What You’ll Need

• Plus! Analog Recorder in the Plus! SuperPack
  
• Windows Media Player 10
  

• Stereo RCA cable (2 RCA connectors and a mini-jack connector)
  
• Cassette tape deck
  
• Sound card (with Line In jack)
  

Back to Top

Step 1: Connecting a Tape Deck to Your Computer

1. Plug one end of the stereo RCA cable with the red-and-white, male RCA connectors into the red-and-white, female RCA jacks that are labeled Line (Out) on the cassette tape deck, as shown in the following figure.
   
2. Depending on whether you are using a Y-cable or stereo RCA cable, do one of the following:
   • If you are using a Y-cable that already has a mini-jack stereo connector on the other end of the cable, go to the next step.
   • If you are using a stereo RCA cable that has red-and-white, male RCA connectors on both ends of the cable, plug the end not already connected to the female RCA jacks on the cassette tape deck into the female red-and-white RCA jacks of a mini-jack stereo adapter, as shown in the following figure.
     
   • Plug the mini-jack stereo adapter into the female Line In jack on the sound card of your computer, as shown in the following figure.
     

Back to Top

Step 2: Recording Music from a Cassette Tape Deck in Plus! Analog Recorder

1. Start Plus! Analog Recorder, which is installed with Plus! Digital Media Edition or Plus! Super Pack.
2. On the Welcome to Plus! Analog Recorder page, click Next.
3. On the Adjust your recording level page, in the Sound device list, click the device you want to use. (The sound device is usually the name of the sound card that is installed on your computer.)
4. In the Input channel list, choose Line In. This is the jack that the mini-jack connector is plugged into on the sound card that is installed on your computer.
5. To begin detecting audio levels, press the Play button on your cassette tape deck, and then click Start in Plus! Analog Recorder. Detecting audio levels helps to make sure that the recording volume is set correctly.
6. After an acceptable audio level has been detected, click Next.
7. If necessary, on the tape deck, press the Rewind button to rewind the tape to the beginning.

1. On the Record your music page, click Record, and then press the Play button on your tape deck.
   For tracks that you don’t want to record, click Pause to pause the recording, and then click Record to continue recording when the tape deck begins to play the next desired track.
2. Let the music play to the end of the tape, and then click Stop in Plus! Analog Recorder.
3. On your cassette deck, press the Stop button to stop playing the tape.
4. Eject the tape from the cassette deck, and then flip the tape over.
5. Repeat steps 1-3 to record the music on the other side of the tape.
6. After recording the second side of the tape, in Plus! Analog Recorder, click Next.

1. On the Review and name your tracks page, click the first recorded track named Track 1.
2. To preview the recorded track, click the Preview button.
3. Do the following:
   • In the Name box, type the name of the track.
   • In the Artist box, type the name of the artist.
   • In the Album box, type the album name.
   • In the Genre box, type the appropriate genre.
4. For the other recorded tracks, type the name for each individual track.
   (The information in the Artist, Album, and Genre boxes stays the same.)
5. If necessary, do one or more of the following, and then click Next.
   • If you have a short recorded track that does not contain music, click Delete to delete the empty track (that usually is just recorded noise).
   • If the number of recorded tracks differs from the number of tracks listed on the tape, two tracks may have been recorded as one long track (possibly because there was only a short pause between tracks on the cassette tape). To correct this, click the Preview button, play the music until the end of the first track, and then click the Split button to split the track into two tracks.

1. Select the Reduce pops and Reduce hiss check boxes.
   This lets you choose special filters to improve the sound of the recorded tracks by removing pops and hisses that sometimes occur when recording from a cassette tape deck. The filters are applied for all of the recorded tracks.
2. Click Preview to play the recorded track with the cleaning filters applied. Click Next.

1. In the Save music tracks to this location area, the location where the recorded music will be saved is listed. By default, the recorded music is saved in the My Music folder.
2. To change the save location, click Change, choose the appropriate folder location, and then click OK.
3. In the Save settings area, select or clear the Protect content (use DRM) check box. If you select this check box, you will not be able to share your tracks with friends.
4. On the Save music at this quality setting, drag the slider to the appropriate location.
   To save the music at a high-quality setting, drag the slider towards the right. However, note that as the quality setting increases, so does the file size of the saved WMA files.
5. To add the recorded music to a new or existing Windows Media Player playlist, click the Add tracks to Windows Media Player playlist drop-down box, and then click an existing playlist or click New to add the recorded tracks to a new playlist.
6. To save the tracks, click Next.
   The progress of saving the tracks as WMA files appears on the Saving your tracks page.
7. To close Plus! Analog Recorder, click Finish.

Back to Top

Step 3: Playing the Recorded Music in Windows Media Player 10

1. Start Windows Media Player 10.
2. Click Library, and then do one of the following:
   • To play the recorded music by selecting the album title, expand All Music, click Album, and then double-click the album name for the cassette tape you recorded.
   • If you added the saved WMA files to a new playlist, expand My Playlists, and then double-click the playlist that includes the recorded tracks.

Back to Top