So I was going through some old boxes and I found a cassette tape.

[Dinner]

I didn't even know I still owned any cassette tapes. The cassette was written on with very bad printing saying "(my real name)'s 4th grade family history report." Man, my hand writing sucked in 4th grade. Anyway I remember this report. The point was to have the 4th graders record family history by interviewing family members (I choose both sets of my grandparents) and asking them questions to find out what life was like when they were young. What type of school did they go to, how big were their families & what family members' names were, what living conditions were like, and what events changed their lives. I had forgotten all about this.

It was kind of weird hearing my voice as a child, the voices of my dead grandparents, and the voice of my parents in the background including my deceased mother. Weird but very cool.

[Dinner]

It's been sitting untouched in a box for 21 years.

[Harry Tuttle]

I'd convert that to digital ASAP before the magnetic tape gets brittle. Good find by the way.

[Japher]

so, what, it was levitating inside a box?! That's freakin' amazin'

[SlowwHand]

That's a very cool thing. You definitely need to take Harry's advice.

[-Jrabbit]

I still have a bunch of magnetic media from the 70s and 80s. I know this isn't like lost Hendrix tapes, but you should be careful.

That tape will be shedding oxide like crazy with every use, losing sound quality rapidly. So don't play it too much. You should transfer it to digital ASAP, preferably WAV or some other uncompressed format at a decent sample rate (44.1k is plenty for voice). Once that's done, you can try to restore the audio a bit in the digital domain.

For now, put it in a cool, dry space.

Very cool, btw.

[-Jrabbit]

Opps, I see Harry beat me to it. There were two posts when I started my response LOL.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
I'd convert that to digital ASAP before the magnetic tape gets brittle. Good find by the way.

I'm going to do this. I'll likely have to buy a new digital cassette player with a digital out but that's a small price to pay for something like this.

[-Jrabbit]

Lots of ways to do this. Just find a computer with an RCA audio input. Or even a 1/8" (mini-plug) input.

Another option is a digital recorder that uses Flash memory or an SD card. Or has a USB out.

Cassette player (RCA out) -->> Digital recorder (1/8" input jack). You'll need to go to Radio Shack for the right cable.

You can get a good digital recorder for a couple hundred bucks, and it will have a lot more lasting usefulness than a cassette player with a digital output.

I use this one: Marantz PMD620.
Others available: Edirol, Sony, M-Audio, and Zoom.

[ZEE]

Walgreens will do it.

[-Jrabbit]

Philistine.

[ZEE]

20 bucks vs 100 bucks?

yep, im being irrational.

[Japher]

There's a policy at this site about advertising your product or place of work... so, go take some Risperdal consta and chill man!

[ZEE]

oh give me a goddamn break.

go to CVS then. point is there is a cheaper alternative then buying a hella expensive machine when you can do it somewhere for under 50 bucks.

get a grip on reality for a minute please.

[-Jrabbit]

AAHZ, it was a joke. I agree that there are cheaper ways of doing this, although my guess is that a drugstore will net you a d(odgy IMHO) MP3 file. And you have to be willing to trust your one-of-a-kind tape to a Walgreens or CVS "technician." But it will do the job of getting the audio safely into the digital realm.

Best of all is to find a local musician with a home studio and just ask him to do the transfer for you as a favor.

In fact, these days, most churches have the gear to easily do the task at hand. Befriend the soundman.

Lots of ways to get this done.