Digitizin'

[atilla]

At my band rehearsals, the drummer has been recording us with a four-track to get some ideas for new tunes down. So now I've got a cassette tape that I need to convert to digital. My only "boom box"-type thing only has a headphone out. Could I run a line from the headphone out to my soundcard's line it, or will be the signal be too weak?

Any other ideas how to get this from the tape and into my computer?

[sully]

that will work, sir. there's a neat (and free) program called audacity that can help you with this. i'm pretty sure there's a windows version of it as well.

sully

[atilla]

Thanks, Sully! Yep, I have Audacity. I've used it as a scratch pad for some riff ideas before. Definitely a solid piece of free software!

[texasfury]

........

[Ace]

Maybe record a sharp percussive hit across all four tracks at the start and end to use as a visual waveform guide for lining the tracks up.

That works well. When I work with a drum machine I put an 8 count lead at the front of the drum tracks, then when I overdub I match the last 4 count with my guitar or whatever and use that as a sync point so I can edit the drums and then line them up later.