Converting audio tape to CD

As mentioned on a couple of occasions recently, I've had to do this a few times now, both for unique live music tapes and family archive interviews. The following method has given me good results and is very easy, albeit somewhat time-consuming.

First off, get yourself a copy of Rogue Amoeba's US$16 utility Audio Hijack (Ambrosia's free WireTap might also work, but it crashed when I tried it). Plug the output from your tape deck into your Mac's line-in port.

Next you'll need an app called LineIn, which is included with the US$32 Audio Hijack Pro. Download the trial version of Audio Hijack Pro and install it. Find the Audio Hijack Pro application icon and control-click it. Choose Show Package Contents. Browse through Contents/Resources and find the LineIn app. Copy it to your Applications folder. You can delete Audio Hijack Pro now if you like.

Fire up LineIn and press play on your tape deck. You should now hear the tape through your Mac speakers. Launch Audio Hijack, select LineIn as the application to be hijacked and click Hijack. Click Record and start playing the tape at the same time. Audio Hijack will now be recording an AIFF file onto your desktop. This is a realtime process, so if your tape is 45 minutes long, recoridng it onto your Mac will take 45 minutes.

Optional: Once you have finished recording what you want, use QuickTime Player to cut the AIFF into tracks (QT Pro required). Save each one as a dependent file.

Optional: Use Bias' excellent SoundSoap to remove all the tape hiss from the AIFF file(s). This application is expensive (US$99), but the difference it makes to non-musical recordings is astounding. Note: to save yourself a lot of sitting around and clicking, you may prefer to run the entire AIFF track through SoundSoap before cutting it up into tracks.

Drop the AIFF(s) into iTunes. Arrange as a playlist. If necessary, open up the iTunes preferences and assign a value of 0 seconds as the gap between songs. Burn.

Edit: Don't forget to delete the AIFFs from iTunes' library afterwards. A 90 minute tape converted to AIFF will fill up around a gigabyte.

Related entries

The Land of Ogg - 15 July 2004
Ogg and the Music Man - 7 September 2004
Encoding for SmartMovie - 23 May 2004
RealVideo to SmartMovie - 26 August 2004
Real Mplayer - 9 October 2004
Full screen video on the P800 - 21 May 2004
Audio Hijack Pro & 10.3.5 - 11 August 2004
YA iPod Killer - 9 December 2004
iPod killer - 9 December 2004

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