[Dixielandjazz] Converting Analog to Digital for CD recording

[Andy.Ling@Quantel.Com]

Hi Cary,

> Just added a CD burner to my Macintosh (OS 9.1) but have yet to find a
> package to convert old OKOM tapes or records to digital format?

> Any suggestions or experiences would be greatly appreciated.

It depends how near your tape/record player is to your computer.

Most sound cards have a stereo line in that you can plug the
line out of your hi-fi into. Then you can use your favourite
recording program to record a sound file on your hard disk. For CD
quality you must record 16 bits at 44.1 KHz. Stereo is optional
if you are recoding from mono records.

Another approach, which is the one I use, is to get a CD recorder
for you hi-fi system. They have come down in price a lot recently
which make them more attractive. You can then record a CD just like
you were recording a tape. (I use re-writable CDs for this bit) Then
take the CD to your computer, copy the audio files to the hard disk,
and do any processing and editing before finally burning as many
"write once" CDs as you want. You can then erase the original and
start again with the next record.

You will probably want some sort of audio editing software
to at least chop up the tracks. Most have some sort of noise
reduction capabilities too. The one I use is CoolEdit, which seems
to get spoken of quite highly. I don't know if there is a Mac version,
but there is sure to be something similar.

Hope that helps


Andy Ling