Audio Cassettes to CD: Digitizing Old Family History Tapes

If you have old - and priceless - family history audio cassettes then you probably want to make digital copies.

Doing that, you can edit the audio and turn it into a CD, or add the tracks to your iTunes library and your iPod/iPad, or use the audio in a larger family history project, or email the audio files around to the cousins, or make a ringtone even.

And that's what I am going to help you with today (not the ringtone though).

And good luck!I have transferred a lot of audio cassettes to CD over the years in the course of my video biography business. Usually, a member of the family sat down with Mom or Dad (or grandma or grandpa) 20 or 30 years ago and recorded a conversation. The tape then went into a drawer or a box. Then the technology revolution happened.

So, now we need to get the thing into the computer. Even better, we want to clean it up a bit, separate and name the tracks, and publish it around. Now while I am not an audio expert, I do have a technique and some tips that might help you out with your old family history audio cassettes.

Tip: Some people seem to have a phobia about handling tapes (audio or video). The truth is that tape is a pretty good place for data storage (issues of eventual tape degradation aside). The reason? Even if they break or become unspooled, tapes can usually be fixed and respooled. If the shell becomes broken, that can easily be replaced.

So, here's my process:

1. Protect your family history audio recording
First, before anything else, prise out those tabs at the top of the cassette. You will probably need a small screw driver to get the things to bust off. It seems wrong, because it requires you to actually break off the little plastic tab. But that's what it's there for. Truly.

Once you have done that (or if the tabs are missing already) it means that the audio cassette cannot be accidentally taped over. Having an open hole prevents tape players from engaging their taping mechanisms. (If you ever want to record again, just apply some tape to cover the hole.)

Tip: Some types of cassette have a slider that you can just move across for protection against accidental over-taping.

2. Connect your tape player to your computer
Now, you will need to insert your audio cassette into your tape player then move the player close to your computer. Because we are going to play the tape into the computer through a cable.

To do that we simply run a 1/8th inch stereo audio connector from your tape player's headphones' jack to the "line-in", "audio-in" or "mic" port on your computer. (If you can't see it, take a look at the back of your computer.)

Once connected, your clever computer will then be able to convert the analog audio signals to digital signals and write a file.

Tip: If you have a choice, use the best quality tape player you have. The smaller, portable, battery-powered tape players have a tendency to snag your tape.

3. Open up your audio editing software
If you don't have any audio editing software installed, then you may want to try the free program "Audacity".

Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.

Over here at Your Story Here Family History Video, we use Apple's Soundtrack Pro to import our family history audio.

Tip: Take the time to set your "preferences" so that the files that you create on transfer end up somewhere that you can easily find them!

Whatever software you choose, check the settings to make sure that the program knows which port to listen to. Some computers, for example, have a digital input and an analog input and you may need to tell the computer which one you wish to select (the latter).

Once selected, press the record button on the software then press play on the tape player and stand back!

4. Check your recording levels
Actually, rather than standing back, you may want to lean in. Because now you will want to check to make sure the sound levels don't go into the red. If they do, it means that your recording levels are too high and you will get clipping and distortion.

Similarly, if you notice that your audio waveform is cut off - shown on the right as the green graph - then you should adjust your recording levels down. And the reverse if the graph looks too flat.

Take your time. There will almost certainly be some trial and error involved. Don't be afraid to scrap the session and start over.

5. Clean up the audio
Most family history audio recordings I have transferred over the years have come with a lot of static and background noise. In truth, there is just not a whole lot that can be done with compromised audio.

Your audio editing software should let you do some basic noise cleanup though. You should, for example, be able to set a "noise print" then adjust the parameters to minimize the sounds occurring in that range. The price for this "fix" can be some distortion, so don't go overboard.


Tip: If the audio is just too hard to understand due to noise - or due to accents maybe - and you are planning to use the audio in a family history video, go ahead and use it anyway - but provide subtitles when you do the video editing.

6. Break your audio into tracks
OK, this is where things get exciting. Now you have the family history audio file, you can start to make some sense of it.

Give the audio a careful listen, then decide where you want to break it up. If the recording was of a series of questions and answers, then the start of each question is an obvious break point.

Use your audio editing software to cut the tracks into manageable portions. If you have the Quicktime player, you can also cut audio into tracks with it, using the "trim" command.

I normally use Final Cut Pro to edit my raw audio into tracks - even though it's really for video. Maybe I'm just more used to it than Soundtrack Pro (which seems to involve more steps to achieve the same effect). In Final Cut, it's just a matter of setting "in" points and "out" points then exporting to a folder as an AIFF file.

Tip: Try to use descriptive, engaging, even amusing, titles for your tracks. These names will be the "song titles" when you come to burn a CD.

7. Make an audio CD in iTunes
Ever made an audio CD - your kids know how even if you don't! It's very simple: Open up iTunes, import your audio tracks (File > Add to Library) create a play list of your imported tracks (File > New Playlist - then drag the songs into the empty window) and finally: File > Burn Playlist to Disk.

Tip: You will be burning your tracks to a CD, which holds around 770MB of data, so if you have too much audio you will need to either re-export it with greater compression or just create a second playlist and a second CD.

For the advanced player, iTunes has an option whereby you submit your track names to their data base (Advanced > Submit CD Track Names) and whenever someone imports your CD into their iTunes library, the names drop in (Advanced > Get Track Names).

Now, if you still have energy after that, make yourself a CD case insert!