record cassette to MAC

Hi,

anyone know which is the easiest way to record a tape to a mac hopefully without garageband which i have never had any luck with or having to download any programmes??

Thanks in advance

cheers
Maxy

Try Audacity for recording to your Mac, rather than Garageband, it's free, and that's a good starting point here.
Now,as for connecting to the Mac, it depends on the tape deck's outputs, whether you are using an amp, etc etc.
More details required really please.

They now make USB tape decks to archive tapes. You might want to look into that. Also, the suggestion for Audacity was spot on.

Chris

I have a lead out of a handheld cassette recorder using a stereo lead from the earphone out socket to the line-in on the mac and I have adjusted system pref/sound to line-in.

cheers

I get asked this all the time.

Here are some articles that outline a couple of different approaches:
Electric Pi Journal: Converting Audio Cassette Tapes to CDs
How to Digitize Your Old Tapes and LPs with Your Mac
Digitizing Your LPs and Cassettes with Your Mac
From Tape to CD | Music and Audio - Page 1 | Macworld

The iMic, and its included software, are very popular for this task:
Griffin Technology: iMic - USB Audio Interface

ION TapeExpress USB Cassette Player $60
ThinkGeek :: TapeExpress USB Cassette Player

___________________________________________

Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
OS X Maintenance And Troubleshooting
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My personal experience with the iMic was very bad, the sound levels were dreadful, so if you do go with that, have a google around to see if others have had issues with it.