Hi guys,

I have around 300 cassette tapes I would like to copy from cassette tape to my laptop. I have looked across many forums where no two suggestions are the same so have been left a bit confused.

After reading a recommendation in the past I decided to buy a Technics RS-BX501 Stereo Cassette deck that I could then connect directly to my laptop and use Spin-It-Again software. I have done this and I am able to record music cassettes and cassettes with my friends conversations on them. The problem is that the volume coming through sounds as though it's at full volume and therefore the sound can get distorted, for example laughter on conversations sounds particularly eerie. I've tried adjusting things on the software but it makes no difference. I would like the recordings to sound like they did on the cassette as they have a big sentimental value attached.

I'm not an expert at this and am under the assumption I must by an amp to adjust the volume coming out of the cassette deck. I'm just a bit hesitant at the moment as I have already spent £65 and don't want to keep spending money on things I might not need.

I've been looking through this forum and you all sound extremely knowledgable so would appreciate any advice you can give in order for me to get the best quality.

Many thanks

Hi Adam,

It sounds to me that your input levels are too high. Buying an amplifier won't cure this so keep your money in your pocket.

You need to adjust Windows Mixer. You can find this by clicking the speaker icon in your taskbar or going to (in Vista) Control Panel > Sound. Here you should have a window open with 3 tabs. Click the Recording tab and double click your input. This might be Line-In for example. In this window there are some more tabs. Click on the Levels tab. There is a slider in here. What is it currently set to? If it's up at 100 try reducing it to 50 then do another tape copy and play it back. This should cure the destortion but sound quiet on the recording. To boost the volume back to line level you will have to adjust the input input level on your recording software, not Windows Mixer.

Do a few test runs experimenting with different levels and see how you get on.

Thanks MJB, it's a relief knowing I should already have what I need. I'll try everything you have suggested and let you know how I get on.

Last night I gave it another go. I changed the microphone line in volume from 50, down to 20,10, 1 and no success, I then set it to zero and what do you know it worked! When I think about it when I used to tape record voices years ago I used to have to put the volume to zero otherwise there would be a hum in the background so it now makes sense.

The only thing now is that it is a bit quieter than I expected so tonight I will experiment with the volume settings on Spin It Again, I had a quick look last night but couldn't find anything.

To be honest even if I don't find a way of adjusting the volume I'm just happy I can now finally copy my cassette tapes to my laptop.

Thanks again for your advice, it saved me spending money on things I didn't need

Can you mute the microphone input, there's usually a check box for this, and then try increasing the line-in level if you have one. Sometimes laptops, and some sound cards, have a single input socket for different uses. See Flexijack.

At least, as you say, you can now get some sort of recording which is a start.

If you can't enhance the volume from the software or the mixer you could use a freeware audio editor like Audacity and boost it that way.