![]() ![]() You can buy head-cleaning fluid at almost any electronics store (isopropyl alcohol from your local drugstore works well, too). One possible solution is to use cotton swabs and tape-head cleaner to clean your deck’s playback head, as well as its capstan and pinch roller (the spinning pin and rubber roller that work together to grip the tape and move it across the heads). But a dirty deck or an improperly handled tape can compound the problem. Tasty Tapes When you’re importing audio from old cassettes, tape hiss is probably inevitable-it’s a result of the tape’s narrow track and slow playback speed. To get the best quality when digitizing, it’s good to do a little bit of prep work. CD-quality stereo audio eats up about 10MB of space per minute-so make sure you’ve got enough hard drive space to hold that audio. In some cases, you may be better off getting one program for recording, and another for fixing up your digital files. Although you can import audio from a turntable without using a phono preamp, it’s not a good idea-the levels are likely to be very low and the sound very tinny.Īudio Software There’s no shortage of programs that can record and manipulate audio. ![]() TC-750 Professional Moving Magnet Preamp. If your stereo receiver has a line output, you can connect it directly to your computer-otherwise, you’ll need a separate preamp such as TCC’s $43 When you plug a record player into the phono port on a stereo receiver or preamplifier and play an LP, the RIAA curve is reversed, and you get normal sound. Basically, low frequencies require a larger groove, which can cause higher distortion and reduce available recording time-so the RIAA curve dictates that records be engraved with reduced bass (low-end) levels and increased treble (high-end) levels. But you’ll also need a phono preamp to boost the volume of the audio coming from the turntable and to compensate for the RIAA curve, a form of equalization built into records since about 1950. But keep in mind that even the best equipment won’t really improve crummy audio.įor records, you need a turntable, of course. ![]() Audio geeks will tell you to shop for a vintage deck on eBay-those made by Pioneer and Nakamichi in the 1970s and 1980s were built like tanks and had some great features. If you originally recorded your tapes on high-quality gear, you should use a midrange or high-end deck that can do justice to your recordings. You can find a good stereo cassette deck online for less than $100. But if you have a large tape library and you don’t want to commandeer the deck in your stereo system, you might want to buy a separate player that you can dedicate to the task. Any tape deck with audio-out jacks should work. Cassette Deck or Turntable The first thing you’ll need is a cassette deck that can play back your tapes or a turntable for your records. ![]()
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