mixtape advice

[Natty Matti]

Greetings Baffers! Been making mixtapes for years and years on cassette but now plan to adjust to the time being and record my mixes so that I can play them on the computer and whatnot. Not too technically gifted so wonder what equiment I need in order to maintain a decent soundquality. I've got two decks, one decent mixer and a decent PC. So... what to do next?
Thanx / Matti

[Negrote]

Hi Matti,

get yourself a decent ad/da converter, eg M-Track by M-Audio, cheap and works fine.

Download "Audacity" - it's free , and easy to use.

That's all you need.

Enjoy!

[dan i dubdub]

Like Natty Matti, this baffles me a bit too. I have used a CD recording machine with my hifi to record tunes to listen to in the car/upload to my ipod. This also gives me a digital backup of the tune. I am aware of Audacity and know people use is it in a similar way, but don't know what is meant by the digital/audio converter - is this something else that needs bought/downloaded or what?

[Negrote]

A ad/da converter is a hardware device which needs to be purchased. The most simple ones do have 2 channel stereo.
There are many different brands with many different features and qualities/prices out there, the one I recommended above is this one:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MTrack.html
As I said, just one example. There are too many.
I am not an expert either, just had the same problem as Natty Matti once.
I went with this combination Audacity /M-Track and I am fully satisfied with it.
I believe this topic is dealt with already on the board (or I read about it elsewhere).

[Natty Matti]

Many thanks Negrote! Will buy that or something similar as soon as I got some dunza.

[dan i dubdub]

Thanks for the advice

[johnnyB]

I use a Tascam DR-05 digital recorder which I plug in to one of the output of my mixer. Very easy to use,cheap(120€),good quality device and besides it works quite well to record live shows or soundsystem sessions.

[SolarHighPower]

M-Audio would be the best choice, no doubt

[Turna]

i just saw in the maplin catalogue they have an AV to USB audio converter for £17, you plug into the mixer output and the computer- this would allow you to record directly into audacity

not sure on the quality but it doesnt need to do much - it even has a little turntable on the top of it

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/ion-usb-vinyl ... rter-n28ln

i use something similar for my mixes and the quality is fine for the purposes i need

[dan i dubdub]

Ha! Good old Maplin! I have an old Maplin 6 channel mixer which I was given years ago as payment for some little gigs which still sounds sweet.