# Converting cassette tapes to my iPod **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 18, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340 "2011-11-18T14:28:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/21 "2011-11-19T19:49:18Z")
Many years ago I used Audacity and a feed from my satellite TV music channels to record songs and convert them to MP3. They thoughtfully left quiet spots between songs. I could hit record, acquire a few songs. The visual display on Audacity allowed me to see where the quiet spots were to chop the file. I could trim off the silent spots at either end, and even set a “ramp up” so the music did not start abruptly. I could “amplify” the song to use the full range of the digital audio. Then, convert the song to MP3 from WAV. Basically, what you want to do except with a satellite input. Nowadays, the capacity is far better than my old Win98 16MB system; I could probably record a whole album at one shot to WAV. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/22 "2011-12-31T18:51:59Z")
Back again. Sometimes I think it’s not so much a matter of my being old, I just don’t think I am terribly bright. OK: I got the Encore Technology USB Cassette Converter and hooked it all up, like Colin Clive in _Frankenstein_. I put a 90-minute cassette in and thus far recorded it onto the \*\*Audacity \*\*program, which I installed onto my computer. So far, so good. Then the manual says in order to export and save to MP3 or WAV (they suggest MP3), you install the “ **lame.enc.dll** ” thingie, which I did. Then on the Audacity program, you highlight “each song” by clicking and dragging–but how am I to tell where each song is in this 90-minute file format? One doesn’t seem to be able to listen as one clicks and drags. So I wound up clicking and dragging over the whole 90-minute tape (15 minutes with my finger on the mouse, afraid to sneeze). Now I am exporting that file onto my desktop as a big chunk o’ MP3, and I hope I will somehow be able to figure out how to get it into iTunes and thereby my iPod. I’ll just label the whole cassette, not song by song, and skip ahead while listening to it on my iPod, I guess. There must be an easier way–I don’t see any way of sub-dividing the tape into songs as I am . . . what? Recording? Importing? Exporting? The manual is no help. Oh, _dear_. I \*knew \*I should have married that Italian fellow back in the '80s, he would know how to do this. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/23 "2011-12-31T21:22:28Z")
I actually managed to get the music from my cassette into my computer, onto iTunes and then onto my iPod. I am so proud and startled by that accomplishment that I don’t mind too much that it is all one big hunk o’ music per cassette tape. I can just skip backward or forward on my iPod while listening it I choose. I mean, you can’t skip ahead from song to song on a cassette tape, either, so it’s six of one, half-a-dozen of the other. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/24 "2011-12-31T22:00:35Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Then on the Audacity program, you highlight “each song” by clicking and dragging–but how am I to tell where each song is in this 90-minute file format? Here’s a little trick – in your audio software (Audacity), see the waveform (scraggly looking lines going up and down in a big line)? Zoom out so it’s not all crammed into one single, dense line, but bigger so you can see some of the details. ETA if it’s a stereo track you’ll see two waveforms – for left and right channels. You can select both at the same time IIRC, which you’ll want to do when cutting up the track. Then, to find silence (or pretty near silence), just look for where there are very minimal scraggly bumps and valleys – something approaching a straight, flat line. Likely those are spots between tracks. Just select the spots between the flatlines, and either cut or copy, and paste to a new project, OR, export SELECTION as…WAV or MP3 or whatever you want. IMO it’s easier to fine-tune the amount of silence if you copy/cut to a new project each ‘tune,’ but that’s just easier for me to do and maybe you have better control over the mouse than me. It should only really take a few minutes to do this for the whole album/cassette. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/25 "2011-12-31T22:10:02Z")
And what you’ve done is actually a nice accomplishment – I know a lot of people IRL who wouldn’t be able to do what you’ve done, and get listenable results, despite that they claim to be “computer savvy.” Enjoy your tape! (If you want to get fancy you can add little fades and stuff at beginning and ends of tracks, just for fun – you can actually do quite a bit of fun stuff in Audacity for laughs to raw audio tracks). ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/26 "2011-12-31T22:24:21Z")
take a look at [http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Splitting\_a\_recording\_into\_separate\_tracks](http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Splitting_a_recording_into_separate_tracks) with your experience so far and practice you should be able to get what you want. take a cassette that you’ve done and keep practicing to get what you want. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/27 "2011-12-31T22:25:31Z")
If you follow **Jaledin** ’s advice, you can zoom in on the start or end of the selection, then click on the edge of the selection and drag it left or right to fine-tune the selection boundary. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/28 "2011-12-31T22:32:35Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > And what you’ve done is actually a nice accomplishment – I know a lot of people IRL who wouldn’t be able to do what you’ve done, and get listenable results, despite that they claim to be “computer savvy.” Enjoy your tape! Thank you! I am actually quite stunned that I did this much and only screwed up one tape (wasting about 90 minutes, but I saw \*that \*coming). Your other instructions . . . I kind of understand them, but frankly, I think it would take me all weekend to figure them out. I am very smart at several things, but I realize this is \*not \*among them. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/29 "2011-12-31T23:41:24Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Oh, _dear_. I \*knew \*I should have married that Italian fellow back in the '80s, he would know how to do this. By gum we’ve missed you !!! ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/30 "2012-01-01T13:47:43Z")
One question I still have, which is not addressed in the manual or on that website: When highlighting the huge chunk o’ text to import, is there any way to highlight whole whole 90 minutes worth of text at once, rather than \*sloooooowly \*clicking and dragging the cursor from left to right, which involves a good 15 minutes of holding my finger down on the mouse, terrified of sneezing or my finger slipping? I have tried all kinds of right-clicks and holding-down combinations, but nine seemed to do the trick, ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/31 "2012-01-01T14:22:02Z")
Try clicking in the first location, then scrolling over and hold Shift while clicking at the end location. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/32 "2012-01-01T15:04:01Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > Try clicking in the first location, then scrolling over and hold Shift while clicking at the end location. That’s the problem, though: the “scrolling over” takes a good 15-20 minutes of mouse-holding-down. I tried hitting the “start position” and then the “end position” buttons with the mouse held down, but \*that \*didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/33 "2012-01-01T15:10:37Z")
Can any of the keys on your keyboard be used to help in scrolling? Like the “home”, “end”, “page up”, “page down” keys? Or going to the Edit-\>Select All menu option? These are just guesses, I don’t use Audacity. ---
**Author:** ![J-P\_L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/j-p_l/32/3156_2.png) [@J-P\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J-P_L)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/34 "2012-01-01T15:34:17Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > One question I still have, which is not addressed in the manual or on that website: > > When highlighting the huge chunk o’ text to import, is there any way to highlight whole whole 90 minutes worth of text at once, rather than \*sloooooowly \*clicking and dragging the cursor from left to right, which involves a good 15 minutes of holding my finger down on the mouse, terrified of sneezing or my finger slipping? > > I have tried all kinds of right-clicks and holding-down combinations, but nine seemed to do the trick, CTRL-A will select the whole track. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/35 "2012-01-01T15:45:27Z")
> [@J-P\_L](#): > > CTRL-A will select the whole track. I will try that! If it works, I will give you $5 and be your best friend! You should have seen me trying to fold the _Sunday Times_ with one hand while keeping the other on the mouse for 20 minutes . . . ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/36 "2012-01-01T18:51:10Z")
> [@J-P\_L](#): > > CTRL-A will select the whole track. It worked! I love you! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/37 "2012-01-03T00:31:47Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > That’s the problem, though: the “scrolling over” takes a good 15-20 minutes of mouse-holding-down. I tried hitting the “start position” and then the “end position” buttons with the mouse held down, but \*that \*didn’t work. The way to scroll quickly is to grab (click and hold) that little doodad on the scroll bar that shows your position in the file, and then move it where you want it to go. This [picture](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/figures/uiswing/components/scrollbarparts.png) calls the doodad a knob. This is something that can be useful in any Windows program, so I thought you might like to know. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/38 "2012-01-03T03:32:47Z")
There should be a button on the toolbar that looks something like this: \>–\< That will shrink the audio file so all of it is displayed in the window. Another button looks something like this: -\<–\>- That will stretch/shrink the selection to fit the window. Using shift+click works like it does in word processing. Click somewhere to position one end of a selection. Move your cursor somewhere else, press and hold shift, then click on the new position. Everything from the first click to the second click will be selected. ctl+shift+end/home selects to the end/start of the file. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340/39 "2012-01-03T03:44:56Z")
Sorry, each button should have a small magnifying glass above the images I described. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-cassette-tapes-to-my-ipod/603340.md?page=1)