best way to sample from cassette?

I feel like this must have been addressed at some point, but the search terms produced too many results to sift through...


I bet it's not possible to get a truly HIFI sound out of standard cassette tape, but is there some piece of gear that is known to grab samples well from cassette? my personal favorite boombox doesn't seem to cut it,


Does anyone have experience with these things? it seems so cheap it can't be good, I don't need any more junk in my studio


http://compare.ebay.com/like/2006913884 ... si=y&cbt=y

http://compare.ebay.com/like/3803940296 ... si=y&cbt=y

http://compare.ebay.com/like/3604318111 ... si=y&cbt=y

I have that model, using it to browse for samples while at work however I don't sample from it.

It's a really cheap device. Flimsy plastic case. Headphone out is mono (L+R I think), I don't know whether the digitized USB output is stereo or mono. I haven't tried the USB at all so I can't say anything for sure of the quality on that, but I would be very surprised if it were anything above passable.

If you need a clumsy walkman for non critical listening purposes with a price lower than a second hand 15 year old quality walkman you could buy it, if you'd like to sample with averege to good quality I'd say buy a second hand quality cassette deck from some quality hifi manufacturer.
Just use the line outs directly into the MPC, mixer or audio interface, no need to have the internal digitizing output thru USB stuff. A good line output let's you control gain and input levels before hitting the A/D converter of your sampler / interface that is likely to be so much better than consumer grade digitizing toys.

You can buy an old tascam professional grade cassette tape recorder for super cheap if you look hard enough. I just recently copped a tascam 122-b off of eBay for 100 plus shipping. I'm not talking about there us-122 bullshit interface either.

I picked up a Sansui , 3 head design cassette deck, real cheap, but a damn good quality unit in near excellent health, been recording my fav independent radio station programs, mainly all rare funk soul and blues, a gotta say the quality is just beautiful to the ears, hence I'd have no qualms in sampling direct from tape. Tape has a that low end accentuated EQ curve. Just try and get a good quality 3-head design deck, tascam is good.

+1 on the Tascam 122B or Mkii, if you don't mind possibly replacing belts and other misc. rubber parts either immediately or shortly thereafter. they sound cool, but you might be better off borrow a friend's deck and recording to hard disc if you have something you are trying to save. after an inital phase of being psyched about tape i'm back to loving digital, and now i have a tape deck just chilling and taking up space.

jonestown massacre wrote:You can buy an old tascam professional grade cassette tape recorder for super cheap if you look hard enough. I just recently copped a tascam 122-b off of eBay for 100 plus shipping. I'm not talking about there us-122 **** interface either.

I found a free Pioneer dual tape player walking down a local street. Took it home, and tested it. And to my surprise it worked. Haven't hooked it up to my Mackie mixer, but at some point I'd like to get around to that. Not sure if the mixer will boost the signals from the inputs so that you have to turn down the input gain from the Pioneer. Not sure how it will sound, but I'm sure it will be fine.

You sure sound sure of being sure.

I have been considering getting one of these.....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Minidiva-Casse ... B1GZAFMGKJ

not sure how good they are, but for that price i can afford to just chance it....