24 Nov
1998
24 Nov
'98
3:09 a.m.
Marvin wrote:
Having *finally* gotten a CD-R unit hooked up, it
occurred to
me that perhaps recording all the cassette data tapes to CD
would be a worthwhile thing to do. Has anyone else tried this?
I would think it would be trivial to hook up a stereo to
computers, and thus load both data and programs.
Yes - been there. It is highly recommended, especially if you can
read the program/data from a cassette, and then make a fresh new
'write' from the computer, as if you were going to make another
cassette, but to the CD-R audio input - as opposed to simply
copying the audio from the cassette directy to CD with all the
tape hiss, drop outs & speed fluctuations. I've found fresh
new 'tapeless' audio recordings to be very useable and reliable.
Chuck
cswiger(a)widomaker.com
24 Nov
24 Nov
3:50 a.m.
cswiger wrote:
Marvin wrote:
Is there a library of cassette software being archived anywhere? At this
point, I probably have at least several hundred cassette tapes of programs
for the earlier computers, and it would be a shame to lose it.
Also, how did you record the cassettes with respect to input device,
sampling frequency, etc.? I am currently running the input into my sound
card. Since I am also starting to transfer a few records to CD, the
recording settings are 44 MHz in Stereo. Aside from the minor detail of
about 11 Mb/minute and record rumble, it works really well.
Having *finally* gotten a CD-R unit hooked up, it
occurred to
me that perhaps recording all the cassette data tapes to CD
would be a worthwhile thing to do. Has anyone else tried this?
Yes - been there. It is highly recommended, especially if you can
read the program/data from a cassette, and then make a fresh new 
4:41 a.m.
cswiger wrote:
>
> Marvin wrote:
> >Having *finally* gotten a CD-R unit hooked up, it occurred to
> >me that perhaps recording all the cassette data tapes to CD
> >would be a worthwhile thing to do. Has anyone else tried this?
Is there a library of cassette software being archived
anywhere? At this
point, I probably have at least several hundred cassette tapes of programs
for the earlier computers, and it would be a shame to lose it.
I did not digitize my library of PET tapes, but I did convert them to
disk files by hooking up a C= tape drive to to a PeeCee parallel
port and slurping the data up directly. At the time, I used a commercial
(registered shareware) program to do it. I belive there are freeware
products to do the same on ftp.funet.fi, now.
What I _really_ need is some data on the PET Rabbit format. I have my
original Rabbit cassette and ROM, but not easy access to a BASIC 3.0 32K
PET (or else I'd read them in on the original hardware). For the unaware,
the Rabbit was like TurboTape from 1979 for the PET. It was several
times faster than the slower and redundant recording on the native PET format.
If need by, I'll disassemble the Rabbit program, but that's not at
the top of my list of projects.
Also, how did you record the cassettes with respect to
input device,
sampling frequency, etc.? I am currently running the input into my sound
card. Since I am also starting to transfer a few records to CD, the
recording settings are 44 MHz in Stereo. Aside from the minor detail of
about 11 Mb/minute and record rumble, it works really well.
For stereo recording, you can't go wrong with 44Khz/stereo stampling. Yes,
it sucks up disk space (~9Mb/minute), but disks are cheap. I have some
reel-to-reel to transfer myself. Again, not at the top of my list.
I can recommend Spin Doctor by Adaptec. In addition to digitizing stuff,
you can post-process it, removing pops and clicks, and even give the computer
a chance to guess where the song boundaries are.
Enjoy,
-ethan
6:05 a.m.
On Tue, 24 Nov 1998, Marvin wrote:
Having *finally* gotten a CD-R unit hooked up, it
occurred to
me that perhaps recording all the cassette data tapes to CD
would be a worthwhile thing to do. Has anyone else tried this?
I have done this very successfully. As has been mentioned, loading the
original cassette-based software into a computer of the type that the tape
was written on and saving a "clean" copy for writing to CD works best.
On the systems that I have tried, the headphone output levels of a
portable CD player are more than adequate for reading the audio CDs back
into the computer.
Since you will need to convert the audio data into 44.1 kHz, 16-bit,
stereo data for writing to an audio CD, doing the initial recording in
this format makes sense if you have the hardware to do so, even if it is
overkill. If writing a normal audio CD is not your goal, then 22 kHz,
8-bit mono is more than good enough.
A cassette deck that you are willing to perform azimuth adjustments on can
be a valuable tool when reading old audio cassette data for re-writing to
CD. Often, a small head alignment tweak can make the difference between
an unreadable tape and one that reads perfectly.
--
Scott Ware ware(a)xtal.pharm.nwu.edu
9353
days inactive
9353
days old
3 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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cswiger＠wilma.widomaker.com -
erd＠infinet.com -
marvin＠rain.org -
ware＠xtal.pharm.nwu.edu