I have hundreds of single music titles recorded on 90-minute cassettes, which I play on a “boom box” which has a headphone jack (presumably stereo). I want to record the titles onto files on the computer, a Dell Inspiron 570 Desktop, but the test recording I tried to make today came out blank. Does this require a special patch cord, or something like that?
You can generally go from a headphone output into the line input of a sound card without any problem. If you crank the volume up too loud you could end up damaging the sound card’s input. If you keep the volume around 10 to 25 percent or so it will usually work fine.
I’m assuming that the boom box has a 1/8th inch headphone jack. You can buy cheap 1/8th inch patch cords at walmart and numerous other places. They are commonly used for phones and tablets. Plug it into your computer’s line in, not the mic in. Some sound cards are configurable and use the same jack for both line and mic. In that case, you’ll often have to tell the sound card that you’ve plugged a line in device into it.
Sound cards vary. Some use the Windows sound mixer and some come with their own configuration utility. Generally speaking, you’ll have a set of adjustments for playback and a different set of adjustments for recording. There will also often be a check box that enables or disables each input (often labeled as “mute”). Quite often many of the inputs will be disabled by default for recording, as unused inputs that don’t have anything plugged into them will generate noise and hiss if they aren’t muted.
The sound quality of a cassette sucks. You may not notice it so much on the boom box but after recording it on a computer and listening to it on headphones you may notice a lot of tape hiss and signal distortion, and if the tapes are old you may notice the sound fading in and out from where the tape surface has worn away.
What software are you using?
I use Windows 7. The sound quality on the cassettes (prepared in May 1989) is not an issue; I was able to use separate microphones in front of speakers–a technique that allowed me to add comments and reactions as I went. And I used better-quality tapes, which still play back with very good sound. 
I use Audacity. It works for me.
My laptop didn’t have a line-in port, and the microphone input was awful, so I got a little box that went from the audio output ports of my cassette player/amp to USB. The advantage was that the same thing worked for lps. It came with software for noise reduction. I had a while bunch of valuable cassettes which had been recorded on reel-to-reel about 1970 and converted to cassette in 1980, and I got a very good result on most of them.
I wish it would for me. I downloaded the program and got the Control Panel. What I want to know is why the test recording I made plays back so faint. I see the green bars moving, during the recording process, in the upper right, to show how strong the signal is; but in the left, just below the round control buttons, are the sliding controls for microphone volume (I use a proper patch cord between the headphone jack, the only output on my boom box other than the speaker wire connections) and the speakers. Both go from - to +. What I want to know is how to get proper volume on the recording I make; I’ve played the tape itself and there’s nothing wrong with its own volume.
What is the volume control for the jack you are using set to in the recording properties of your sound card?
This can be tricky & confusing, but you may need to find the **LINE IN **volume slider, not the **MIC **volume slider. You also need to be sure to use the LINE IN jack on your PC, not the MIC jack. The **MIC **jack will be red or pink, the LINE IN will be blue. Once you do this open Windows Control Panel, Sound, Recording, and, here’s a tricky bit, if LINE IN doesn’t appear as a device right-click in the blank space and check both ‘Show Disabled Devices’ and ‘Show Disconnected Devices’ (that drove me nuts for a while). Your LINE IN jack should appear, make sure you then select ‘Use this device (enable)’.
Go back to your audio recording software and select LINE IN as the source there too. You’ll also have to play around with the recording levels in Windows and/or the audio program. Once you get it right it should stay that way though.
Out of curiosity, what would be an example of comments you might add.
Laughs; crying sometimes (in the case of sad or sentimental songs); deliberate obscuring of lyrics (as in the case of “we do as we please” in “In the Summertime” by Mungo Jerry; an exaggerated grunt, in time to the music, in “Where Did Our Love Go” by The Supremes; singing along in a German translation (“Who’s in the Strawberry Patch with Sally”).
They belong to the ages now.
Perhaps, Penfeather, but the last one “Baby Don’t Go” by Sonny & Cher ( I record them in order of my acquaintance of them, not in order of their appearance) was in 1992, and scarcely any have rated my attention since then, with the raspy voices, amplified guitars, heavy drumbeat rhythms, and super-high volume that they tend to feature. At my age (66) I don’t pick up much new stuff anyway.
If you ever get this into a digital format, I would desperately like a copy.
PM me for an email address if you’re successful.
I’ve never even heard of it. Sounds gross.
Wut?
Emails?
What haven’t you heard of?
Maybe he mistook PM for BM?