babbage's Journal: Digitizing of analog audio

Does anyone have any suggestions for converting old analog audio into a digital format like MP3 or Ogg? Yes, I've poked around Google, but I'm not finding any clear answers like I think might turn up here on Slashdot.

I've got a couple of boxes full of old tapes, including things like bootlegs & demos, that I'd like to convert to MP3s. On the same tack, my parents have some pretty good albums that I'd also like to convert.

What I'd like to find is a good application for converting arbitrary audio input streams into a digital format like WAV, MP3 [ideally], or Ogg, so I can just plug my stereo's headphone jack into my computer's microphone jack, and capture the stream appropriately. The OS platform isn't too important to me -- my computer at home is a G4 running OSX, but I've got access to Linux & Windows machines as well, so if the best [Free] application for this turns out to be platform specific then I don't have a problem with that.

Does anyone have experience in converting old formats into digital form? I'd really like to get some of these into an electronic format before the tapes (or the tape deck!) wears out...

Analog tapes to digital

[Jim123]

I've used something that converts one audio format to another and thought I had the program. Damn. Now I'll have to find it again. It might have been a text-to-speech program. Take a look at the Oscar Sound Recorder from www.pcclubaid.com. I think it will convert, but I can't get it to work very well; seems to have a 40 sec limit.

OS X solutions

[mr100percent]

Well, for OS X there's Audio Recorder [versiontracker.com] that records from the jack straight to mp3 or AIFF (wav). I'm also a fan of Audio In [versiontracker.com]. Both are freeware.

MacAddict noted that lots of analog sources give popping noises or hums in the lowest bands. Search for a program called "RayGun" that will take those out and get rid of scratches in the audio. BUT it's OS 9 only and fairly pricy. I wouldn't reccoment it unless you're digitizing LP's.