Can I use a digital recorder instead of a cassette tape?
Posted by SelfReliantSchool@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 11 comments
For some machines that never had any type of floppy or HD, I'm currently just using an Amazon cassette recorder. I'm guessing (hoping?) there's nothing on the audio end preventing me from switching to a digital recorder, as long as it has a 1/8" jack, but is there anything specific to look for or be aware of before I buy one?
MartinAncher@reddit
Beware that modern audio players are stereo, however the computers expect mono. Using a stereo cable with the old computers might not work. Just buy a simple stereo to mono adapter for 3.5 mm jack.
I tried to use my portable MiniDisc player, however the noise of the spinning motor in the drive affected the signal with noise. This was not a good solution.
tomxp411@reddit
I just use the left channel and convert the files to mono when storing and editing them on my computer.
cealild@reddit
The mono cable is a great tip. Thanks
tomxp411@reddit
yes. Any audio recorder that can do Linear PCM will work, as will computer audio interfaces. You can also emulate a cassette drive with microcontroller based devices. (However, this is going to be platform specific, as different platforms use different encoding methods, and the tape emulators are tuned for specific platforms.)
I was also able to use a Raspberry Pi with Linux to translate between PCM recordings and text files. I didn't do much with it, after proving it would work, but I was able to do the whole thing directly on the Pi, with a USB audio interface (Behringer U-Control) to connect to the Altair Clone.
As other people have mentioned, psychoacoustic compression is designed for storing music and speech, so you can't use formats like MP3 or AAC. Instead, you'll need to stick to linear PCM recording modes. So look for a recorder that can do PCM recording.
A Zoom F1 should work really well for this kind of task, or if that's too much money, look at something like the Sony Sony Icd-UX570. The key is to make sure it has a mic input and that it does Linear PCM (LPCM or PCM).
ZakalaUK@reddit
I've successfully used apps on my phone for a BBC micro and spectrum although I've had some issues with the volume not going loud enough, especially for a ZX81. I purchased a digital player a tapeduino that works great.
Domugraphic@reddit
you can use a phone
gnntech@reddit
I've seen people use audio playback apps on their phones to load software to older machines.
the123king-reddit@reddit
I've done this with a Beeb
Adorable_Ad6045@reddit
I record all programs into audacity, on a Macbook, where I can adjust levels and export as WAVs. I throw the files on Dropbox for easy access across multiple devices, including a phone, for playback.
leadedsolder@reddit
I've used a digital Sony voice recorder (ICD-BX140) on some tape-based systems (Nintendo Family BASIC) and it worked fairly well.
You have to tinker with your volume levels and compression settings. For my recorder specifically, you have to unplug the 'speaker' line when you are trying to record to it, otherwise it seems to confuse the system. But that is likely to be a Nintendo-specific issue because of the weird way they did their tape decoder in the keyboard.
Psy1@reddit
You can use anything that can play audio the only issue is the motor control line won't do anything yet most computers did assume that you could be using a standard cassette player. For digital audio files there is the issue with audio sampling and compression with default settings being for humans instead of encoding of data thus its easier to use cassette images and programs that tells a modern sound device how to recreate the noises.