Copy Music From Audio Cassettes?

[fastdude]

I've used Easy VHS for Mac to digitize dozens of video tapes. Now I want to digitize my old collection of music audio cassettes. This seemed straight forward. I connected my audio tape deck to the Roxio USB converter, and used Easy VHS v1.0.5 on my iMac. During recording the music through the iMac speakers sounds normal, BUT on playback in iMovie or QuickTime, the music is messed up: sort of sped up, but in a weird way. In iMovie I slowed playback to 1/2 speed, but that was too slow.

 

Should I be able to record music from audio cassettes? What are the likely problems?

 

If this is not possible, can someone suggest alternative ways to do this?

 

[system: 27" iMac, Late 2013; 3.5GHz; 24GB RAM; 3TB storage; Yosemite 10.10.2]

[tsantee]

That is a feature in the PC version but not the Mac version. Doesn't your Mac have an audio input jack? You can use Quictime Player to record audio connected to the mic/line input.

[fastdude]

No, the newer iMacs do not have audio input jacks. Here's the link to Apple's technical description of my model: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP688?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

 

We have installed Windows on this iMac. I will see if I can download Roxio's Windows software, and try again that way.

[tsantee]

No, the newer iMacs do not have audio input jacks. Here's the link to Apple's technical description of my model: http://support.apple...US&locale=en_US

 

We have installed Windows on this iMac. I will see if I can download Roxio's Windows software, and try again that way.

I don't think the windows software works with the Mac USB stick. I have the Griffin iMic which is a USB audio input for Macs but I don't know if it is sold any more. It came with the Final Vinyl app which Griffin Technology used to have available as a free download. It recorded audio and provided a way to mark and separate tracks.

 

The Easy VHS to DVD 1.0.5 for Mac captures as an MPEG 2 video stream with a fairly low quality MPEG audio stream. It isn't a good choice even if you did extract and convert the audio. It probably is sped up because there wasn't any video recorded with it. You could record video with it and then use MPEG Streamclip to extract and convert just the audio stream, but the quality isn't as good as using something else.

 

You really need a way to get a audio line input connected to the Mac. Someone must sell it. Maybe there are folks selling iMic's on eBay.