Saturday, November 3, 2007

Convert old cassettes to digital and listen on your iPod - Mac Version

If you're like me you've got a number of cassette's still kicking around that don't exist on your iPod or in your digital music collection. I finally decided to address the problem and convert a number of these tapes into digital. Here's how its done:

What you'll need:

  • 1 Cassette Player with a standard mini out jack - in my case a fairly cheap Cassette Deck (if you have a higher end cassette deck you may need a slightly different patch cable)
  • 1 Patch Cable - in this case a Mini RCA to Mini RCA Cable with two Male attachments on either end
  • 1 Mac - in my case a Macbook Pro
  • Cassette Tapes
  • Audio Capture software - in my case I used the Audacity an open source software package that supports Mac, Windows and Linux platforms. Garageband will also handle this task.
  • Download libmp3lame which is a plug-in for Audacity that enables it to export files to MP3 format
How to convert a cassette:
  1. Connect your cassette player to your Mac (depending on your version you may have an audio line-in jack as is the case with the Macbook Pro or you may need to purchase a third party cable that operates through USB - I'll leave you to Google this elsewhere on the web).
  2. Next launch Audacity and start a New Project (from the File Menu)
  3. Go to the Audacity Menu and select Preferences select the Tab "Audio I/O" under the Recording section set the drop down menu to "Built-in Input" then click OK.
  4. Next press play on the cassette player and push the Record button in Audacity you'll see the log begin to move with the Wave form varying with the level of the audio on your cassette.
  5. After you've sampled a small section of audio hit stop and listen to your result. At this point you'll likely want to play around with the different levels within Audacity to get the optimal recording.
  6. Once you're happy with the line levels and you're ready to start begin a new project and record the entire cassette.
  7. Now that you've got you're cassette file in you may find some artifacts in the recording that you don't like such as that annoying cassette recorder hiss. Here is how to remedy this: find a section of your clip that is a pause that contains just the hiss then select that section and go to the Effects menu and select Noise Removal. Hit the Sample Noise button it will then close this dialog box - don't worry it just sampled the noise. Now go to the Edit menu and choose Select All next return to the Effects menu then select Noise Removal again this time click on the Remove Noise button. Once completed listen to the project again and the prior steps should have removed that annoying hiss if not play around with the noise removal options some more.
  8. Next go to the File menu and select Export as MP3. Follow the dialogs and save your recording as an MP3 file.
  9. Launch iTunes and go to the File menu and select Import navigate to the MP3 file you just created select it and click on import.
  10. Finally synch your iPod and listen to your newly digitized recording.
You may also be interested in this post if you're looking to enhance the audio on your iPod.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Discounts on Apple Product - Still Waiting For Leopard

Well I'm still stuck waiting for Leopard since I recently bought a new MacbookPro I purchased the upgrade under an Apple program called "Up to date". Which is a great deal deal $9.95 vs. the regular $129 price tag. One other great tip on finding a discount on Apple gear is the Corporate sales program that Apple offers customers. If you work for a large organization check around since as I've discovered Apple has cut deals with major corporations to allow them and their employees to purchase new product at a discount. While the discount isn't as good as the Educational discount offered to those in College/University or Teachers the Corporate program could save you real $$$ on new Apple product.

While I wait I've been keeping myself busy searching for a good deal on another large external Firewire drive to accomodate TimeMachine (the interesting back-up program included in Leopard). I should be going to Costco this weekend to pickup two different Western Digital external hard drives that offer great value. Once I've purchased the drives and have them up and running I'll post some thoughts.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

"Black Gold" - Movie Review

Just finished watching an interesting documentary from the U.K. titled "Black Gold" that details the struggle of coffee farmers to achieving a fair price for their coffee. The film puts a human face on the challenge of increasing the price farmers in developing nations receive for their crops in this case coffee. The directors focus in on the efforts of an Ethopian coffee co-operative led by Tadesse Meskela. Mr. Meskela represents the Oromia Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union and provides viewers with a first hand look at the challenges facing a coffee farmer in a developing nation. He describes the co-operative's efforts to put a greater percentage of the price of coffee into the hands of those that are actually growing the crop. Amazingly the value chain is six links long from the time the coffee leaves the farmers hands until it reaches the consumer in a Western nation. Clearly a number of the steps involving middle men could and should be eliminated for the benefit of both the consumer and the farmer.


Unlike other documentaries on coffee that I've seen very little time is spent on the big 3 (e.g., Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks) that are responsible for a significant portion of the coffee purchases and resale. Instead this movie takes a slightly more political turn instead focussing on the 2005 WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico. My view is simple bureaucrats and "professional" diplomats actually have no vested interest in actually solving the problem faced by farmers in their own countries much less developing nations. I'd take a lead from Jim Rogers' commentary on African Aid from his book "Investment Biker" in referring to the waste and overhead that NGOs and other aid organizations actually apply to the system. Instead I agree with the sentiment expressed by a member representing Malawi in the film who indicated that his people weren't interested in foreign aid since this is only a band aid solution nor are they interested in charity instead they are looking for fair and equitable trade. 

I will say that after watching this documentary and another one on the challenges faced by coffee farmers I do tend to look for and choose fair trade coffee when available. To learn more about the film and fair trade coffees visit: www.blackgoldmovie.com

Digg It!