Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/07/28/this-handy-digital-converter-w.html
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Aaaand the software comes on a CD. I do believe that they’ve missed the point here.
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Should it have come on cassette too? Just like the Bad Old Days.
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It is cheaper on amazon https://www.amazon.com/Cassette-Converter-Actpe-Portable-Headphone/dp/B01EPW1DV8 , especially if you have prime shipping and can avoid the $3 shipping charge you’d get here…
Audacity. An appropriate audio to mini-jack lead. A PC/Mac with mic-in socket. An old stereo cassette deck and amp. Cost me less, and probably higher quality. But if you have none of those I guess this might be worth it, though assembling a 'kit of parts as above might be more fun.
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Ideally you want line-in, not mic-in.
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That’s what I should have said. It’s what I have. But it is labelled with a mic symbol.
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Any actual songs, I can get elsewhere, but those recordings of my college garage band are one of a kind!
Currently my fellow band mates are bidding on the chance to destroy them before I can transfer them.
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That would be a real reasonable price, if anybody anywhere had a cassette collection.
Avoid this player for the same fidelity reasons I’d talk anyone out of buying a crap-o Crosley record player for their vinyl: if you care enough about quality sound to forever commit your memories digitally then you care enough to get a proper tape deck that has Dolby B (or C or S) as well as CrO2 / Metal tape bias settings.
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I bought a very similar converter, but not to make copies but solely so I could HEAR the songs on my mixtapes and then acquire them digitally. The audio quality of transferring is not great and I figured I should maybe give the artist a cent or two towards the songs I recorded off the radio all those years ago.
(Mostly from Brave New Waves and Night Lines which were late night CBC radio shows back in the day. Now thanks to the internet I know the NAMES of the artists of all those songs and have discovered even more of their music! Negativland and Coldcut being my favourites.)
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This is really the way to go but there’s also something to be said for the convenience of not needing to dick around with audio levels and stuff.
That said I’ve had really great results using an old tape player with line out to my computer’s line in and using Audacity to encode to WAV (and then LAME to MP3). I managed to save quite a few irreplaceable cassettes and reel to reels this way.
Aaw - that would take all of the fun, frustration and general fuckwittery out of it. 
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Might be the software/drivers?
Though, and I am sorry BB store for keeping mentioning this, but I wouldn’t be a good mutant if I didn’t mention this DIY trick:
If you have an old cassette player and a male/male headphone jack, you can plug it into any computer and record your tapes using your favorite audio program. I remember doing this years ago and what ever program I used even would help quiet the hiss of tapes.
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Even back in cassette’s heyday 20 bucks did not buy a good sounding player. I can’t imagine finding any satisfaction with this.
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Read the sad reviews of any of the myriad different brands/models of this same apparatus and you see that nearly every one of the folks purchasing it has been disappointed with its performance and audio quality.
Although more trouble, the DIY route will yield much better results and you’ll have quality copies of your cherished memories (or pr0n soundtrack, or whatever) to keep for posterity.
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Do MP3s made from hissy old cassettes sound better or worse than WAVs of hissy old cassettes?
…and to have converted your tapes in 2001^W1994 when the tapes still retained 21dB of signal to decode the Dolby whatsis. Fortunately the hounds of Tyndalos are audiophiles, so…
When I’m driving in my car, and my GIF turns on the radio, [tape cueing miss noises] I can’t get no. Satturnis Faq Sion. No. [De-echo filter noises]
This new DEVO is fine.
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