Old 03-11-2020, 10:42 AM   #1
Burnsjethro
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Default Ripping cassettes to Reaper

Sorry I have looked all over for this and have found very little that is clear on the subject.

I have hooked a cassette player to my PC and I now want to digitalise some cassette recordings prior to burning them to a CD.

What settings do I have to use in Reaper? I am sure I saw thread on this subject here in the forums but a search failed to turn it up.

Would it be easier to do this in Audacity?
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Old 03-11-2020, 11:37 AM   #2
serr
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An old post on the topic:
https://forum.cockos.com/showpost.ph...49&postcount=9

It's more centered around the analog signal handling and dialing in the tape deck to the tape. Reaper is full featured for audio handling. The transfer in is one of those critical steps where if it's garbage in you get garbage out.
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Old 03-11-2020, 11:52 AM   #3
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you can surely do this in Reaper. The workflow depends on your specific needs and aims. You could simply record the entire content of side A as a single file, then flip the sides and start a second recording pass for side B. As the recording format, you may wanna choose between Wave, MP3 or a losslessly compressed format like FLAC or WavPack.

Instead of recording entire sides of the cassette you may prefer to record each track separately into its own file (in the desired format). If you plan to do further editing or sound processing, you should choose one of the lossless recording formats like Wave, AIFF, FLAC, WavPack. This will ensure that no sonic details will get lost during post-processing. You can still render the processed file(s) into a lossy format, if desired, to save disk space or to make them compatible with a specific media player or device. I find WavPack very convenient to archive important material at full 24 bit capturing resolution. For less critical material I'd capture it as Wave but would later convert it to high-bitrate AAC/M4A (using fre:ac). AAC/M4A seems to suffer from less audible artifacts at a given compression rate.

To streamline the process, I'd capture both sides of the cassette entirely as one Wave file (so I could do something else during the capture process of each side). Then, I'd slice the captured file(s) into tracks (trimming and fadeing them carefully). I'd then create regions for each separate track and name those regions according to the "Artist - Title" labelling scheme. Finally, I'd use region rendering to consolidate and name all files in one go.

Set your recording levels carefully!

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Old 03-11-2020, 12:11 PM   #4
Burnsjethro
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Thanks very much for the answers. The quality is not so important. I intend to record it as one long file to start with and then take the parts worth saving.

However, where do I start? Do I have to adjust the input settings in Reaper, preferences.

As I say, all I have done so far is to hook the cassette up to the PC.

The link you gave me, Serr, talks about quality but does not say how to set up Reaper.
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Old 03-11-2020, 03:56 PM   #5
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as for any other recording, you will have to set up your audio interface (choose the input channels, determin a sample rate and bit depth) and have that audio interface selected in the Reaper's audio device menu, making sure that Reaper uses the same sample rate and bit depth (preferably by choosing ASIO as the audio interface driver). Project settings also have to match in terms of sample rate. Also in project settings, you can determin your prefered audio recording format. As mentioned before, it's recommended to choose an uncompressed audio format like Wave, Aiff, FLAC or WavPack. Uncompressed means that every bit your interface sends to Reaper will get saved in the recorded file (thus no data compression associated with quality loss will take place). FLAC and WavPack are both capable of reducing file size without altering the audio quality whatsoever (same as what zip does to data).

On the other hand, lossy audio formats (or codecs) like MP3 will reduce file size by lossily compressing the audio data (removing subtle details which you are not supposed to perceive anyway), resulting in smaller files that are also lower in quality/fidelity and that loss in quality can never be recovered. Hence, lossy audio formats are generally not recommended for capturing unless small file sizes are a requirement and not sound quality.

Recommended quality settings in your interface and/or Reaper are at least 48kHz for the sample rate and 24 bit for the bit depth. Higher values are subject to extremely controversial debate! They certainly won't harm quality but their benefit is uncertain. Higher sample rates and bit depths certainly require considerably more disk space. My personal (professional) experience is that there's very little to be gained with regard to quality by going beyond the parameters I mentioned earlier even if you own a multi-thousand dollar high-end audio interface. Even cheaper interfaces will yield decent results when it comes to digitizing audio cassettes.

If you give us more details about your system (operating system, type of audio interface, etc.) we will be able to give you even more detailed advice.

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Old 03-12-2020, 03:56 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Burnsjethro View Post
Would it be easier to do this in Audacity?
You can also do it with Audacity. Which audio editor you
use is not that important.

It is only important that you do not overdrive the input
of your audio interface.
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Old 03-12-2020, 05:17 AM   #7
Burnsjethro
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Thanks for everybody's help.
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