Importing from audio cassette.

Question

Importing from audio cassette.

I guess I put the cart before the horse. I asked Apple Care if I could import from audio cassette to my iMac G5 from a boombox. They suggesting posting question in Apple Discussions under Soundtrack/Soundtrack Pro. I now have the information as to what application (Toast 7) I need to accomplish this, but I guess my 1st question should have been whether I can accomplish with the hardware I have. I have a little Sony boombox (plays audio cassettes, CDs, and radio) and only has an earphone jack. I have a connector that I hoped could be used to connect and transmit to my G5. It's a digital stereo mini hook-up extension cable. The package says it's a stereo plug to stereo plug, "The solution for high quality signal transfer". Will this work? If not what do I need? Thanks for any help.

Posted on Nov 10, 2005 6:57 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Nov 10, 2005 7:18 PM in response to Esther McGinty

You don't need Toast, although you can use it if you have it. There's a free program called Audacity that you can also use. You will need some kind of USB interface to get the music into your computer. The Griffin imic is probably the cheapest. Put one end of the stereo minicable into the headphone jack of your cassette player and the other end into the imic and you can record into the computer that way.

You would, of course get better results with a preamp and and a line-in/line-out setup, but this should be okay if you don't have a big budget.

Reply

Answer 2

ThomasG

Level 5

6,745 points

Nov 11, 2005 12:42 AM in response to Esther McGinty

Yes, that connector should work fine. You don't need anything else other than an application that digitizes audio from the Mac's line input. The reason many people recommend Toast 7 is the bundled CD SpinDoctor not only digitizes the audio but also makes it easy to remove tape hiss and separate an entire tape recording into individual tracks.

I haven't used Audacity so it may have some of those features. The freeware application Audion (www.panic.com/audion) will even import and encode to mp3 in real time. I believe QuickTime Pro will digitize line-in audio and so does GarageBand.

Reply

Answer 3

MartinR

Level 7

24,354 points

Nov 11, 2005 9:14 AM in response to ThomasG

And there's another nice program called SoundStudio. Apple used to bundle this with the eMacs prior to the release of Tiger. You can download SoundStudio 2.2.4 from http://www.felttip.com/products/soundstudio/download.shtml One of the nice things about SoundStudio is a feature called
i Split By Markers
- you place markers on the audio timeline and it can save each segment as a separate file on your HD. This is a great way to break a live concert or an entire audio cassette into separate tracks for iTunes or burning an audio CD.

The latest version (v3) can save directly to AAC format but it costs $79.95.

Reply

Answer 4

Nov 11, 2005 9:55 AM in response to MartinR

Yes, Sound Studio is great. I have it on my computers, but it's gotten kind of pricey now.

Reply

Answer 5

Nov 11, 2005 12:56 PM in response to Esther McGinty

Thank you all very much for this information I will look into Sound Studio and compare with Toast for this and other applications. I do have one last question...do I connect to the built-in mic at the bottom of my G5 panel or to the audio-line-in on the back of my G5; if both work which would be the best option?

Reply

Answer 6

MartinR

Level 7

24,354 points

Nov 11, 2005 1:28 PM in response to Esther McGinty

The audio line-in.

Reply

Answer 7

Nov 11, 2005 2:55 PM in response to MartinR

The audio line in is a line level port. It will not record the low-level analog signal coming from your earphone jack, which is why you need to use a USB interface like the griffine imic.

Try going to the line in on the mac,, but I would be very surprised if it works.

Reply

Answer 8

Nov 11, 2005 3:40 PM in response to Barbara Brundage

Thanks Barbara, I'm going to go with the Griffine imic and Sound Studio which seems to equal the price of Toast 7 by itself. From discussion input I believe these will work for my level of needs and I don't have a lot of time for experimentation. (Who says retirement is boring? = >)

To everyone else. I appreciate the input. I'm learning so much through the Apple Discussions postings. I tried the Apple support on-line chat and it was very disappointing. The discussion board gives real, usable information from knowledge based on experience. Once again, thank you very much for sharing. As I learn, I hope to share also.

Reply

Answer 9

MartinR

Level 7

24,354 points

Nov 11, 2005 9:11 PM in response to Barbara Brundage

Well, not quite true. The audio line-in is line level, but so is the headphone out from the boom box. Line-level refers to the voltages on the wire.(basically there is line level and there is mic level, which is a much lower voltage.)

The problem that occurs sometimes if you connect a headphone out to an audio-in is that the resulting sound is mushy because the headphone out is low impedance (8 ohms) but the audio-in is high impedance (~10K ohms). The good news is that most modern devices are designed to compensate for this impedance mismatch. Just try it and see/hear what your results are. If you like the results then you are in business. In this case it's not necessary to buy an additional device unless the results from a direct wire connection are not satisfactory.

Reply

Answer 10

Nov 14, 2005 7:46 AM in response to MartinR

To Martin: Hooray, I now have an AIFF iTune file of my trial cassette import using the link you gave me! Also, the equipment I have worked using your suggestions.

There is quite alot of noise when I play it on my G5 in iTune, due to the fact that it is an old and much used tape as are the others I need to convert. Can Sound Studio get rid of the noise (hiss?), do I need v. 3, or move up to Toast 7, or do I need the Griffin connector? I tried to read the manual for the download for Sound Studio, but didn't see the answer (or it was too technical for me to understand).

Reply

Answer 11

ThomasG

Level 5

6,745 points

Nov 14, 2005 9:35 AM in response to Esther McGinty

Sound Studio has filters that may be able to reduce the noise. CD Spindoctor that is bundled with Toast 7 has different noise filters from Sound Studio. I typically do noise filtering with SpinDoctor and repair clicks and pops with Sound Studio. Recently I bought Bias SoundSoap for this purpose but haven't tried it out yet.

Reply

Answer 12

Nov 14, 2005 11:15 AM in response to ThomasG

Recently I.bought Bias SoundSoap for this purpose but haven't

tried it out yet.

Please let us know what you think. I've been wanting to try it, but they don't have a demo, and it is kind of expensive to buy without trying.

FWIW, I've never been able to get very good results with Sound Studio for things like tape hiss. They have a good noise gate filter for pops, but Spin Doctor is easier for dealing with hissing and long crackles.

Reply

Answer 13

Nov 14, 2005 11:19 AM in response to MartinR

Interesting. With my ibook using the line in without a preamp of some sort results in an incredibly "dirty" signal. I don't much like the imic, but even that gives me a cleaner result. Possibly the new imacs (still waiting for delivery on mine) are different.

Reply

Answer 14

Nov 14, 2005 3:40 PM in response to ThomasG

Recently I bought Bias SoundSoap for this purpose but haven't tried it out yet.

To: ThomasG: I am also interested in your results.

Barbara, I have purchased the Griffin and when it comes I will import with that to see if I get cleaner results. (I don't know what a preamp is...as I said I'm really a novice and am trying to learn.) When I import using Griffin do I connect to imic or USB? Perhaps by the time I am able to import the file using Griffin, ThomasG will have some input for us re Bias SoundSoap.

Is the cost for Bias SoundSoap comparable to Toast 7? I've found T7 for $80 through Google. I still don't know where to put my $ for application for my project. Sound Studio 2.2.4 is inexpensive and their support people said that v. 3 for $80 wouldn't give me better capabilities for what I'm trying to accomplish, just more bells & whistles for those who know how to use them.

Reply

Answer 15

ThomasG

Level 5

6,745 points

Nov 14, 2005 5:24 PM in response to Esther McGinty

Okay, I'll try to do some experiments with SoundSoap tomorrow and let you know how it turns out. One thing I already discovered is the VST plugin that SoundSoap installs causes CD SpinDoctor to crash. However, the SoundSoap plugin is only needed if you want to run the application within another audio application such as Bias Peak. You can run SoundSoap directly as its own application without its VST plugin.

Reply