Recording From Radio

[Lord Brett]

With audio cassettes becoming increasingly difficuilt to find, can anyone suggest an alternative for recording radio broadcasts, and for playing when on the move.



Is minidisc a viable option, or is this also liable to be dead technology soon?

[Tom Bancroft]

This may be a bit convoluted and you'll have to spend a few bob.



There are now USB turntables on the market that can convert vinyl records to CD. You plug the turntable into your computer, save the tracks you want to your hard disc and then copy them to a blank CD in your computer's CD drive.



They used to be priced around £150, but now the initial rush has subsided, they are becoming more reasonable - around £70 (and maybe cheaper on e-bay).



What will interest you is the fact that you can also connect a cassette player to the turntable and copy your tape to the computer and then burn it to the CD in the same way as described above. Once you've done this, you can use the cassette again for your next recording session.



There is also a method whereby you can download ('Audacity') software from the internet onto your computer and connect your cassette via it's headphone socket directly to the microphone input of your computer, which of course saves you having to buy the USB turntable, but I can't vouch for this method having never tried it.



CD's will preumably be available for a while and you probably have a CD player or a DVD player already.

[autolycus]

There is also a method whereby you can download ('Audacity') software from the internet onto your computer and connect your cassette via it's headphone socket directly to the microphone input of your computer, which of course saves you having to buy the USB turntable, but I can't vouch for this method having never tried it.

This is essentially the method i use for converting my vinyl, although i use the headphone socket on the amplifier to the line-in on the PC.



I really don't see why this simple method should not work, and all you need is a mini jack/mini jack lead. Possibly a jack/mini jack adaptor if you're coming from an amp rather than a radio. Cost: maybe a fiver in total.



I think you just need to make sure that you connect up at very low volume to sart with otherwise you run the risk of blowing the PC sound card. You could then easily use audacity to produce mp3s to upload to an inexpensive mp3 player, or burn cds as Tom has suggested.

[Fellwanderer]

name='Tom Bancroft']This may be a bit convoluted and you'll have to spend a few bob.



There are now USB turntables on the market that can convert vinyl records to CD. You plug the turntable into your computer, save the tracks you want to your hard disc and then copy them to a blank CD in your computer's CD drive.



They used to be priced around £150, but now the initial rush has subsided, they are becoming more reasonable - around £70 (and maybe cheaper on e-bay).



What will interest you is the fact that you can also connect a cassette player to the turntable and copy your tape to the computer and then burn it to the CD in the same way as described above. Once you've done this, you can use the cassette again for your next recording session.



There is also a method whereby you can download ('Audacity') software from the internet onto your computer and connect your cassette via it's headphone socket directly to the microphone input of your computer, which of course saves you having to buy the USB turntable, but I can't vouch for this method having never tried it.



CD's will preumably be available for a while and you probably have a CD player or a DVD player already.

Connecting a cassette via the headphone socket to your pc line-in or laptop microphone input and downloading to Audacity to transfer to cd or mp3 works a treat. I haven't tried with vinyl but would assume that there should be no problem there either.



PM if you want full details.

[rbrooks2008]

You could also record from a cheap tv PCI card (after making sure you have a free slot in your computer). The ones I've used have had a stereo phono output which you would normally plug via a short cable, into your pc card via the line input. There was also another socket to connect a VHF stereo radio aerial.



With the Hauppauge card I had, there was bundled (and site downloadable) software which included a radio set with timer to record broadcasts straight to your hard drive. Trim the start and end resultant sound file as mentioned above and either dump to CD or MP3 player.



TV and Radio on your PC

[johng]

If you do not wish to involve the PC you could always buy a CD recorder (hifi type) and then copying is no more difficult than with a cassette.



I use mini discs. I doubt if they will go obsolete in the near future since they have the advantage over other methods in as much as you can edit what you have recorded right down to a single note of music if you wish! You cannot edit at all with a CD recorder. Mini discs are also reusable. The disadvantage is that you cannot play them in your car if that is what you meant by saying "on the move"

[Bernardo]

With a DVD recorder and freeview/freesat/sky you can record the radio programmes listed. Software such as Magix will rip the sound and the file is available for burning.

[Nick Dando]

I'm more than happy with Minidisc. Sony still seems to support it and the players and recorders are still available new. You can use 80 minute discs and they can record up to 320 minutes of sound, should you wish to use a lower level of quality. The great thing with MD is that you can edit the recordings relatively easily and with a good deal of accuracy. It allows you to remove the unnecessary introductions and over runs from radio broadcasts, the gaps between tracks on records, etc. And with a simple electronic timer, I can make recording when I'm at work. These editing tools aren't available for CD-R.



MiniDisc players : Home Theatre and hi fi : Sony : United Kingdom



And there are plenty on eBay, so if it breaks (which hasn't happened to me), then another can be picked up cheaply.



minidisc recorder, Consumer Electronics, Musical Instruments, Music items at low prices on eBay.co.uk



There is another form of recording audio, but it is considerably more expensive. The solid state recorders from Nagra are the kind of machines that Chris Watson uses to capture sounds from nature. Some of these boxes are at the vicious end of the market, as they are primarily aimed at professional sound recordists.



Nagra - Professional Audio



For an idea of prices, have a look at eBay.



nagra -parminder -punjabi -daljit -panjabi -paraminder -hindi -beckham, Consumer Electronics, Musical Instruments, Photography items at low prices on eBay.co.uk



Nick

[Lord Brett]

Sorry to be a while replying, as I've been away from the computers for a few days.



Thaks for all your suggestions - the one about passing cassettes through a USB enabled turntable is especially interetsing, as I'm planning to get one of those sometime soon.

[Lord Brett]

name='johng']Mini discs are also reusable. The disadvantage is that you cannot play them in your car if that is what you meant by saying "on the move"

I've got an adaptor which goes from the earphone jack of my mp3 player to my car cassette player - I was thinking I could use the same gadget with a minidisc player.

[narabdela]

name='Bernardo']With a DVD recorder and freeview/freesat/sky you can record the radio programmes listed. Software such as Magix will rip the sound and the file is available for burning.

That's what I do. Dead easy.

[Fellwanderer]

name='Lord Brett']Sorry to be a while replying, as I've been away from the computers for a few days.



Thaks for all your suggestions - the one about passing cassettes through a USB enabled turntable is especially interetsing, as I'm planning to get one of those sometime soon.

If that's with the intention of transferring to cd or mp3, a simple lead is a much, much cheaper option.

[Lord Brett]

name='Fellwanderer']If that's with the intention of transferring to cd or mp3, a simple lead is a much, much cheaper option.

It's a thought - do you have a link to some details of audacity?

[Fellwanderer]

name='Lord Brett']It's a thought - do you have a link to some details of audacity?

I bought the cable from this site:



Welcome to Vinyl-2-PC.co.uk



I could have probably got it cheaper somewhere like Maplins but it came with Audacity on a cd and very detailed instructions so I considered it worth the extra.



All I had to do was install Audacity, make the appropriate settings, connect the cassette recorder to the pc via the cable, start Audacity and play the cassette.

[Gazza]

name='Lord Brett']It's a thought - do you have a link to some details of audacity?

Here you go LB - I've used Audacity for a long time and it's easy and reliable



Audacity



You'll also need to download the Lame MP3 decoder which enables you to export files as MP3



Lame MP3

[julian_craster]

You can record to SD card (in MP2 only) on the 'Bug' digital radio ......4 hours or more uninterrupted recording, then transfer the recording to PC, convert it to MP3 to burn to CD/DVDR........

[Lord Brett]

name='julian_craster']You can record to SD card (in MP2 only) on the 'Bug' digital radio ......4 hours or more uninterrupted recording, then transfer the recording to PC, convert it to MP3 to burn to CD/DVDR........

Thanks everyone agaion for their suggestions. I've been showing everyone at work the site Fellwanderer recommended, which will be great for transferring vinyl and cassettes.



The Bug sounds very interesting for future recordings.

[Tom Bancroft]

This has got to have been the most comprehensive set of advice and suggestions I have ever seen on the H.E.E. forums.



I guess LB's head might be spinning with the various ideas - but he now has plenty of options!

[Fellwanderer]

name='Lord Brett']Thanks everyone agaion for their suggestions. I've been showing everyone at work the site Fellwanderer recommended, which will be great for transferring vinyl and cassettes.



The Bug sounds very interesting for future recordings.

Glad to have been of help. I haven't had cause to try vinyl2cd yet but it should be just as straightforward.



The only thing I didn't get on with was the InfraRed open source cd writing application so used Nero as I had that. Now that I'm more familiar with things, I'll try InfraRed again - it was probably just me .

[julian_craster]

I have been using the Bug Two DAB radio (available at Amazon UK) and have not had any problems with it.



Re: the Bug radio



* the speakers are small, so the bass sound is is thin



* use a standard Sandisk SD card [some other makes do not work with the Bug]



* do not use a larger capacity card than 1.0 GB, which should give 4 hours uninterrupted recording



* avoid the more recent 'high speed' SD cards - they may not work....



Recordings are in MP2 format. This will play directly on a PC using the Windows player, but you will need a program to convert this to MP3 if you wish to play recordings on other portable players. Both MP2 and MP3 can be saved to CDR or DVDR