Tape recording

Hi,

Almost all soundcards have a microphone input. Simplistically, you should be able to plug the "line out" of your tape recorder into the mic jack on your soundcard and then use windows' sound recorder software to record it.

This will produce a fairly large file, however and you may wish to convert the wav file to a more compressed format.

Take a look at the following site for conversion utilities.

http://home.wanadoo.nl/source/

Cheers,
Tim.

If you have a Burner it probably came with software to convert wav files to mp3. That would be the route I would go to convert the wav file to a smaller size. I would also suggest breaking the book into chapter files.

The previous answers give you what you need, if you are looking to do this for a couple of books.

One exception: Do not connect a line source to a Mic in Jack. Use the Line In Jack for a line source.

The Mic input is designed for a lower signal level than the line out. Also, a properly designed Mic input circuit has a frequency curve adjustment. So, the sound will be distorted and have a unusual equalization to it if you send a line signal to a Mic input.

If you do not have softwareto convert a wav to an MP3, there are numerous free-ware and trial-ware programs out there.

If you are looking to do this on a professional basis, you will want to upgrade the hardware a bit.

The first step would be to use a "component" type cassette tape deck. You can get a cable most anywhere to covert from the dual RCA jacks on the back of the deck to the 1/8" stereo Line In jack on your sound card.
This will result in better sound quality.

You could also upgrade to a sound card with better input circuits and a good A/D convertor.
Most "general purpose" sound cards have lousy A/D sections.
A good resource is www.enhanceaudio.com
They explain why a standard sound card may not be the correct choice for recording use, have links to good cards, and have recording software and links.

The next step would be to get some dublication grade equipment. This would allow you to process the recordings at 2X or better rates. Saving you a lot of time.

Your sound card should have a line input jack. Connect the line output from your cassette player (I assume the book is on a cassette) or whatever plays the audio book to the line input jack. If there is no line output jack from the audio book player, connect the output of the headphone jack to the line input of your sound card. If you don't have the right cable(s), go to Radio Shack.

Even though you will end up on a CD, if you are tight for space you might be able to set the recording software that you use with your sound card to record in monaural and to use a lower sampling rate than the full CD rate of 44.1 kHz/16 bit. You could use 22 kHz and 8 or 12 bit and should get fine results, since you are just recording voice, as long asyou CD burning software will perform the conversion to standard CD sampling rates first.

MP3 could also work well, both for recording from the audio book and to burn the CD, as long as you have a way of playing an MP3 CD.

As a guide, the typical file size for CD quality audio is about 1.1 MB for each minute of time, so figure the file will be about 660 MB for a 60 minute recording.

As far as hardware, obviously you need a CD burner. These are readily available. If you use an IDE typeof CD burner, it's best to avoid connecting it to the same controller (i.e, primary versus secondary) as your hard drives.

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