- #Audio recorder on computer how to#
- #Audio recorder on computer install#
- #Audio recorder on computer full size#
If you are using a handheld tape player then the headphone jack will likely be 1/8 inch and you can plug in directly. Either way you need to plug your tape deck into the 1/8 inch cable that you just plugged into the back of your computer. I usually prefer doing it from a full sized tape deck because then you have more options such as noise cancelling.
#Audio recorder on computer full size#
You can record to your computer from either a full size tape deck or from a small hand held tape player.
#Audio recorder on computer how to#
Because these are the most common I will show you how to record from them first. The thing that you are most likely to record is probably cassette tapes. This is because if you try to record from speaker outputs you may blow up your sound card and you don't want to do that. You always want to record from the headphone jack. If your recording source has a 1/8 inch headphone connector you don't need to use the adapter. If the source that you are recording from has 1/4 inch headphone jack then you will want to plug the adapter into the end of your cable that isn't plugged into your computer. Position the other end of your cable so that you can reach it from the front of your computer. Now plug in one end of your 1/8 inch cable into this red jack, it doesn't matter which end. There may be a small picture that is supposed to look something like microphone or the letters mic next to the red jack. The red jack is for a microphone or some other kind of input.
The only jack that we are interested in is the red jack. They may or may not be labeled but they should be color coded. You should see 3 to 9 round jacks towards the middle of your computer they may be next to a large yellow plug that looks kind of like a monitor plug. Now take a look at the back of your computer. Once you have your cable and adapter you are ready to plug them into your computer. The only time that you need the adapter is if you are recording from a tape deck or a turntable that has a 1/4 inch output jack. You should be able to get both of these at Radioshack for a couple of dollars. Please refer to the pictures to see what the cable and adapter look like. You will probably only have to get two parts for this: Now that you have the recording software installed you need to set up your hardware for recording. Once you have Audacity and LAME installed we are ready to move on. The reason for LAME is that the MP3 file format is proprietary so free/open-source software can't use it without a plugin.įor instruction on installing the LAME plugin go to this page:
#Audio recorder on computer install#
After you install it you can start using right away if you want, but in order to do anything with MP3 files you will have to install a plug in. Either way download the install file to your desktop and then double click it to start the installation.
However, if you have Windows Vista or Windows 7 you will have to download the more recent beta version. I would recommend you get the older version because it is more stable and has been tested more. You will find the download button about halfway down the page. To do this we first have to download two software packages. We won't get into any of the special effects, what we are going to do is record audio from almost any source. I like to use this software because not only will it allow you to record, but you can also edit what you have recorded, and you can use all sorts of special effects. The piece of software I like to use is called Audacity. Now to do all of this we are going to need some software.