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What are you using to play cassettes?

  Tags: Vintage | Gadget
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
37 messages over 5 pages: 13 4 5  Next >>
DavidW
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
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Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese, German, Urdu

 
 Message 10 of 37
08 June 2011 at 5:49am | IP Logged 
If the tapes are not especially valuable, you can use them
as is. With a suitable player, they still have a few
advantages over digital devices, although they are quite
bulky if you have a lot of them. The Sony tcm 150 or 200
are good portable players for language study.
1 person has voted this message useful



liddytime
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Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
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 Message 11 of 37
08 June 2011 at 12:53pm | IP Logged 
paranday wrote:
tractor wrote:
... If you can get hold of an old cassette deck with RCA or headphone jacks, you can hook it up to your computer with a cheap
cable.

Agreed, a deck is best. The portable boom box I tried introduced a worrying amount of noise. You can sometimes find a Nakamichi deck for not much cash. They're
little gems.


I totally agree! The Nakamichi players were state of the art in their day. I think new they were something like $500-$600 bucks. I picked a mint one up off of e-bay a
while back for $50 bucks. I use a cord called the i-Mic to hook it up to my computer ( also obtained for pennies).   

I then rip the tapes into Audacity. Audacity is amazing. There is a noise - removal function which is invaluable for removing hiss from those old 1960's FSI courses.
There are several other functions which can improve the sound quality dramatically. ( Equalizer, Compression, Hi-Pass, Low-pass etc)   You can also slow down or
speed up the audio which is key with certain recordings.
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Kappa
Groupie
Japan
Joined 5519 days ago

99 posts - 172 votes 

 
 Message 12 of 37
08 June 2011 at 2:23pm | IP Logged 
Nakamichi! I smell 80s... I remember once seeing a Nakamichi cassette deck sold at like five grands and hoping to get one of those some day. I was young.

I myself have a little old Victor micro stereo that plays CDs and cassettes. I hook up my laptop to the speakers and watch movies and play some music with it. I could digitalise tapes although I think I will never need to since audio recordings nowadays come on CDs or you can buy MP3 files through the Internet (unless I decide to study Hungarian or any minor language in Japanese, as I'd be buying books from a certain publisher that insists on using tapes... and sell them at considerable prices....)

I recommend Sony. (Something like this.) Walkman all the way! (Sadly they have decided to stop making them for cassette tapes.. in Japan, I don't know about other countries.) And here are the Sony TCM-150 and TCM-200DV cassette players/recorders DavidW mentioned above.

Edit: Is "digitalise" a word?

Edited by Kappa on 08 June 2011 at 4:12pm

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Kappa
Groupie
Japan
Joined 5519 days ago

99 posts - 172 votes 

 
 Message 14 of 37
08 June 2011 at 4:11pm | IP Logged 
I didn't expect to see it again! Man, it's been a long time. Good to see you! I'll have a good time with a couple of drinks tonight reminiscing. Unforgettable, that's what you are...

Thanks a lot for this, paranday!
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tractor
Tetraglot
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Norway
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Studies: French, German, Latin

 
 Message 15 of 37
08 June 2011 at 5:29pm | IP Logged 
Kappa wrote:
Edit: Is "digitalise" a word?

According to Oxford Dictionaries it is, as an alternative to "digitise":

http://oxforddictionaries.com/search?
searchType=dictionary&isWritersAndEditors=true&searchUri=All &q=digitalise&_searchBtn=Search&contentVersion=
WORLD

Edited by tractor on 08 June 2011 at 5:29pm

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tractor
Tetraglot
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Norway
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Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan
Studies: French, German, Latin

 
 Message 16 of 37
08 June 2011 at 5:34pm | IP Logged 
DavidW wrote:
With a suitable player, they still have a few advantages over digital devices,

Really? What are those advantages?


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