recording from an old cassette deck onto a mac mini

petermarni wrote:

I have a few old tapes which I want to save digitally. I have an aux cord connected to a USB which is then connected to my Mac mini.

1. Exactly what is the "aux cord connected to a USB?" What cables & specific USB device are these?
2. What app are you using to record the audio?
3. When you go to System Settings > Sound > Input is your "USB device" listed there or is it just "Internal Microphone?"

Even with everything connected & working to record, you will not normally hear the audio through the speakers in your Mac while you are recording ... unless your recording app has a setting called something like "Monitor" or "Play input through to output."

An “old” cassette deck typically has no Analog to Digital capability.

in my view, you would need some kind of an audio interface (analog to digital / digital to analog) in order to be able to transfer cassettes to your mini.