Wednesday, November 5, 2014

USB Cassette Deck Converter

USB Cassette Deck ConverterWhen I ordered this device I didn't really know how much to expect. At under $20 it is cheap, so I wondered how well it would work. Bottom line: it worked very well. It was a good find.

It arrived promptly and I immediately put it to work on a very old audio book on cassette that I thought was a lost cause. I don't even own a cassette deck, so I figured that the audio book was a thing of history. Since I never intend to replace it on a new media I was about to throw it in the trash.

Finding this device was a great discovery. It is simple to use and works just as I needed. Even with the old cassette tapes I had no problems whatsoever. The software it comes with is open source but very effective. I've worked with professional audio tools like WaveLab so I can say from experience that it is a very effective tool. Easy to cut out blank segments between the sides and at the top and end of the recording. Just highlight a segment in the waveform and press delete. done.

With old tapes I was afraid the tension would be a problem. A player has to be able to handle an overly tight spool of tape. This device worked without any fuss. I really like that it is powered completely off the usb port, as I hate extra wall-warts getting in the way. The tape controls are manual, but it will automatically change tape sides. So just start a tape and use the editor to trim it, and in just a minute you have a clean waveform ready to export to mp3. New life to an otherwise lost item.

When I read the review from D. Vineyard, I took the gamble and ordered the converter. It is well worth the risk! The converter is a dream to use! It comes with the cassette player, some headphones, an USB cable that hooks up to your computer, a set of instructions and an installation CD that has the right version of Audacity (a very user friendly music editing/recording program) and a set of instructions for both a PC or a Mac. I own a PC, so the Mac version might have to be recorded through I-Tunes.

I set up the Audacity for recording. Then I had to get the cassette to the place on the tape that I wanted to record from. I still haven't figured out how the converter fast forwards or rewinds, so I used a boombox to get the cassette to the right spot. Then all I had to do was to record and stop. I saved it as a Wav file, because I don't understand how to install the Lame encoder in Audacity to convert the data into MP3s, but it is an extremely easy process to burn my files to a CD!

I'm sure everyone will love this product!

Buy USB Cassette Deck Converter Now

There was another product close to this one; reviews claimed it didn't last long (speed slowed) over time, this product seems to have the same issue. I purchased this one in hopes it was a better, different product. It helps a little to run one side of the tape and let the player "rest", speed is a little better. I'll try to post how it goes over time. For reference I ran one tape at once out of the box, first side ok, second side ran slower. Next day ran one side of tape, better speed.

Read Best Reviews of USB Cassette Deck Converter Here

I was somewhat skeptical about how well this converter might work because of the low price. Wow, was I pleasantly surprised!! Not only was the converter easy to set up and use with my computer, but the sound quality of the resulting file/CD was excellent. The tapes I converted were over 20 years old and yet the sound during playback of the CD I created from them is crisp and clear. I would definitely recommend this product to anyone wanting to convert old cassette tapes to MPG files and burning CDs. Great value for the money!!!!

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I kind of came across this item by accident. I have a bunch of old cassette tape recordings and thought this product might be a great way to preserve them. I bought this product with pretty low expectations. I took it out of the package and hooked it up to my Mac laptop. No need to install the software that accompanied the unit. Audacity is a free download for Mac users. At a glance, it looks just like an ordinary walkman-style unit but has the USB connector. I popped in a cassette, launched Audacity (you do have to adjust the preferences in Audacity to receive audio from the unit) and pressed play and then pressed record in Audacity and to my surprise, I was up and running in no time! Certainly not the best quality unit but an excellent choice for the money. I would recommend this product to anyone that has an old box of cassette tapes and they are unwilling to part with. A great choice for both PC and Mac users (the included instructions are for Windows but should translate easily for Mac users). Don't throw out those old tapes without first considering this product!!

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