Dear forum members,
I am planning to convert my cassette tapes to digital.
I need suggestions regarding
1. which software will give best results ?
2.Does I need any soundcard?
Experts in this field please give advice for good results.
1. Software is irrelevant. Only the post-processing matters because you might want to reduce cassette hiss after digitization and, in some case, want to retouch the digital recording. In both scenarios, your experience matter. Being a free DAW, Audacity is very popular and suitable if your sole purpose is digitization.
2. If you have a desktop, you really don't need any extra soundcard. The LINE_IN port is enough for this. But if you are a laptop user, you need an ADC, aka external soundcard, with a LINE_IN port. Consumer-grade Creative or Asus USB soundcards were enough for this purpose, but they are now hard to find for some unknown reason. There is an alternate solution. Home recording is becoming popular nowadays. And for this purpose, many Audio Interfaces are available easily. They are basically external soundcard relying on USB BUS and its technology mainly focus on the audio recording to the computer. These can also be used in the Desktop environment. These being a studio-grade portable gadget, are the best available solution for digitisation in present days. They tend to give a flat recording response curve. Therefore, the recording is nearly devoid of any colourisation.
3. The choice of your cassette player is crucial. Try to choose a player that produces less hiss and devoid of noise issues like hum etc. The SQ of the player will somewhat be retained on the digital recording. The player should be in its optimum condition, free from any mechanical or electronic error. So choose your player wisely.
4. Use a well-shilded cable to connect the player's output to the input of the Audio Interface. You can use DIY cables. A locally available good quality microphone cable is enough.
5. Use a pristine quality audio cassette for digitization. The cassette needs to be completely free from fungus, as it affects the reproduction, hence digital recording.
