After listening to Zerbinator’s new 80-89 Podcast (which sounds like it was recorded on cassette — and I mean that in a good way!) I went out to the garage to dig out my own box of cassette tapes.
I already went through this box once a few years ago. The tapes that are left consist of (a) ones I recorded off the radio, or (b) albums released by local bands that never made it to CD.
After digging through the tapes for a few minutes, I went back back out to the garage to see if I had kept one of my old cassette decks. Of course I did. This Kenwood will do nicely!
Using a simple RCA cable/splitter, I hooked the old cassette deck directly into my computer. I’ll be using Audacity to record the cassettes and convert them to mp3, with a couple to plug-ins to do things like remove hiss.
The best part about this project is I can work on it while I’m working from home. All I have to do is toss in a cassette, press play (on the deck) and record (on the computer) and continue working. And, bonus, I get to listen to music all day long!
If you love the awesome 80s and would like to listen to the first cassette, click here!v
Just a few days ago I was talking with my wife to transfer the contents of her huge collection of cassettes to MP3. My 6 years-old son heard us, and he asked me: “Daddy, what is a cassette?” Gosh, I felt sooooooo old…
I need to get back to transferring my tapes and albums to MP3. I started the cassette thing six or seven years ago, got maybe a half dozen tapes transferred and then slowly stopped. I don’t think I even got that far with my LP collection. I think the trick for me is to do one or two a day and just keep up the habit of day by day. I have about 90 albums to transfer and maybe 20-30 cassettes to transfer. that’s a lot but if I only do 2 maybe 3 a week I’ll be done in a year.
My main incentive is to transfer albums that have never made it to CD or MP3. My most recent LP acquisition is Paul Kantner’s “Planet Earth’s Rock and Roll Orchestra” album. Good stuff and it is not available on CD or MP3. I converted it to MP3 within a couple hours of opening it. Then I stopped. I should have kept going as, like I said, I have many more albums to record.
I think you inspired me.
From someone who was finally forced to throw those things away, thanks for ripping these and putting some up for download. The cassette quality alone takes me back, but the ’80’s pop radio dj’s and production are so bad they’re good. Anyway, thanks for going to the trouble.
I did this a few summers ago (http://goo.gl/GfxZMf) and it was worth every second of the time it took. You won’t regret it.
Hey Rob, great post! Love the mp3s!!! I have some Star Wars read-along tapes I need to transfer, thanks for the idea!!
I am very happy to have been a part of the nostalgia taking place. One thing I did that I loved, I recorded a tape back in 1990 in my home town whilst walking my dog one evening. I walked all over my neighborhood, to the store, up to the school, and by my library. Before we moved in 2012, I took that exact same route while listening to the old tape I converted into MP3. It was amazing how much everything changed in 22 years. It was very cool. This is something I highly suggest everyone do. Record a walk around your town/neighborhood, then time capsule that thing, and take that walk again about 10 to 20 later. You will be amazed how much can change.