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Topic: Recording Audio Cassette Books on Tape (Read 8000 times) previous topic - next topic
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Recording Audio Cassette Books on Tape

Hi,

I'm a newbie at this, so please excuse my lack of knowledge.  I hope someone here can give me some pointers.  I am trying to record some cassette books on tape to CD's.  I would like to record one tape to each CD.  I don't want to deal with breaking up the middle of a side of a tape into more than one segment.  Too messy.

I am recording at 16 bit, 44.1 KHz mono.  My first try was to record .wav files.  The two sides of the tape added up to 518 MB.  All of my burning software said this was too large for the CD.

So, next I tried recording in FLAC format.  Much smaller file size.  I expected these to fit on the CD.  The size of the two files combined is 338 MB.

However, alll of my programs (EAC, Nero, MediaMonkey) STILL say this is too large for the CD.  What gives?

Cathy

Recording Audio Cassette Books on Tape

Reply #1 –
First off, if what you are creating is an audio CD then it makes no difference what file format or how many megabytes the source files are. The capacity of an audio CD is either 74 or 80 minutes, depending on which type of blank disc you use. All audio formats are converted to the same data type before burning the CD.

Second, if your wav files are 16 bit 44.1 khz MONO then they will first be converted to stereo, making then twice as big. That's why they won't fit onto a single disc.
 

Recording Audio Cassette Books on Tape

Reply #2 –
Just in case it isn’t obvious, the standard C90 cassettes is 45 minutes per side. Actually they are often a bit more, say 46 to 47 minutes. Book tape cassettes are frequently not standard size. 52 to 54 minutes per side is common from at least one source.

Anyway, this adds up to one side of one cassette per CD. Since the more common 700MB CD -R blanks will hold about 80 minutes, there is a lot of wasted space, but not enough to contain both sides of most cassettes. Therefore, you either use twice as many CD-Rs as you have cassettes, or you get over your reluctance to use an audio editor and break the cassettes transfers up into pieces that will make better use of the real estate.

If you could use a player that will play mp3 files, you could make a data CD containing mp3 files. This could allow you to fit about a half dozen cassettes on each CD-R. With a little editing work on the source files, that could be expanded considerably. I’ve put close to 50 hours on one disk with very good results, but this is definitely getting beyond the simple record, encode to mp3, write to CD-R approach.

Recording Audio Cassette Books on Tape

Reply #3 –
There is a way to get both sides of a book on tape onto an audio CD, but it's a little bit bizarre.

First take the two mono tracks for the two sides, then merge them into a single stereo file, one track for the left and one for the right. Burn this to an audio CD, and then when you listen to it, first turn the balance all the way to the left, then for side 2 all the way to the right.

Recording Audio Cassette Books on Tape

Reply #5 –
Thanks for the replies!  Creative idea to record the two tracks together and listen on different sides!  It would have taken me forever to research this on my own and figure out what was going on.

I have the software, knowledge, etc. to break up the tapes, I just wanted to take the lazy way out.  Guess I'll just have to bite the bullet and do the extra work unless I want to buy and store a whole bunch of extra CD's [not  ].

One more question - approximately how much room does the audio header info take up on an audio CD? (.cda info etc.)

Recording Audio Cassette Books on Tape

Reply #6 –
Audio discs actually do not have ".cda" files on them; that's just Windows showing you stubs. (I don't know why that would be wanted, though.)

Any auxiliary data (other than actual audio data) can safely be ignored.

Recording Audio Cassette Books on Tape

Reply #7 –
When thinking about audio CDs you really have to get away from the concept of megabytes. A CD holds more audio data than it does file data because of less redundancy (and therefore less reliability). All you really need to know is that a standard 80 minute blank CD holds 80 minutes of stereo audio data, period. This is after taking into account all of the overhead associated with an audio CD. (At this point someone will jump in with confusing concepts like multi-session CDs, but just ignore that).

Recording Audio Cassette Books on Tape

Reply #8 –
It is also a good idea to not get hung up on 80 minutes. Depending on the blanks, the writer, and the writing speed, the actual reliably usable space may be a bit more or less. It can be good practice to limit usage to a few minutes less than 80 because the outer edge is frequently less reliable when it comes to play back. You should at least test a few finished disks thoroughly before writing too many. One of the error testing programs, such as KProbe2, will tell you if the read error rate is extra high at the outer edge -- if you have a drive that can report errors. Reading well may also depend on the player you use.

Recording Audio Cassette Books on Tape

Reply #9 –
Quote from: AndyH-ha on
It is also a good idea to not get hung up on 80 minutes. Depending on the blanks, the writer, and the writing speed, the actual reliably usable space may be a bit more or less. It can be good practice to limit usage to a few minutes less than 80 because the outer edge is frequently less reliable when it comes to play back. You should at least test a few finished disks thoroughly before writing too many. One of the error testing programs, such as KProbe2, will tell you if the read error rate is extra high at the outer edge -- if you have a drive that can report errors. Reading well may also depend on the player you use.
I've successfully used 99 minute CD's in the past.

Recording Audio Cassette Books on Tape

Reply #10 –
Being a computer programmer by profession, the 80 minute thing I guess kind of throws me for a loop.  I always think in terms of MB.

I have a chronic illness and am trying to get out of programming.  Too stressful, too much time, etc.  I would like to start converting people's cassettes, VHS tapes, etc. for a living, so I'm starting out by working on my own libraries and doing stuff for family.  Being ill, I have limited financial resources but I've found some amazing freeware out there and there is a group that will pay for limited hardware and software for me.

All of you seem like a great group of people, very knowledgeable, so I will probably end up being a frequent poster here.  Thx.

Recording Audio Cassette Books on Tape

Reply #11 –
Quote from: Nick.C on
I've successfully used 99 minute CD's in the past.

Unfortunately the OP's 518 MByte mono file works out to be over 102 minutes.



@New Tunes: Tell us what kind of equipment you are in need of and perhaps someone has something that they no longer use and are willing to donate.

Recording Audio Cassette Books on Tape

Reply #12 –
Quote from: pdq on
@New Tunes: Tell us what kind of equipment you are in need of and perhaps someone has something that they no longer use and are willing to donate.


Nice of you to post this.  Responding a little late because of the holiday.  The thing I need most is a vinyl record player with a jack.  And I need advice on how to pick one out if I have to buy one.

I'm amazed at what I've done on a shoestring budget.  I thought sound quality would be my biggest issue, but it hasn't been, it's been cords!  I don't consider myself a professional at this yet, but I do now consider myself a professional Cord Tamer.  Have velcro, will travel.  Behind  the TV, the stereo, the computer, the switchbox, etc.

I was at the hardware store getting something for my house and I found a switch box complete with 4 inlets, 1 output, preamp, S-video, RCA and component video for $25!  I was worried about quality but it has worked great so far. 

First thing I hooked up was my current stereo and tried recording a cassette.  Horrible sound quality, lots of problems.  So I hooked up this cheap-o stereo I bought 10 years ago and it works great!  I was a musician in a former life before I became a computer programmer so I consider myself pretty picky regarding sound quality.  I took this little cassette player and popped in a cassette that a friend of mine who is an amateur songwriter/musician had recorded many years ago using simply a hand-held recorder with a mike.  I put it through noise-reduction with Audacity, split it into tracks, made a CD cover with a picture of her, recorded it onto a CD as a gift for my friend and it sounded wonderful!  I was amazed.

I then went shopping at Frys and a sales rep told me I HAD to buy their pre-amp that does nothing else but amplify for $100 for what I was doing.  I laughed in his face, and didn't bother explaning why.  I might go for more expensive equipment later, but what I have right now is working great so far. 

I also have a home-built computer with a really nice motherboard and great audio and video, so that helps a lot