Bringing new life to old Stereo Audio Tapes

I have an old RadioShack portable stereo tape player that only out is the headphone jack. My brother suggested to just go to Spotify and they should have any mix or any album ever made. But some of these old stereo tapes are from stores like Seven/11 or Quick Stop stores. I suspect albums from most of the major studios would be available but not so sure if these mom and pop mixes would be. So what I would like to do is take the audio (from the headphone jack) and plug into a USB port on the computer to make audio files. My thinking it will probably be a wave audio file? Would the audio from a Headphone jack overdrive the USB port so the audio would be distorted or would the audio level be so low the audio would be unusable?

What kind of tapes, Cassettes, 8-Track tapes...?
What software are you going to use to capture the audio?

What you need is a good recording software that allows you to record in the highest looseless quality and then you have the option to save the recorded file in the format you decide. I personally have an external audio sound device which allows me to record directly from guitars, synth, microphone etc and I use cubase and Studio One for recording. But Audacity is able to do your recording for free and with great quality.
I don't know how good the quality of your input can be on your PC, but with Audacity you can control the input volume. You can also of course control it from your record player and set the volume in a way that is not saturated.
All is free and easy to setup, so give it a try and see how it goes!

@Edwin. My bad Edwin I just assumed everyone knew that when you referred to audio tape players you meant Cassette Stereo Audio Players. Maybe I should have specified handheld tape players. Most 8track tape players were the old boombox type or DC car audio types. They went out several years ago. You probably would be hard pressed to find blank audio cassette medium too now.

@rezpower . okay I just order a device from Diginow. It has a conversion kit that goes from USB to headphone out or line out. And it comes with Audacity. I still think that is overkill for what I want to do. I was thinking the new windows media software or Windows Media Player 12 is all I would need to make it happen. I am not looking to make the most beautiful sound ever. Just simple transfer really. Some of the quality of the tapes is not High Audio in the first place. Now some are original audio from the record companies. Some are just junk tapes I go in a no-name quick stop from somewhere between Rocky Mount NC, Raleigh NC, Greensboro NC, or Apex NC.

Transfer cassette to computer

This is what I used when I was converting all of my vinyl records. DAK’s LPs and Tapes to CD and MP3 System - DAK Industries

@ Berton. Yes Sir that is what I am going to do. My concern was the audio level coming from the cassette player to the USB input from the computer. I know how to do the transfer. Been doing these things over 40 years. I worked for and managed multiple stores for RadioShack for close to 30 years until me and the DM didn't see eye to eye. The darndest thing is he had quit RadioShack within a year because it was affecting his health. By 2008 things were getting crazy at RadioShack before they went belly up in May 2015. As far as I am concerned they were starting to belly up when I was forced out in Dec 2006.

I purchased a Roxio kit years ago, still does the job.
I've done LP's, Cassettes, VHS's, etc...
Sound is okay.

"I have an old RadioShack portable stereo tape player that only out is the headphone jack."

That is all you need plus a suitable lead to connect the Audio output to the Line input of your PC/Laptop audio system. You may need some attenuation of the audio signal which can be done with a couple of resistors.

The audio is digitised by the audio system of the PC/Laptop, and a suitable application, Audacity is one example.

" buy a cassette tape player that is setup to go USB and convert audio tapes directly into mp3's."
That is not direct, it is the same duplicated hardware and at extra cost. All it means is that you have less control of the process.

You will not bring "new life to old stereo audio tapes" as the quality was always bad. It is a lot of effort to optimise the rather dubious qualities of decades old aged tapes.

I have done this before and know it takes maybe 10 hours of effort or more for a 1 hour tape, and many tries each of course adding another hour.

EClaptonXRoads said:

what I would like to do is take the audio (from the headphone jack) and plug into a USB port on the computer to make audio files.....

Click to expand...

Helmut said:

You will not bring "new life to old stereo audio tapes" as the quality was always bad. It is a lot of effort to optimise the rather dubious qualities of decades old aged tapes.

Click to expand...

If you want to try improving the sound a bit, Audacity does include noise reduction tools....