This has to have come up before but I've looked back several years and didn't find a thread discussing this so I thought I could ask it again.
I have over 6,000 half hour radio shows on over 3,000 cassettes that I recorded 10 to 15 years ago. They are stored in beer flats stacked three feet high and six feet wide. This fills half of a large six foot wide hall closet and my "big old wife" has been bugging me to clear them out.
I'm not into recording them any more, I figure I've collected enough to keep me busy listening eight hours a day, five days a week for more than a year. In other words, I'll never be able to listen to all of them again with the time I have left. Besides, all of the tape recorders that I used to record them on have long since given up the ghost and I really don't have any way of playing them now.
I recorded a lot of music to reel to reel when I was in the service 45 years ago and those tapes have gotten brittle, are crumbling and none my half dozen decks are functioning anymore and I don't want to spend the time trying to resurrect them. I'm afraid the same thing is going to happen to the cassettes that I spent all that time recording. I would like to transfer them to some more permanent form but don't really know where to start. I’m not an audio gear type and don’t want to construct an audio studio to accomplish my task. With the cost of relatively large external hard drives as low as it is, I though maybe I could find a way to play them back thru the computer an store them on an external hard drive or something simple like that. And again, I would have to go out and buy a cassette player, if they still make them, to play them back. I bought something called Sound Forge about 10 years ago thinking I could use it for the transfer but it proved to be to complicated, I’d really like to find something simple to use.
I just know that there are a lot of you that have gone thru this exercise and I’d like to hear any suggestions as to how you solved it.

Thanks,
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny, I've recorded a few LP's to my computer a few years back so doing cassettes would be a bit easier. But let me suggest something first. There is a lot of OTR out there as MP3's on CD's that is amazingly affordable (cheap) and a lot that is available for free downloads. Depending on the quality of your recordings you might want to check what is available for free downloads and see how it compares.

My experience with the downloads have been for the most part pretty positive. Some of the shows have bad audio but sometimes another source has that same show that sounds better. Between a couple dozen OTR CD's I bought a few years ago and free downloads last year I have almost 50 GB of OTR in MP3 format, more than I'll be able to listen to the rest of life.

If your cassettes are good quality recordings you might want to pursue transferring them. If what's currently available on CD and free download is equal to your quality then you can save yourself a lot of time and expense trying to transfer the shows. I also used to have a ton of OTR I recorded on cassette and even made little covers for the cases. After I bought some complete OTR series on CD (MP3's) I just sold them all off for a $1 here and there at local radio meets. Anyway, it's just an alternative to consider.

The software I used to transfer my LP's was Roxio but it also works for cassette. You'd want to get a decent cassette deck so your tape transfers would sound as good as possible. You also need an input on the sound card in your PC (most will have it). You might want to listen to a few of your older tapes, sometimes they degrade over time in storage.

You can probably find a cassette player for next to nothing at a thrift store. There are several free software solutions for transfering your recordings to MP3 format for storage. I like Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
The problem is this will have to be done in real time. Thousands of hours of recordings will take thousands of hours to convert. I don't know of any high speed solutions. Like Eliot Ness said you may be able to find all of that already converted free for the downloading or you can buy most pretty inexpensively.

John has a good suggestion. You can get almost any series with all the episodes on one CD for under $10.00, most can be had for under 5. And again many can be downloaded for free. seems like a waste to have all those cassettes, but donate them to a retired folks home They would love them, include a good cassette player.
Dan

The old time radio researchers has tons of shows available on archive.org free for downloading

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query ... 20Group%22

There is a program I use to transfer analog tape recordings to my computer so I can burn CD's. It's called "Magix Music Maker".
I would highly recomend this. It has a lot of flexibility, but is not overly complicated. I got mine from Best Buy.

I use a Beringer UFO202 Audio Interface to record my LPs and tapes to MP3s. It has a CD of the Audacity program with it for editing. I know it is "real time" but most of my tapes and LPs are not found anywhere else so I don't have much choice. I've also found that high speed recording doesn't maintain the quality as well, either.

Not interested in speed recording either Robin. On your recommendation I read up on the Beringer UFO202 Audio Interface and if it's what I think it is, it sounds like just what I need. From what I gather it comes with the software also??? Just ordered on on Amazon for $28, sounds orfull cheap, hope it does what I want.
So all I need now is to find a decent tape deck that will stand up to 6,000 hours of tape playing without wearing out a half dozen heads or eating up the tapes before I get them transferred.
I've got a Solid State external hard drive that I've used for transferring data from one confuser to another and I think I'll just dedicate it to the old radios shows. I hope the software will let me separate the show into separate files.
And to the other suggestions, I've been thru the chasing down of the shows once already, spent years doing it so all I want to do now is throw one in when I have a chance and let it transfer. I figure I'll just try and sell off the boxes of cassettes when I'm thru with them at the swap meets.
Thanks
DG

And to think it will all fit in an MP3 player in your pocket today. What will the next 10 years bring?

What will the next 10 years bring? You'll just eat a pill and program will play in your head.

Yea, I have a friend like that.

I've also got tons of OTR on cassette-hundreds of them. I can't stand to think of getting rid of all that work!

Some really nice cassette decks turn up in thrift stores. A few weeks ago I picked up a nice Kenwood with dual record decks, on sale for $2.50 at the Salvation Army store. You might end up with a lemon but if the price is cheap enough you can just try another one.

That may just be my only option, I was at Best Buy today and they ran a check on their data base and they don't carry anything other than boom boxes anymore.

I do have a Pioneer dual deck and the converter literature says it has a phono pre-amp so I'm hoping that I can just pump the analog from the deck thru the Beringer UFO202 Audio Interface and into the computer. I don’t think I’ve heard from anyone about how these work so I guess I‘ll just have to wait and see if there are any instructions with it.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Ok, back to the transfer of my tapes to my massive external hard drive.
The Pioneer I thought I could reserect was a bust, something burned out in side and I taint in the mood to spend the rest of the summer learning how to fix a SS entertainment center...So, I'm in the market for a tape deck again.

First off I bought a Behinger U-Phono UFO202 audio interface which I think is supposed to convert the analog signal to a digital and input it to the computer thru a USB port, It says that it has a "Built-in Phono Preamp and Massive Softwear Package for Digitalizing Your Tapes and Vinyl Records."
One of the main priorities for the tape deck is that I be able to find replacement heads for the unit that I buy. Playing three to four thousand 30minute tapes thru the unit is going to wear out a few heads and I want to be able to buy new ones so I want a name brand manufacturer.
I've narrowed it down to one unit that seems to have what I want. The Sony TC WE475 Dual Cassette Deck is right in the price range ($100) and isn't loaded up with all kinds of fancy features that I don't need to play 70 year old programs that were recorded off the air waves. I haven't heard any negative feedback on this one and I'm hoping I can find a Sony Service Center in the Chicago area that can sell me heads for this unit. I'll start off by buying a couple pair of them, which will get me thru a good portion of the next couple of years worth of recording.
Sure like to hear any feed back on this before I place my order for the deck next week.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Got FREE software I am at presently using to record all my Frankie Carle LP's to my computer.

Works Great. Came with the Record Player I purchased for $50

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Bob T.

Good used cassette decks can be had for next to nothing. If you feel you have bad heads, or may wear them out, just buy another deck -- it's easier and cheaper.

Sound Forge is AWESOME!! I have Sound Forge 10 -- this latest version has all sorts of filtering and audio cleanup material that will blow you away. If you haven't used audio processing software before it can be a bit intimidating, but I strongly recommend digging in and getting to know it, as it is a powerful program. For audio cleanup and retrieval there are really only a few functions that you need to learn -- master them and you won't want to look back.

Connections: Phono input jack? I'm thinking magnetic cartridge. If so, not good for the line level tape output. It will amplify WAY too much, and it has de-emphasis. Look for a line level input.

In my case, and to tell you the truth I'm way out on the complicated end of things, I have a Yamaha mixer that I run my tape deck/microphone/turntable through. It allows me to adjust the line level. Something about the computer sound card, the line level is just a tad too strong and there's a little distortion. I cut the level some, then it can always be adjusted (normalized) after recording. Yes, unlike magnetic tape, there is no noise floor with digital. Record weak, turn the volume up, doesn't hurt anything. Besides, if you start getting creative with equalizing or other audio adjustments, it's better to work with the level a few db's down anyway. Normalize after you're through.

Then finally, I've got stacks and stacks of tapes of my own. Someday I'll sort through them and many will be tossed, if only because I have better copies on CD's. But of course there's always the proverbial handful -- in other words when I finally get around to copying/disposing of my old tapes, it will only be a small percentage of the collection.

I use a Ion Profile LP Player which hooks right up to the USB port. They make a cassette player also. I bought it at Costco. I transfered alot of my vinyl this way, very easy to use and the sound quality is as good as the album. It has a recording level adjustment also when you copy that you can set. They store the music in Apple ITunes. Then you can either just listen to them on your Apple ITunes or copy them to CD's if you wish. I think I paid about $70 at Costco for my unit. Don't buy one off the Ion website, they want $120. You can get one at Amazon or Costco for $70-80 range. You can see them on ionaudio.com
Doug

Here is what I used for the hardware setup:
Cassette Deck hooked to receiver (Play In) then hook (Rec Out) to input on sound card (PC). Use any of the mentioned programs and you should be good to go. I picked up a Sony receiver and speakers at a yard sale. Already had the turntable. Note: Do not let record level exceed -3db or you will start to get distortion.

I used the above setup for turntable. Recording came out great even the pops and clicks came out clear!!
Enjoy!

I personally wouldn't go through all the hassle of transferring those otr tapes. There are sites on the net where you can download just about ANY old time radio show ever made for free or nearly free. http://www.mysteryshows.com Is my favorite and there are over 48,000 episodes for download for a one time $10 donation. http://otrrlibrary.org/ Is also very good and FREE and claims to have 85,000 episodes. I have more shows downloaded on my external hard drive than I will probably ever listen to (100 gigs worth).

Josh

Good point!
I will be checking out the links you posted!