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Does it seem overwhelming, the job of digitizing all your or your parents’ important photos, tapes and other materials for posterity? If you’re like my wife and me, the answer is definitely “yes.” But we’re glad we’re doing it!

It is just as important to digitize your old audio tapes as it is to digitize your photos and video tapes

Audio tapes, such as cassettes like the one on the left, often contain important memories worth saving. Along with probably thousands of print photos and slides and maybe hundreds of VHS or Hi-8 videotapes, you may have dozens of audio cassette tapes that need digital conversion to CDs or DVDs. You may even have a few reel-to reel tapes to digitize, as well.

Many of these audiotapes hold important memories for you and your children. Your children will never really quite forget listening for hours to “The Muppet Album,” “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” and “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.” For example, after my daughter had a few children of her own, she often played Roald Dahl’s classic narration of “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.” on cassette for their pleasure. Now, however, her newer cars no longer have cassette players in them.

Audio Cassette Players Have All But Disappeared

You want to get these tapes digitized for your children and grandchildren, but how? Audio cassette decks have all but disappeared. Walkmans are a thing of the past. In spite of these obstacles, however, we’re here to show you some great ways to get the necessary digitizing done.

It’s like eating an elephant. You get it done by taking a small bite at a time. We’ll write in another article about the ways and sources to get this done professionally, but for now, we’re going to talk do-it-yourself.

What To Do

Get three things:

1. A functioning audio cassette and/or reel-to-reel player, depending on what media you have to digitize. Check out garage sales, Ebay, Craigslist, and similar sources. (I picked up an audio cassette deck that originally sold for $400.00 for $50.00 on Ebay.)
2. A two-channel (two-corded) stereo cable with RCA plugs on one end and a stereo mini-plug on the other. If you have an old stereo cable with RCA connectors on both ends, you need only buy an adapter. (Radio Shack still sells these cables – they’re commonly called patch cords.)
3. Audio recording software. (Audacity software can be downloaded for free from the Internet. You can buy better, but Audacity is highly functional.)

Load the software onto your computer. If you download Audacity, I suggest you also download the manual with its included tutorials.

Follow the software’s instructions for connecting the cables to the tape player, for setting up the software, and for recording, editing and exporting the files.

The Audacity tutorials are excellent. While I’m focusing on digitizing other materials, my wife is digitizing our audio cassettes using Audacity. Take full advantage of the manual and tutorials. The tutorial on copying audio cassettes to CDs, for example, is very helpful and includes an important section on removing hiss, one of the major problems with audio cassette tapes.

If You Play Them, Your Kids Will Come Back for More

If you make these old, favorite recordings avaialble to your children and grandchildren, they will come back for more. I’ll report in future articles the specific steps on how to use your audio content to enrich just about all your other memories-preservation and sharing activities. Stay tuned.