another audio question

[penmanila]

is there any software and/or hardware/software combination that will allow me to transfer and digitize a voice recording from a cassette player to my mac?

i do loads of interviews in my line of work, and the interview's easy but transcription is always a pain. of course the ideal software (maybe still in heaven) is something that will automatically download and transcribe (into text!) the interview, but mayeb that's asking for too much. it'll be enough for starters to be able to offload the voice track from the tape and convert it to a digitized file.

any ideas? thanks in advance!

[El CaMOTe]

Dunno if IMic can do it. It has a mic input for sure and maybe also a line in also. Shouldn't that do ?? Am I missing something here ?:roll:

[exie]

See if this helps.

[penmanila]

thanks, exie, that AudioX program looks very interesting. now, does anybody know if iMic is the interface i need to connect my tape recorder to the mac? will buy it asap if it is!

[McArenas]

Originally posted by penmanila
thanks, exie, that AudioX program looks very interesting. now, does anybody know if iMic is the interface i need to connect my tape recorder to the mac? will buy it asap if it is!

Sir Butch.. have u tried playing with the Audio/Line-in port of your powerbook. I haven't tried this but it might work.

1) Use a male to male mini plug to connect your cassette player's headphone to the 'Books audio/Line-in port.

2) Launch AudioX or AudioHijack. Select the Line-in as your SOURCE.

3) Hit play button on your cassette then PAUSE muna (this will allow you setup the receiving end).

4) Hit record on your AUDIOx then release PAUSE from the cassette.

Let us know if it works.

[Edited on 5-22-2004 by McArenas]

[caloysam]

@penmanila
yes, you can use imic to connect your recorder to your mic. just make sure to turn the switch to the proper side and start recording from the input device, in this case your recorder, and document the audio using the software recorder of choice.

[Kenneth]

iMic is quite an expensive solution for something as simple as this.

Butch, if your cassete player has a baby pin line out, I suggest you buy a cheap P20 double baby pin and connect the other end to the line in of your mac. You can always buy cheap adaptors if your cassete player requires. You can find these at RGY Enterprises at the ground floor of Virramall. They're at the lane near the entrance to the pond if I remember correctly.

I use freeware Audio In

[penmanila]

thanks for the tips, guys. i'm using one of those male-to-male plugs i've had from way back but never found a use for (this is why i'm a pack rat!), and audioX. it seems to be working just fine--but dang, does this thing eat up megabytes! something like 3 MB per minute, and i have hours of tape to digitize. (i'm using the IMA-4 16-bit mono compression suggested by audioX.) i guess i'll just have to dump everything later onto CD.

[McArenas]

Sir Butch, if audioX's output kills much of your precious MB, i suggest you get Audio HiJack Pro. You can directly digitize your recording into MP3.

[penmanila]

thanks again for that suggestion. audio hijack pro is great (although it takes a bit of learning)--cut my filze size down to about 1 MB per minute of mp3 recording. the nice thing is playing it back on itunes (and my ipod) so i can use the equalizer, and also work on the file anywhere.