My dad has made some awesome cassette story tapes and I'd love to immortalize them onto a CD. I have a CD burner on my current computer but know *very little* about the technology.

I know there's a way to do it, my dad has a setup where he can make CD's from cassettes. I'd have to ask him for the details, since I have no clue how it works! I will try to remember to ask him about it and get back to you with info if you'd like.

That would be awesome! I saw a month or so ago that Target was offering the service through Kodak but quite honestly don't want to let those treasured tapes out of our site!

You need connect your Cassette player to your computer as an input device. The easiest way would be to get a mini to mini cord (about $3 at Radio Shack,) connect it from the headphone out of the cassete player to the mic input of the computer. You could use different connectors, depending on the outputs and inputs you have, but you get the idea.

HTH

-Melissa

Oh wow!!! Thank you, thank you! We have a Radio Shack and I love having an excuse to go in there. I'm fascinated by technological gizmos although we don't have many. ;) I'm going to hope they know how to do what I'm asking. Woohooo!!!

No problem, I used to do the same thing in reverse to copy my MP3s onto my Minidisc player. It's really easy.

Good luck,
Melissa

I'm back from Radio Shack. LOL!!! I have the cable and need to figure out if any of my cassette players have the right output thingy. They suggested an "auxiliary" spot rather than the earphone so the volume was set at the same level (or something like that). LOL.

While you're helping me, can I ask you one more thing? I've got an older cassette boom box (and a new one but the new one is pretty much trapped in a cabinet nowhere near the computer) that's kind of noisy. I'm thinking that exterior noise (like mechanical noise of turning the tape) would *not* be captured through a direct connection to my computer. Would that be an accurate thought on my part? LOL

Thats right, the mechanical noises shouldn't come through. They were right about the auxiliary output if you've got one.

-Melissa

Okay so now I have everything plugged in and the cable in place and am stumped. LOL. I go to the CD burner program and there's no option for anything other than what it can see on the "explore" menu thing. ??? How do I get the tape to talk to the CD? Anyone? ;)

Now you just need your software to recognize what's coming into the mic jack and allow you to record it. If your current software won't do that, try cnet downloads (http://www.cnet.com/downloads) you can probably find something there to do the job and it might save you a trip to the computer store.

-melissa

Thanks again! I now realize that my software just isn't set up to know what to do with a cassette tape. I'm leaving for vacation on Saturday but will work on finding a bargain source of software that will let me do what I'm trying to do.

Thanks so much for your patience with an obviously clueless computer operator. ;) I appreciate your help! BTW--card to grandma went out on Saturday. I hope she's doing okay.