Recording audio from a vintage 3" reel to reel player

I want to record audio from a vintage 3" reel to reel rim drive portable tape player/recorder to a .mp3 or .mov format. I need to be able to adjust the speed in the process because the vintage tape was recorded at a different speed on a different machine that what it's being played back on. What apps do I use and how do I adjust the speed? I'll need to be able to listen to the playback and adjust the speed on the run in order to establish the correct speed.


I'm using a Retina 15" MacBook Pro, mid 2014 running Big Sur and have a blue tooth transmitter that I can plug into the headphones jack of the vintage player/recorder.


The vintage tapes are from a friend who received them from family in the states during the Vietnam war and they run too fast on my vintage player/recorder so I have to slow the recordings down to the proper tone and in some cases so they can be understood.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Apr 7, 2021 10:43 PM

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5 replies

Apr 8, 2021 5:39 PM in response to BigOwl

Hi BigOwl,


We appreciate you reaching out to us. Rest assured that we'll do our best to assist you or get you pointed in the right direction.


We understand that you are looking to get a digital audio recording 3" reel to reel rim drive portable tape player.

We’d like to gather additional details that may help us be in a better position to assist you.


Are you using an Apple Pro App to capture the recording? If yes, which app are you using?

Use Apple Pro Apps on Mac


Please keep us posted.




Take care!

Apr 8, 2021 8:39 PM in response to melissa_m77

Thanks for your quick response. No, I'm not using the Apple Pro App to capture the recording? I don't have that software and that's my question: What software do I use? I just have the standard apps that came with the computer, Microsoft Office, iMovie and some drawing apps. I don't think I need anything fancy as this will most likely be a 1 shot deal to digitize about seven 3" reels. I just want to digitize them and be able to adjust the speed (slow it down) somewhere in the process. I have no experience yet in running iMovie; however, I searched iMovie's help file and it seems there is a way to adjust the audio speed but don't know if that will work for what I want to do.

Apr 8, 2021 9:31 PM in response to dialabrain

Thanks, I think I'll try Anytune. It looks like the simplest. Now how do I get the 3" reel digitized? Do I use QuickTime Player? If so how do I get the bluetooth signal from my bluetooth transmitter into QuickTime Player and then is the QuickTime Player file format compatible with the Anytune required input format? Sorry for all the questions. I've not done any of this before.

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Recording audio from a vintage 3" reel to reel player

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