I have a 50 year old cassette recording of a radio advert that I would like to digitise for posterity - my father’s first ever attempt at drumming up retail customers!
I have an '80s Technics cassette deck with 2x phono outputs, a variety of phono leads, including one that ends in a male 3.5mm jack, and a female 3.5mm to USB-C converter. I have downloaded Audacity but I can’t seem to get the audio in to my iMac - I suspect it is something to do with the leads but I may be wrong.
Going from 2x phono > 3.5mm male > 3.5mm female > usb-C > iMac doesn’t work. The iMac does not have a dedicated audio in socket.
Any ideas how I might sort this out? Could I use my SN3 &/or Mu-so2 as intermediaries, and if so how?
It’s a shame if your IMAC doesn’t have a 3.5mm Microphone input. That used to be something that all Macs had, and would have been ideal for your purposes.
Provided you are sure that the Cassette Deck is outputting a signal and it getting to the 3.55mm jack on the interconnect, then you should be OK there.
You’ll need a compatible A-D unit to connect to the USB-C port. You could then use Audacity.
What exactly is the 3.5mm to USB-C unit you mention? I suspect this may be the issue? You can check in your Sound settings - look for the device in the Input tab.
Not sure if this link will get through forum filters or not, but it is one of these UGREEN USB C to 3.5mm jack DAC Headphone adaptor
It says it supports a microphone as well as headphones, which is why I chose it. The cassette deck is working - the output “graphic equaliser” bars are doing their thing, and when plugged in to the AUX input on my KEF LSX the sound does come through.
Equally could you maybe play the audio on the Technics over your speakers and use a sound recording app on a Smartphone eg Voice memos on iPhone or similar on Android?
Amazon have something called " UGREEN USB to 3.5mm Jack Audio Adapter External Sound Card USB Aux TRRS Headphone Microphone DAC Converter Compatible with PC Laptop PS5 PS4 Switch Raspberry Pi 400 Mac Windows Linux Headset Earphone"
This acts as a headphone output or Mic input - <£10
(for other options, search Amazon for “usb mic input”)
That may do the job, but it may also be what you have already. Have you tried using it, then see if you can select it in Audacity?
Managed to pick up one of those Reshow cassette players on the Warehouse store for £16.36 & it has worked perfectly for what I needed, so thanks very much!
