Info

Digitizing cassettes

Connect a tape deck to the line input of your sound card and digitize the cassette recording with any audio editor (Cool Edit, Adobe Audition, Sound Forge, etc.).

Basic requirements:

1) The recording level should not exceed -1 dB…+0 dB.
2) Record only from a stereo tape deck!
3) Use the deck’s line output and the sound card’s line input.
4) Save at 44100 Hz / 16 bit / Stereo (higher specs are usually pointless).
5) Remove sources of radio interference nearby (mobile phones, etc.).
6) Keep the deck volume knob as low as possible (less transformer hum) and raise the level in the computer mixer instead.
7) Disable all effects, equalizers and noise reduction.

Before recording:

1) Clean the tape head with alcohol/cologne/boiled water.
2) Adjust the head screw (optimally when the recording sounds cleaner/brighter; if sealed — do not touch!).
3) Fast-forward and rewind the cassette.
4) Make sure only the line input is active in Recording Control (Recording Control). Realtek cards, for example, can mix several inputs — if you watched a movie or listened to music while recording, it may end up on the tape dump.

Other notes:

1) Even if a cassette sounds “terrible” and you doubt it can be transferred, record it anyway — filters may save the day. Recordings with transformer hum and clicks that push the level meter off scale are successfully converted in 60–80% of cases!

Converting WAV to TAP/TZX

Method 1

Use this when the cassette recording quality is close to ideal. You will need the Spectaculator emulator and Tadeusz Wilczek’s copier. Since this emulator can capture audio from the sound card, you can load the game through the copier and save it as TAP immediately.

Steps:

1) Load the copier in the emulator, press “J” for LOAD and “ENTER”; the letter L will blink on the right.
2) In the emulator menu find “Tools” and enable “Load from audio source” (make sure line input is selected in Recording Control!).
3) Start the tape and watch the loading process.
4) When finished, press SPACE in the emulator to break in the copier.
5) Press CTRL+N and choose the second/third option “Audio Cassette File (tap/tzx)”, then name the image file.
6) Press “S” for SAVE in the copier and “ENTER” until you see “Start tape and press any key...”.
7) Press CTRL+K, click Record at the bottom right, Turbo at the top, then press any key in the copier.
8) When “OK” appears in the copier, the image is ready!
9) Test it: reset the emulator, type LOAD "" and verify the game works.

* — By default the image is saved to “My Documents”.

Out of memory error:

1) If this happens right after only the block name loaded, stop the deck, press “SPACE” in the copier, save the state via “File” → “Save As” (szx/z80). Clear the copier (I usually reset and reload) and continue exactly where you stopped — do not rewind to hear the block name again; we already saved it.

2) The error may appear suddenly, especially in games without named blocks where memory is checked. Load the main blocks (basic, picture), save, reset the copier and continue recording.

Merging several files into one image:

Do everything as at the start, but skip step 9 and after step 8 do the following: (make sure AutoPlay/Stop is disabled!)

1) Open the next saved file.
2) Open the unfinished TAP/TZX image.
3) Repeat step 6.
4) Repeat step 7.
5) If more files remain, go back to (1).
6) If that was the last file — done.

Method 2

Work in progress…