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View Full Version : Sound card for capturing audio


Chris
June 16, 2003, 07:14 PM
A friend needs to capture audio from cassettes so that he can burn them on to CDs. Which (reasonably priced) sound card would you recommend?

I'm looking at the SoundBlaster Live 5.1, what do you think?
Xenocrates
June 16, 2003, 09:06 PM
It doesn't matter which sound card you get. So long as you have the Line in jack at the back of the card, you should be fine.

To record sound from your cassette, you will need to buy a special cable that has two headphone jacks, one at either end. You can get this cable at KJ's Electronic Store on Constant Spring road. It should be less than $100 after tax (at least, the last time I bought one, it was).

SoundBlaster Live 5.1 is pretty good. If money were no object, the Audigy Series is even better.... ;D
Chris
June 16, 2003, 09:20 PM
Thanks Xeno. He might be geting a Dell, so the SoundBlaster upgrade is about $20. I somehow knew you would have mentioned the Audigy ;)
yogi_hm
June 16, 2003, 11:54 PM
SoundBlaster Live 5.1 is pretty good. If money were no object, the Audigy Series is even better.... ;D


The Audigy series are real good. Recording the audio to the pc is one thing, will you be cutting it up into tracks? If so I like to use acid t cut up my tracks or you could just go for soundforge
Nastrodamus
June 17, 2003, 08:28 AM
What program do you intend on using to get do your capturing?
Ropy
June 17, 2003, 09:03 AM
I use a program called Get it On CD, it's easier tho use than soundforge.
wheelman
June 17, 2003, 09:04 AM
In addition if you have one of those tape decks that use the RCA jack you can use that coming from the player and plug the 'headphone jack' end into the line in.

Best thing is to edit each track as they come in. Having one big wave file may cause memory constraints since 1 minute of wave at good enough quality will be 10MB in size. So with that in mind 90minutes= circa 900MB. If you plan to burn to a cd it would be good to split them into tracks and then remove the 2 sec gap bewtween tracks.
Chris
June 17, 2003, 09:36 AM
What program do you intend on using to get do your capturing?


I haven't looked into that as yet, but from the suggestions coming out here I'm sure that I'll try one of them.
Ropy
June 17, 2003, 09:54 AM
Best thing is to edit each track as they come in. Having one big wave file may cause memory constraints since 1 minute of wave at good enough quality will be 10MB in size. So with that in mind 90minutes= circa 900MB. If you plan to burn to a cd it would be good to split them into tracks and then remove the 2 sec gap bewtween tracks.



With Get it On CD all that can be done afterwords, all u have to wory about it physical storage as there is little or no strain on your memory. If I can remember correctly a full 90min cassette will take up about 1Gb of space. There is now need to record a full 90min cassette as a CD can only hold 79min+ little change...

I'm not sure if this program is still available on net, so I anyone want a copy feel free to drop me a line. I aould also comple a tutorial.
Xenocrates
June 17, 2003, 10:14 AM
Why not simply use Music Match Jukebox? You can record the music from the cassettes directly to MP3!!! No need to worry about loosing 900mb of space!
deakie
June 17, 2003, 12:46 PM
i know you know but let me say it anyway.
make sure plug from amp is line out and not speaker out. ;D
the creative input line in impedance is 47kohm. typicl of most amplifier inputs. i checked it with creative some time back. though i must mention that some did carry a 4.7kohm input. stupid. >:(