How to Transfer Cassettes to Laptops

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Transfer your old cassettes to your laptop.

As time marches on, media formats that can't keep up with the demands of the times are left behind. Audio cassettes are one of these. These days, most music is either stored on a computer, an Mp3 player or CDs. But often, people don't like giving up old tunes they can't find online, and want to transfer them to a more permanent format, like their laptop hard drive. It may also be that they have non-music related tapes, such as recorded remembrances from now deceased family members that they don't want to lose.

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Step 1

Insert one end of a double ended 3.5mm audio cable into the headphone output of a cassette player. Insert the other end into the mic input on your laptop.

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Step 2

Start your laptop. Go the programs and under “Accessories” choose “Sound Recorder.” All computer operating systems come equipped with this software, so you won't need to go out and separately purchase it.

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Step 3

Insert the cassette into the player and push down the play button. Immediately hit the “Record” button in the “Sound Recorder” dialog. Let the cassette play out. Then hit the “Pause” button on the “Sound Recorder.”

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Step 4

Select “File” from the menu and choose “Save.” In the dialog box, name the file and save it as a WMA file.

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Step 5

Continue to play, record and save each song or clip that you would like to convert to a digital format. Clips thus converted and stored can be played on your computer using Windows Media Player.

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