Extracting the voice of a dead friend off small casette

[Raziaar]

Hello. I figured this would be the best thread for this, since it involves technology.

My dad has come to me, and asked me if I know of any way I can take a small casette tape, the kind you see in answer machines, which contains the recorded voice of a deceased family friend, in fact it is his ex-fiance.

He wants it so that her grandchildren can hear her voice, and have it come across as it is on the casette without audio quality loss, hopefully. The task before me is to transfer the sound to the computer, so I can burn it onto dvd or cd to be used on the computer or in a cd player.

The only way I know how to do this, is to play it loudly, and record it into the computer using a microphone. However, there will be a considerable quality loss doing this. So i'm curious, are there any other ways I can achieve this?

Your help is much appreciated!

 

[Maxi]

Get a player that can play the cassette, one that has a 3.5mm(?) port thing where you can plug a cable to your soundcards in port. Then use your software of choice to record.

 

[Reaktor4]

First install audacity. Connect a speaker/headphone output from your tape player to the line in input of your sound card/mobo (its the blue one, i think). In audacity there will be a drop down list that says microphone near the top, change it to line in and record the tape.
Next you will want to run it through the noise reduction plugin. After that it might be a good idea to eq out some low frequencies for a clearer sound since tapes are usually muddy at the low end, and boost the overall volume before burning to cd.

 

[Raziaar]

Thank you for the help, guys. I will try those tomorrow hopefully.

 

[bliink]

Putting the tape into a device with line-out is the way to go.

 

[Raziaar]

Damn, the answering machines I have don't have any sort of output port

It's one of those compact audio cassettes...

 

[bliink]

you may need to buy/rent an answering machine/dictaphone with line out.

 

[Reaktor4]

As a last resort you could hax0r your own output, if you cant get a player that has one:
Obviously, unplug the answering machine (or whatever it is) first. Open it up, find the speaker and snip its wires. With scissors or a wire stripper if you have one, scrape off about a centimetre of the plastic insulator around all the cut wire ends.
Cut the lead off an old pair of headphones, and expose some of its wire in the same way. Attach (by twisting) the headphone lead to the wire coming from the answering machine. Tape it to keep it secure if you like. Now you can plug it into your computer and record it.
When youre done, take off the lead and either solder the speaker back on, or just twist its wires on and tape it.

 

[Raziaar]

As a last resort you could hax0r your own output, if you cant get a player that has one:
Obviously, unplug the answering machine (or whatever it is) first. Open it up, find the speaker and snip its wires. With scissors or a wire stripper if you have one, scrape off about a centimetre of the plastic insulator around all the cut wire ends.
Cut the lead off an old pair of headphones, and expose some of its wire in the same way. Attach (by twisting) the headphone lead to the wire coming from the answering machine. Tape it to keep it secure if you like. Now you can plug it into your computer and record it.
When youre done, take off the lead and either solder the speaker back on, or just twist its wires on and tape it.

Thank you, that was EXACTLY what I wanted to do, without knowing how to do it.

 

[VirusType2]

Theres likely a difference in ohms if you do that. The best thing to do would be to use a mini-cassete recorder with a line-out and plug it directly into your line-in on your sound card.

If you don't have a mini-cassete recorder, you can buy one from Wal-mart, use it, then return it :naughty:

Dont forget you will need a line-in to line-in wire. you can also pick one of those up at wal-mart if you don't have one. (they are very handy for many types of audio connections)


If you are using audacity, do not use the EQ feature. It will add a horrible noise as a side-effect (its a horrible EQ)

Also, be certain that you set the recording level so that the green recording meter bars go as far as they can without the red light at the end.
RED light = clipping (bad)

Audacity can automaticly adjust the recording level for professional results with just a few clicks.

heres how:
After you record it, you hold 'Ctrl' and 'A' (or 'select all' from the drop down menu) to select the entire recording, then go into the menu at top and select 'Amplify' and make sure 'DO NOT ALLOW CLIPPING' is checked. After you press OK' the audio will be set at the perfect level. no guess work.