Comments on: USB Cassette Decks

By: ronnie

ronnie — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:09:57 +0000

I still have the trusty Sony cassette deck that I taped most my tapes on so I’ve used that same machine to record them on my PC. It’s nice to see that the more expensive tapes I used for stuff I deemed “important” held up quite well.

By: Inigo Kennedy

Inigo Kennedy — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:31:41 +0000

Fun timing. Having just finished bouncing about 40 old studio ‘master’ cassettes (dot matrix covers and all) to digital I’d say it depends if/what noise reduction there might be on the original cassette – hopefully none. Decoding Dolby B or C recordings made on a different deck without too many artefacts is tough enough; DBX is a nightmare and unfortunately one I’ve had. Throw in head alignments and the fun gets even better. Those USB decks might not get the best from the cassette but depends on how it was recorded.

By: Johnny

Johnny — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:30:25 +0000

Have you seen this?

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/drives/7a8d/

I think you are Mac though, so it may not be for you.

By: Jonathan Gibbons

Jonathan Gibbons — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 03:21:45 +0000

Stay with a quality deck and get one of the nifty RCA-Audio to USB converter boxes you can find. Check out Amazon for reviews of the ION.

By: JKirchartz

JKirchartz — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:21:07 +0000

Dirty little secret about ion … they’re basically re-branded alesis gear. They’re nice products, I have their e-drums, the brains are an alesis SR-16… So if money’s an issue grab the ion. If the name’s an issue grab the alesis… they’re the same inside.

By: Tom P

Tom P — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:41:53 +0000

I’d try and get the old one fixed, since I don’t like sending stuff to land fill unnecessarily. How often are you going to move it about? And if you’ve already got a spare interface it won’t cost you much extra to reuse the older deck.

By: digital lofi

digital lofi — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:12:28 +0000

Perhaps not repair the old deck, but certainly you could find a 2nd-hand deck that would be more than up to transferring these to the audio editor of your choice. I, in fact, just hooked up my old Teac deck to my cheesy new Soundcraft mixer (my glorified patch-bay) which has RCA cables and a RIAA switch. Bingo, embarrassing songs from when I was 14 and earnest college mix tapes.

By: Kent Sandvik

Kent Sandvik — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:00:23 +0000

I suspect a repair will cost more than expected, unless it’s a quick fix, you might even be able to fix it yourself if you open up the unit to see the inside. Still, never know it might break again. So getting an USB cassette deck might be worth it, especially if you will use it for 50+ hours.