I have restored a Realistic model 505A portable tape recorder, uses 5" reel to reel tapes. Over the holidays i recorded some of my granddaughters on the machine. It quit playing later, thus the electronic repair. It plays great now.
I would like to transfer the tape recordings to a CD to be able to send to them to listen to.
There is a speaker in the unit to hear the audio and there is a AUX jack. I have a lap top computer with windows media, can someone help me to understand how to get the tape audio to a CD?
Thank you,
Mitch
This should get you started:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/486-guide-converting-analog-vinyl-digital-files-using-windows/
You will need:
(1) Patch cable to connect your tape recorder to the sound input port of your computer
(2) Possibly a padder network to reduce the audio level going into your computer
(3) Audio digitizing software (Google "free audio capture software download")
(4) Windows-based computer equipped with a CD burner
(5) Blank writeable CDs
The above article describes how to transfer a vinyl LP to digital audio media, but the process for tape is the same, just a different analog audio source.
If your tape recorder is stereo, just route the two output channels into the computer's high-level audio input jack using a suitable patch cord. You can get parts to make these at Radio Shack. If your tape recorder is mono, you will need a resistor pair to split the one channel into two to feed into the "audio" input of your laptop. If your laptop doesn't have a high-level audio input, just a microphone input, you may need an additional pot (or dual pot, if stereo) to knock down the input level.
As the article explains, you will need some software to capture and digitize the analog audio stream. The article has some recommendations for software that is free for the downloading.
Once digitized, you will have a Windows-playable sound file that can be put on a flash drive or burned to a writeable CD. Laptops with CD burners are very common these days but you will need to check if your laptop is so equipped. If it is, it's just a matter of writing the sound file to your writable CD, just like copying a file from one hard disk to another. If your laptop can't burn CDs, just copy the sound file to a flash "thumb drive" and take it to a computer that has this facility.
Since you are interested in digitizing speech, not hi-fi music, the linked article has a lot of superfluous information relating to equalization, but the general process is the same.
Tom, Thank you for the response.
The web site is good, i will make the attempt.
Mitch
Thank you again Tom,
Everyone interested in creating a CD from a record, reel to reel tape recorder or other analog device should review Tom's post. The web site was through with good step by step instructions.
I have created a CD from a reel to reel and some records, I used the free program Audacity.
The last thing that I want to do is convert the output from my old RCA tube radio stations to a CD.
Question is, do I just connect to the speaker of the radio and connect to the mike jack of my computer?
Suggestions welcome from all of you.
Thank you,
Mitch
= = = = = = =
Should be the same setup as you used for your monaural tape recorder, with the slight added complication that you probably don't have an "audio out" jack on your radio, so you will need to wire in a suitable jack that will accommodate your patch cable. Beyond that, same-old, same-old.