Re: Musicmatch

I've done some of this, and here's what I'd recommend to avoid having to buy software.

Use Windows Sound Recorder (sndrec32.exe) to record from tape to .wav. After it's open, do this:

From the top pull-down menus, go to Edit -> Audio Properties. The middle section will be "Sound Recording". Press the "volume" button there, and it will show you a "Record Control" window like the Windows sound mixer, but it displays audio inputs.

If the input you want isn't shown, go to Options -> Properties in the Record Control mixer and make it display the desired input.

Back in the main Sound Recorder window, go to File -> Save As, and select the file name, folder, and bitrate (44,100 KHz 16 bit stereo is CD quality) you want.

Cue up your tape and hit "play" on the deck at the same time you hit the record button in Sound Recorder.

That will give you .wav files that can be burned onto CD. If you want to adjust the sound (remove hiss, boost/cut bass frequencies) you can play the .wav in Winamp and alter the sound with the equalizer, then use the disk writer output option to make the altered .wav file.

If you have a CD writer, I'm assuming you already have burning software (I highly recommend Nero from www.nero.com). If you want to encode .mp3's I recommend RazorLAME. It's a Windows front end for the command-line based LAME encoder, generally recognized to be the best available, and FREE. The encoder itself is included with the RazorLAME download. FTL below