The Project of Massiveness Begins

[gemfyre]

I spent $5 on eBay and bought a 3mm male-to-male stereo plug. I downloaded a free program called Audacity.

Now I can rip cassettes to my computer. That part has worked, much to my delight.

Have now hit a hiccup. I can't figure out how to split these wav files up into separate songs. Anyone know how to do it on Audacity or know of a good free program that will do it (I kinda need to just play the track, hit "start" when a song begins, then hit "end" when that song is over and save that part as the song.) A lot of these tapes are full of stuff recorded off the radio, so the delineation between tracks isn't clear unless you listen to them.

Next step after that is converting to MP3, which I'm guessing should be relatively easy.

This will be a BIG job (I have about 7 drawersful of cassettes), but it will be awesome to be able to listen to all that old stuff again and not have to worry about any further loss of quality.

Comments

[rdmasters.livejournal.com]

Audacity can split files - you select a region, and then save the region.

I can show you sometime, if you like. I'm having to do the same thing with ripping my vinyl.

[stawberi.livejournal.com]

I use a program called WavePad. A trial version is free and whole versions are available through alternative means. All you do is cut away the parts that aren't one song and then "save as". Then go again for the next song.

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

Did you look at the wiki at the sourceforge site?

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Splitting_recordings_into_separate_tracks looks like it might have what you need.

[aurickandrien.livejournal.com]

I think that you click and drag along the track to make a selection and then go File->Export Selection As ...

You can add labels along the track if you like - to help yourself find the ends of things - just go Ctrl+M at the desired point as the track plays.

You can click and drag the ends of a selection if it's not quite right.

[just-the-ash.livejournal.com]

Link to what you bought, please? I have some perfectly cromulent Grateful Dead shows on cassette just sitting there waiting for conversion.

Edit: Is there some additional bit of hardware necessary, or do non-Mac computers commonly come with 3mm ports just sitting there like that?

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

You need this site - http://www.andybrain.com/archive/convert-cassette-to-cd-digital.htm

I had to buy the cord specified, but you may have one laying around.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Doesn't let me. Every selection that seems like it may be useful is greyed out.

[lsdiamond.livejournal.com]

My preferred method of doing this is GoldWave - it's free, though it does beg you to pay for it fairly often. VERY easy to use, and lots of useful things like noise reduction and fixes for pops and hiss.

It can also convert straight to MP3 (I believe it downloads the codec for you when you attempt to save as mp3 for the first time.)

If you can't find the proggie anywhere, I'll email you a copy. ^_^

[ahrian.livejournal.com]

I use Cool Edit Pro to modify wav files.