Digital Bits Technology Column QnA

Question:

What’s the solution for high-speed dubbing of cassette tapes to digital format (mp3)?  My tape player can play the tapes at high speeds. Do you know of a software will will record at high speeds but then save and playback in normal speeds?

Answer:

I document it pretty well on my web page (http://www.andybrain.com/archive/convert-cassette-to-cd-digital.htm and search for the word “dubbing”). You just record with the high-speed dubbing feature on your player turned on, then slow down the resulting recording:

It’s easy with Audacity. First select the section of audio you want to slow down. In your case, you’ll select the entire audio stream since you want to slow the whole thing down. (In the Edit menu, choose Select, then All.)

Then click the Effects menu, and choose Change Speed. You’ll have to experiment (use the “Preview” tool) to find the right number to slow your recording, but once you find that number you can use it in the future for when you want to slow down tapes recorded at high speed.

Other articles related to this topic:

• Cassette tape high speed dubbing
• VHS to DVD high speed dubbing
• VHS to DVD recording speed recommendation
• Audacity recording is too quiet
• VHS to DVD conversion questions