Yes...yes, I do charge for my work

[Dreamstalker]

My mom works with someone who has a bunch of those Pimsleur language tapes, and wanted to know if I would be able to convert them to MP3/CD. This is doable, except I don't have the hardware converter so would need to buy one. That's about $60 (USB version, I don't see the point to installing it as an internal drive if I only use it every few months), but I have other clients I could use it with so I don't have to charge her the full parts amount.

I won't know how long it would take me to do all the tapes until I actually start the process (and see how many tapes there are). So I can't quote an exact price in advance, not unusual. Although I don't want to commit to buying the converter until I get confirmation from her, and I can't give a time quote until I have it in my paw and have done at least one tape.

All she hears is my base hourly rate...even though I make it clear that the entire job probably will not take more than an hour or two (possibly less, the tapes are shorter than normal), she seems to think that somehow $20/hour means $20/tape. Wants to pay $5...whether per hour, per tape or all told I have no idea.

Mom doesn't think she will find anyone else to do it, at least not as cheaply as I'm willing to.

[dalesys]

I did this for my dad's Mandarin CD's. Came out as 430MB at 64kbps mp3 encoding, 15:40:59 duration. (yeah, nearly 16 hours!)

Almost all laptop & tower PCs have MIC inputs (towers also have LINE IN), so your hardware needs would reduce to a patch cable: A male 1/8" stereo plug on PC end to either another male 1/8" stereo plug; or; to two male RCA phono plugs.

For free software, my audiophool brother uses Audacity http://download.cnet.com/Audacity/30...ml?tag=mncol;1

You'll need to bugger around a bit in the control panels to set the input level.

[emax4]

I did this for my dad's Mandarin CD's. Came out as 430MB at 64kbps mp3 encoding, 15:40:59 duration. (yeah, nearly 16 hours!)

Almost all laptop & tower PCs have MIC inputs (towers also have LINE IN), so your hardware needs would reduce to a patch cable: A male 1/8" stereo plug on PC end to either another male 1/8" stereo plug; or; to two male RCA phono plugs.

For free software, my audiophool brother uses Audacity http://download.cnet.com/Audacity/30...ml?tag=mncol;1

You'll need to bugger around a bit in the control panels to set the input level.

I agree. I'm on a Mac and have used Audacity and GarageBand to do the same thing. My parents have oldies and Beatles cassette tapes that I've done for them.

For the audio hookup, you have some options. Most cassette players have left and right RCA jacks. You could get RCA cables, have both of those going to an adapter that takes RCA cables into a 1/8" audio jack and have that going to the microphone input of your computer or sound card. If your cassette player has a headphone output (1/8" or 1/4"), you could use adapters to get the same effect.

It may take a while as you have to sit through the whole thing though. You can either record a song (or a session for your tapes), clean up and remove the dead air, then export them into MP3 format or burn them to a CD. Sometimes I would hit "record" on the software, play the cassette, and one side would just be one big file. After that I would take the file and break each song down into smaller files, then export them into MP3 or burn them to an audio CD (so my folks could play them inside their car CD players).

[Dreamstalker]

I know I have the cable, it's finding a working cassette player (the one we have played a test tape, but mangled it) around here that's the problem. They're language tapes, so I don't know if I'd necessarily have to do any editing.

My stepfather has the proper equipment in his rental condo (all I'd need to do is bring the tapes, my laptop and the proper cable), but I don't have keys anymore; that would add at minimum 2 hours overall in travel time as there are certain times I can't be there so I'd have to be bouncing back and forth.

[emax4]

I'm a big junkie for thrift stores, and there's usually at least one there. If you go that route, I'd bring in a music tape (something professional so you can test the quality, rather than stuff you recorded at home), along with a pair of headphones so that you can hear for any dropouts, problems with the playback, stuff like that.

[Racket_Man]

if you want to spend a little more money and get a tape deck in the process, ThinkGeek used to sell a USB output cassette deck for around $100 (I think have not seen it for a while I know there might stil be a USB output turntable too

USB Turntable $99.95

Walkman sized USB cassette deck $59.95

I still have a good working turntable and deck so I just bought the USB Codex input box and have been happily ripping all the old cassettes and vinyl onto my computer. real simple process