 4)

I agree the mixer may be a tad over the top for what the OP requires. And if you have no experience of using such a device, even one as simple as the Xenyx 302, then it could just get in the way of achieving what the OP wants.

fmradiotuner1 · 29-08-2016, 11:20

Not a lot of help but just had to post this here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVoSQP2yUYA

RINGWAYMAN · 29-08-2016, 11:48

Your responses guys have been fantastic, many thanks.

So a further summary.

I have a tape deck connected to the below product:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-U...eywords=ufo202

which connects to my PC.

My tapes are very personal to myself so this system will reduce distortion? As in the past I did about 20 cassettes and the sound was pretty bad connected by cable direct to the PC.

anthony david · 29-08-2016, 11:54

The only reason I suggested the mixer was concerns about overloading as we have no idea what source he will be using. I feed my HiFi tape output via a home made attenuator in to the line input of an old PC which works fine (the i/p overloads without the attenuator). Home made mods such as this are fine for an engineer such as myself to make but probably out of the question for the o/p. Although I worked in broadcasting, as a man in his late 50s at the time, I found Audacity difficult at first to master although the tutorials may have improved since then. Simple things such as mp3 conversion are not included, you either download the optional LAME encoder or convert in iTunes or something similar. It is easy for young people brought up on computers to think that programmes such as Audacity are easy, for the o/p I have a feeling this won't be so.

I see that while I was typing the o/p has/may have purchased the Behringer A-D converter which I was going to buy myself for my Mac but as the old HP PC is still going haven't done so far.

chrisjr · 29-08-2016, 12:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN

Your responses guys have been fantastic, many thanks.

So a further summary.

I have a tape deck connected to the below product:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-U...eywords=ufo202

which connects to my PC.

My tapes are very personal to myself so this system will reduce distortion? As in the past I did about 20 cassettes and the sound was pretty bad connected by cable direct to the PC.

It all depends on where the distortion is coming from. If it is on the original tapes then there is very little, if anything, that can be done about it. If it was caused by overloading the input of the PC, for example using the mic input instead of the line input, then the Behringer unit should resolve that.

The Behringer is a surprisingly decent little box, especially for the money. In fact a lot of Behringer kit is good value for money. I had a predecessor of that unit that came free with a small Behringer mixer and gave it a try not really expecting much. But was pleasantly surprised by just how well it performed.

RINGWAYMAN · 29-08-2016, 12:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisjr

It all depends on where the distortion is coming from. If it is on the original tapes then there is very little, if anything, that can be done about it. If it was caused by overloading the input of the PC, for example using the mic input instead of the line input, then the Behringer unit should resolve that.

The Behringer is a surprisingly decent little box, especially for the money. In fact a lot of Behringer kit is good value for money. I had a predecessor of that unit that came free with a small Behringer mixer and gave it a try not really expecting much. But was pleasantly surprised by just how well it performed.

The distortion was definitely from the PC. The cassette when played independently sounded fine but when I had recorded it, it sounded awful!

chrisjr · 29-08-2016, 13:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN

The distortion was definitely from the PC. The cassette when played independently sounded fine but when I had recorded it, it sounded awful!

In that case it seems you were overloading the PC input. Either by using the mic input or a very sensitive line input. The Behringer unit should be OK as it can take a reasonably high signal on it's inputs according to the specs.

One word of warning, make sure the switch is in the LINE position not the PHONO position or you will really find out what distortion means

RINGWAYMAN · 29-08-2016, 14:09

Do I need red + black/white cables with connectors both ends to link cassette player and the gizmo?

chrisjr · 29-08-2016, 14:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN

Do I need red + black/white cables with connectors both ends to link cassette player and the gizmo?

The Behringer unit uses phono (or sometimes called RCA) sockets for the audio in/out connections. If the cassette player has the same type of sockets then you will need a lead such as this

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....16K0QRYSVL.jpg

Which I suspect is what you mean.

28-08-2016, 13:20	#1
RINGWAYMAN Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Posts: 141	Cassette to Digital My question doesn't precisely for a category here but chose this one. Can anyone recommend the cheapest or best option to transfer contents of Cassettes onto PC? Many thanks

28-08-2016, 14:43	#2
anthony david Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 3,469	If you are in W.H.Smiths have a quick look at the article in this months Mac Format (PCs will be similar) Audacity is a free and very good audio recording tool but takes some time to learn, they have on line tutorials. Your PC may have an audio input in which case you will not need an A-D convertor.

28-08-2016, 14:52	#3
RINGWAYMAN Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Posts: 141	Quote: Originally Posted by anthony david If you are in W.H.Smiths have a quick look at the article in this months Mac Format (PCs will be similar) Audacity is a free and very good audio recording tool but takes some time to learn, they have on line tutorials. Your PC may have an audio input in which case you will not need an A-D convertor. I obviously need a cassette player, what input does it have to have to connect with the pc?

28-08-2016, 14:58	#4
chrisjr Forum Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Reading Posts: 27,916	As mentioned above Audacity plus a 3.5mm stereo jack plug to two phono socket lead if you have a Hi-Fi separates cassette machine or 3.5mm stereo jack to 3.5mm stereo jack lead if you have a walkman type player. That assumes you computer has a Line In socket. A desktop PC will likely have one but I have seen quite a few laptops with no line in, maybe a mic connection for a headset which is of no use. If you don't have a suitable line input on the computer try a USB soundcard. But be careful. A lot of the smaller USB plug types (look like a USB flash drive) only have a mono mic input which is no use to you. I would recommend this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-U...dp/B000KW2YEI/ which is surprisingly decent quality for 25 quid.

28-08-2016, 14:58	#5
anthony david Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 3,469	Quote: Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN I obviously need a cassette player, what input does it have to have to connect with the pc? Line in. You may need to use a cassette player with a variable o/p as the sensitivity on my ancient HP PC is quite high and I have to attenuate the signal to stop it overloading. If you Google your problem there will probably be a you tube how to do it video out there.

28-08-2016, 19:21	#6
RINGWAYMAN Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Posts: 141	Many thanks for the reply. I have done this in the past and the sound has come out quite distorted, like its recording at too high a volume. Would Audacity be able to control this?

28-08-2016, 19:41	#7
Aetnla Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: England Posts: 293	Quote: Originally Posted by anthony david Line in. You may need to use a cassette player with a variable o/p as the sensitivity on my ancient HP PC is quite high and I have to attenuate the signal to stop it overloading. If you Google your problem there will probably be a you tube how to do it video out there. What do you mean by variable o/p?

28-08-2016, 19:49	#8
anthony david Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 3,469	Quote: Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN Many thanks for the reply. I have done this in the past and the sound has come out quite distorted, like its recording at too high a volume. Would Audacity be able to control this? Not if the distortion was due to the PC or A-D convertor input being overloaded. If you are using the headphone socket of a portable player just turn the players volume down. Another alternative is an inexpensive mixer with a digital USB output. Suggest you read the Audacity tutorials as a primer, you may think it is all too complex. It took me some time to master Audacity, I was the same age as you at the time and I learnt by trial and error, you will have to do the same. Perhaps something like this may be useful but do your research and shop around. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-3...2410569&sr=1-3 If quality isn't paramount there are several devices like this available. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Handheld-Po...assette+player

28-08-2016, 21:19	#9
chrisjr Forum Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Reading Posts: 27,916	Quote: Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN Many thanks for the reply. I have done this in the past and the sound has come out quite distorted, like its recording at too high a volume. Would Audacity be able to control this? If you plugged a line level source into the microphone input on the PC then you will get overload and distortion and Audacity is unlikely to be able to do much if anything about it. Microphones produce a very small output voltage compared to line level devices such as a cassette player or radio tuner for example. Thus they need a lot more amplification to bring that level up to the same sort of voltage as a line source. If you feed a line level source into a mic input you overload the amplifier leading to distortion. That is why you need to ensure the PC has a line level input or you use an external soundcard with line level inputs such as the one I linked to above. On PC soundcards the convention is for the line in to be coloured blue and mic red. The other problem with mic inputs is they tend to be mono so you end up recording just the left input rather than left and right.

28-08-2016, 22:19	#10
tealady Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: colchester Posts: 15,352	Quote: Originally Posted by Aetnla What do you mean by variable o/p? Variable output I think. Basically, you want to be able to control the signal coming in which can be a mixture of the output and input levels. Or preferably output at max or min which means only one variable to adjust.

28-08-2016, 22:46	#11
biggles001 Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Leasingham.Lincs Posts: 33	I had a similar problem,needing to transfer vinyl,disks and cassettes to mp3,so that they could be played on more modern equipment,and as my audio stuff was on it's way out and very old,took the plunge and bought a cheap music centre which did the job with no need for audacity.Now I have the ability to play all my old music in the car,through my bluray player and the mini music centre which my wife uses!!

28-08-2016, 22:46	#12
Orangecrab Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: South Yorkshire Posts: 556	I would agree with what people have been saying, using Audacity is probably the cheapest way. You'll need to buy the connecting cable which will be a minijack at the PC end which goes into the line-in (usually coloured blue), and a jack plug to match whatever output your cassette player has at the other, quite often this will be called the aux output, or you could try the headphone output. Audacity is a free download from the net, it isn't difficult to learn, experiment with it to see what gives best results.

29-08-2016, 08:00	#13
RINGWAYMAN Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Posts: 141	So in summary, these two products are probably what I need? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-3...2410569&sr=1-3 https://www.amazon.co.uk/AGPtek%C2%A...assette+to+mp3

29-08-2016, 08:25	#14
koantemplation Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Wolf359 Posts: 96,797	Quote: Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN So in summary, these two products are probably what I need? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-3...2410569&sr=1-3 https://www.amazon.co.uk/AGPtek%C2%A...assette+to+mp3 The main problem I found with the USB Portable Cassette player is that the drive mechanism can be a bit weak which means that tapes that are tight play at a variable speed. TBH unless the tapes are very rare or personal recordings I wouldn't bother digitising them. The only ones I did were Kids of Fame cassettes that were rare and not available as CDs or Mp3s. The best USB Cassette digitiser I had was from Aldi and was a stand alone device that could digitise to a USB Stick at variable mp3 rates. But again tape speed was a problem with old tapes. The Tevion Cassette Converter was the stand alone device from Aldi. https://www.amazon.co.uk/TEVION-CASS.../dp/B00IIRUAZC

29-08-2016, 10:30	#15
chrisjr Forum Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Reading Posts: 27,916	Quote: Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN So in summary, these two products are probably what I need? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-3...2410569&sr=1-3 https://www.amazon.co.uk/AGPtek%C2%A...assette+to+mp3 No. One or the other, or the USB soundcard I linked to above. But not both. If you buy the USB cassette player you don't need the mixer. If you buy the mixer or soundcard you don't need that cassette player. The mixer/soundcard would be used with a conventional Hi-Fi or walkman type cassette deck. The mixer/soundcard act as the interface between cassette machine and computer. The USB cassette player plugs direct to the computer so doesn't need any additional equipment.

29-08-2016, 10:47	#16
Nigel Goodwin Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: North Derbyshire Posts: 41,789	Quote: Originally Posted by chrisjr No. One or the other, or the USB soundcard I linked to above. But not both. If you buy the USB cassette player you don't need the mixer. If you buy the mixer or soundcard you don't need that cassette player. The mixer seems rather overkill, for little purpose - you just need a USB 'sound card' such as this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-U...eywords=ufo202 There are two versions, this one includes a switchable phono preamp so you can convert records as well as tapes. I've been using one for years, mainly to give improved sound quality (in and out) compared to built-in sound cards.

29-08-2016, 11:06	#17
chrisjr Forum Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Reading Posts: 27,916	Quote: Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin The mixer seems rather overkill, for little purpose - you just need a USB 'sound card' such as this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-U...eywords=ufo202 There are two versions, this one includes a switchable phono preamp so you can convert records as well as tapes. I've been using one for years, mainly to give improved sound quality (in and out) compared to built-in sound cards. May I point the Honourable Gentleman to the reply I made earlier (post 4) I agree the mixer may be a tad over the top for what the OP requires. And if you have no experience of using such a device, even one as simple as the Xenyx 302, then it could just get in the way of achieving what the OP wants.

29-08-2016, 11:20	#18
fmradiotuner1 Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: TheEssexSunshineCoast Clacton Posts: 15,220	Not a lot of help but just had to post this here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVoSQP2yUYA

29-08-2016, 11:48	#19
RINGWAYMAN Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Posts: 141	Your responses guys have been fantastic, many thanks. So a further summary. I have a tape deck connected to the below product: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-U...eywords=ufo202 which connects to my PC. My tapes are very personal to myself so this system will reduce distortion? As in the past I did about 20 cassettes and the sound was pretty bad connected by cable direct to the PC.

29-08-2016, 11:54	#20
anthony david Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 3,469	The only reason I suggested the mixer was concerns about overloading as we have no idea what source he will be using. I feed my HiFi tape output via a home made attenuator in to the line input of an old PC which works fine (the i/p overloads without the attenuator). Home made mods such as this are fine for an engineer such as myself to make but probably out of the question for the o/p. Although I worked in broadcasting, as a man in his late 50s at the time, I found Audacity difficult at first to master although the tutorials may have improved since then. Simple things such as mp3 conversion are not included, you either download the optional LAME encoder or convert in iTunes or something similar. It is easy for young people brought up on computers to think that programmes such as Audacity are easy, for the o/p I have a feeling this won't be so. I see that while I was typing the o/p has/may have purchased the Behringer A-D converter which I was going to buy myself for my Mac but as the old HP PC is still going haven't done so far.

29-08-2016, 12:30	#21
chrisjr Forum Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Reading Posts: 27,916	Quote: Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN Your responses guys have been fantastic, many thanks. So a further summary. I have a tape deck connected to the below product: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-U...eywords=ufo202 which connects to my PC. My tapes are very personal to myself so this system will reduce distortion? As in the past I did about 20 cassettes and the sound was pretty bad connected by cable direct to the PC. It all depends on where the distortion is coming from. If it is on the original tapes then there is very little, if anything, that can be done about it. If it was caused by overloading the input of the PC, for example using the mic input instead of the line input, then the Behringer unit should resolve that. The Behringer is a surprisingly decent little box, especially for the money. In fact a lot of Behringer kit is good value for money. I had a predecessor of that unit that came free with a small Behringer mixer and gave it a try not really expecting much. But was pleasantly surprised by just how well it performed.

DS Forums

Cassette to Digital

29-08-2016, 12:57	#22
RINGWAYMAN Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Posts: 141	Quote: Originally Posted by chrisjr It all depends on where the distortion is coming from. If it is on the original tapes then there is very little, if anything, that can be done about it. If it was caused by overloading the input of the PC, for example using the mic input instead of the line input, then the Behringer unit should resolve that. The Behringer is a surprisingly decent little box, especially for the money. In fact a lot of Behringer kit is good value for money. I had a predecessor of that unit that came free with a small Behringer mixer and gave it a try not really expecting much. But was pleasantly surprised by just how well it performed. The distortion was definitely from the PC. The cassette when played independently sounded fine but when I had recorded it, it sounded awful!

29-08-2016, 13:37	#23
chrisjr Forum Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Reading Posts: 27,916	Quote: Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN The distortion was definitely from the PC. The cassette when played independently sounded fine but when I had recorded it, it sounded awful! In that case it seems you were overloading the PC input. Either by using the mic input or a very sensitive line input. The Behringer unit should be OK as it can take a reasonably high signal on it's inputs according to the specs. One word of warning, make sure the switch is in the LINE position not the PHONO position or you will really find out what distortion means

29-08-2016, 14:09	#24
RINGWAYMAN Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Posts: 141	Do I need red + black/white cables with connectors both ends to link cassette player and the gizmo?

29-08-2016, 14:17	#25
chrisjr Forum Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Reading Posts: 27,916	Quote: Originally Posted by RINGWAYMAN Do I need red + black/white cables with connectors both ends to link cassette player and the gizmo? The Behringer unit uses phono (or sometimes called RCA) sockets for the audio in/out connections. If the cassette player has the same type of sockets then you will need a lead such as this https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....16K0QRYSVL.jpg Which I suspect is what you mean.