The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Oldie goldie here! A friend has a bunch of old cassettes that he and his various groups recorded back in the far far past. He asked if I could somehow turn them into CDs or Mp3s or something useable. If we could somehow find a cassette deck with a line out, could I run it into my USB interface and transfer the stuff to Reaper and make some sort of audio files? I'm getting a headache trying to figure this out. I guess we'll have to hit pawn shops or ebay for a cassette deck that still works. Oh, and this is a low budget operation.

    Any help graciously accepted.

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  3. #2

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    This isn't exactly what I used (-I forget the name) but it was similar in build and price.
    Nothing fancy, but I converted old cassette demos to mp3 tracks.

    Amazon.com

  4. #3

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    Really comes down to whether you want a playback thats just a record of a performance or good audio quality.
    From a bad cassette copying experience I learned (or had to learn) about the bias level and what playback sounds like if its not taken into account. Like, not good ?
    So check your tapes, to see if they are labeled ‘hi bias’ or some thing similar. Good chance if so they may have been recorded on a recorder with a bias setting (usually just norm/high).
    And playback for good sound will benefit from a playback deck with that function.
    As to eBay decks, yup there are some awesome good decks out there from the 80’s at nice prices. Just have to watch out as the rubber drive bands do not age well. Kind of like me.
    I’m getting ready to transfer my one remaining Tal lesson tape which I found not long ago. I use Audacity, a great free recording software. Once you have your files in there theres really no limit to what you can do in terms of cleanup. I used it once to filter out somebody’s hearing aid continuous squeel over a concert tape i had)))
    Now if i can find the freakin power cord for my trusty old Marantz…..

  5. #4

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    I have some old cassette tapes with content on it that is very valuable to me (including lessons with Billy Bauer and recordings of my compositions). All of my cassette decks no longer worked. Many of them have rubber belts and parts that don't age well. I managed to find an old Yamaha deck on Craigslist for $20 that still works well. Some brands age better than others, but most of the ones at Good Will and other thrift shops don't work. I ran the line out from the cassette deck into the Audacity software on a PC (mentioned above) and then used iTunes to create playlists and burn to CD. I can also create WAV or MP3 files.

  6. #5

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    I have used a Tascam pro cassette player. It has speed control because not all cassettes recorded at the same speed. From the line out, you can go into anything. I went into a Tascam burner but these days I'd go direct to the computer via a digital interface.
    This is what I used when I burned the Mike Stern Harvie Swartz Alan Dawson trio that was recently released. Sounds good and it's no longer a destructive medium.

    THere are lots of professional facilities that will do A/D digitization. They work with libraries, studios and museums when digitizing for mass storage.
    You can google and find excellent people who do this.
    The Best Photo, Video, and Audio Conversion Company | EverPresent
    George Blood
    These two come highly recommended from someone who uses them professionally on a regular basis
    Good luck!
    Last edited by Jimmy blue note; 02-20-2023 at 06:37 PM.

  7. #6

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    I bought a cheap cassette player with USB interface off ebay. I don't remember the price, but it wasn't much. I just connected the USB cable to my computer and ran it into Audacity. I have a lot of cassettes from back in the 70s, and it was easy enough to convert them to FLAC. You may prefer .mp3 or .wav, they all work, but I like FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec). Truthfully, the quality isn't going to be that much lower with .mp3, because the cassette tape quality isn't that great to start with. There are more complicated ways, but the USB cassette player is easy, and the quality is good enough for me.

  8. #7

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    Sorry for what is probably ( definitely ? ) a dumb question -- but, please - -

    What exactly is the process for converting dialogue from cassette tapes to ( printable ) Word doc, or some other ?

    I'm guessing I buy one of these converters , then ???

    I have some tapes of lessons w/ dialogue which I'd like to save .

    Thanks in advance.,

  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dennis D
    Sorry for what is probably ( definitely ? ) a dumb question -- but, please - -

    What exactly is the process for converting dialogue from cassette tapes to ( printable ) Word doc, or some other ?

    I'm guessing I buy one of these converters , then ???

    I have some tapes of lessons w/ dialogue which I'd like to save .

    Thanks in advance.,
    If you have a good working cassette deck, you should be able to use a voice recognition app to transcribe it. I'm sure they exist for computers, but in a pinch you could even use the phone text app, then cut and paste the results into Google Docs. I expect you'd still need to do some editing to correct errors.

  10. #9

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    Some sort of text to speech app, on whatever device you have. A phone might be easier, as they generally accept voice input already for some things. I've never actually tried to do that, and seldom use voice input at all. My sister uses voice for text input for text messages all the time, though. Her phone is slowly learning to accept her accent, but sometimes weird bloopers still make it through. You will certainly have to edit the text you get, however you get it. You will need some sort of cassette player to transfer the audio, but it shouldn't have to be direct, the input could be through speakers, depending on the software.

  11. #10

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    I‘m working for the German distributor of Dragon speech recognition software. Anything you‘d like to know, best PM me. There is some amazing stuff out there that a lot of people don‘t yet know about. Once we get your tapes digitized (a line-out into Audacity will do), I can have them transcribed for you. The result depends on the initial quality, obviously.


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  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by jazzkritter
    As to eBay decks, yup there are some awesome good decks out there from the 80’s at nice prices. Just have to watch out as the rubber drive bands do not age well.
    IIRC the better decks had some kind of "direct drive". Not sure if the early/mid 90s Pioneer model I have has that or a belt, but it still works fine. Not that I ever use it though...

    When buying an old deck I'd also try to find a demagnetiser for the heads. (If that kind of gadget isn't actually snakeoil )

  13. #12

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    I have recorded music on many formats. One of my earliest gigs was production manager for a Music Conservatory. I was always able to move my best work to the latest format, and when everything went to digital that sealed the deal for my legacy recordings. But then I had to decide what to do with all of my casual recordings from radio/tv/film, and the many cassettes, albums, and CD's I had accumulated over the decades. At first I started moving everything to digital, using tools listed here, and some not. After a year of that, I realized I didn't need to transfer everything, only the real rarities.

    So then I started selling off my valuable rarities, and gifting much of my vinyl to family & friends who favor that. How many more times do I need to listen to Kind of Blue? And, when I feel the need, I can get it online at no cost. I bought the album when it was released, and enjoyed it for decades. Now my nephew and his family enjoy it - but they, too could listen to it online. They just dig vinyl's output. I honestly can no longer tell the difference, having been out of the audio profession for too long. And I'm OLD!



    Now we are in a transition where it is more easy to 'own' the output of our musical adventures, and we have the ability to both generate and publish our own work without the overhead of previous approaches. Another huge advantage of this transition for me was the ability to let go of my old library, and make a little $ from the rarities, while passing the rest on to kindred spirits.
    I know - blah blah blah - just a few thoughts, hope they resonate, if not enjoy the weekend anyway!
    -jimbobway

  14. #13

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    Got it solved! Won't be the best quality but the originals are not great - probably from a portable cassette recorder. Anyway, I scrounged an old Teac dual cassette deck made for making copies. Ran it into my Behringer USB interface, then into my laptop running Reaper and after messing with the levels, etc., I think it will adequate for what he wants. Thanks for all the suggestions.

  15. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by JimBobWay
    How many more times do I need to listen to Kind of Blue? And, when I feel the need, I can get it online at no cost.
    I don't know about that particular album, but few things are free. Sure, there's a lot on YT these days, and if you're a bit handy you can listen to that over your stereo with having ads interrupt you all the time - but you also know you're not exactly listening to the best quality (and that YT probably did naughty things to the dynamic range).

    Reminds me of a sketch of stand-up comedian Anne Roumanoff, an ode to computers and the internet, back when that was still mostly over dial-up connections at home. "Sur internet, tu peux écouter la radio tout en payant le téléphone" - "On the internet, you can listen to the radio all while paying for the phone".

    I hear you though. If I now put music on it's usually a radio station "caught" over the internet, or one of my CDs that I digitised long ago. Sometimes Spotify with its nifty "playlist radio" feature serving me related music. But ever since we moved my stereo is in a room where I barely spend time and the old one I have in my man cave hums plus when I'm there I'm usually occupied with other things, so mostly I enjoy the silence.
    I've noticed I'm doing the same with visual records btw; what photos I take are done with my phone and get cleaned off there periodically.

  16. #15

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    I don't listen to music on Youtube unless it's something I'm researching and don't have. Nothing is worse than having it interrupted by commercials. That, and it could be taken down at any time due to copyright issues. I prefer to keep hard copies of the great music I love. The money I would get if I sold it would not be worth the effort.

  17. #16

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    If commercials bother you, you can pay for Premium. It's ~$24/month for a family plan, which can include up to 6 people. You can get together with some others who might be interested and share the cost. Google doesn't know whether they're actually related to you. It's worth it to me, because my wife watches YouTube a lot, and she doesn't want to deal with ads. It's the same for my kids and their spouses, and they became unhappy when I suggested dropping Premium.

  18. #17

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    24 bucks/month here, 10 there ... few people apparently stop to ponder how much they're paying for continued access to "their" music... but if it makes you feel better to be a maecenas ... then so do I

    Ads bother me too, of course, even on Spotify where I've yet to get one in the middle of a piece. It's 1 reason why I rarely listen to the local TSF Jazz radio station (5 min or so of publicity ever 20 min is too much), but you're not obliged to listen to them though. Advertisers know that so their sales model must take people who switch channels or turn off the sound into account...

  19. #18

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    I'm not paying for continued access to my music. I still have it in multiple locations, I just use YouTube Music (formerly Google Music) as backup offsite storage. I've never used Spotify, nor any of the other music streaming services, so I have no pertinent opinion on them. Most of the radio stations I listen to, OTA or online, are commercial-free. The YouTube plan I have is fine for me, but it may not be for others. Lots of options are available for them.

  20. #19

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    I don't want to be a "Debbie Downer" here, but as an academic media librarian, you'd be shocked at how much material, both audio and video, has been or will will be soon lost forever.