03-06-2008, 10:46 PM

First post, first Mac. (Thank you, thank you...)

My old PC was a fine machine, and capable of great things. Last winter, I learned about this nifty thing called a White Box that would let me hook up an old cassette player on one end of the equation and hook the other to my PC, and with the help of a clever little software ap from Roxio, I began the slow process of rescuing those old mix tapes from the 80s. Managed to save three tapes before I got the pop up window telling me the trial version had expired. The replacement was $80. I checked on Ebay (as one does) but I couldn't be sure that what the product being sold was what I really wanted.

CUT TO: Present, and here I am the proud owner of an iMac. Awesome. I got a free copy of Toast 7 today, and I still have that old cassette player - and, the white box. Any reason why I shouldn't be able to restart converting those tapes to MP3s? I also downloaded Audacity, which is a helpful program indeed - say goodbye to paying for ring tones! I tried Audacity with the player and the box, no luck.

Advice? Comments? Questions?

03-06-2008, 10:50 PM

I'm not sure I can help much. Could you explain the white box a little more? Maybe some other people here will be familiar with it.

Oh, welcome and congrats!

03-06-2008, 11:22 PM

Welcome MoPIC!

Not sure what the white box is either. I can't remember the name of the device I used when I converted all my cassette tapes, but I'm sure someone here will remember it. I want to say iGriffin, but maybe it was made by Griffin Tech and called i(something). It was just a small gray hockey puck approx 3" in diameter with a usb cable attached to it. The "hockey puck" had several various jack connections in it. Simply plug the cassette player into one of the connections and connect the device to your computer with the usb. I used an audio software that came with my old imac (soundwave, soundstage? Forgive my amnesia, I'm at work and not on my computer at home to easily look up). Worked like a charm. I remember getting that device from ebay for less than $20. Also note that I did all this probably 5-6 years ago. I'm sure the device I had changed in appearance at least. I tried to google it, but couldn't find my particular product (remembering the name would help, lol).

Gary

03-06-2008, 11:35 PM

I just hooked a stereo up to my Mac and a Cassette deck up to that. I use SoundStudio to record to AIFF from tape and then convert to MP3. I do the same for vinyl as well.

03-06-2008, 11:54 PM

SoundStudio! That's it! Freeware on the imac. Now if someone can recall the device name I have lol.

03-08-2008, 04:28 PM

Thanks for the replies! Now that I have the tape player out and hooked up to the White Box, I can see that it's got ADSTech written across the front of it. The software it came with was Nero in origin. The back of the box looks like this:



According to the ADStech website, it should work with Garageband. I've downloaded a manual, and I'm gonna give it a shot. I'll let you know the results. I'm enjoying the **** of of being a Mac owner, but I'm beginning to smell a few drawbacks. Not enough to make me want to go back, but it's **** trying to find software/freeware, although it's never been easier to load it.

Stay tuned!

03-08-2008, 04:36 PM

You may think that the lack of software is a downside of a Mac. But the thing is, is when a program IS released, it usually comes with a nice 3-10 day trial, doesn't a lot, and is a lot better than any similar program for Windows.

03-08-2008, 04:49 PM

This just in - the Garageband solution worked! Lou Reed's 'White Light, White Heat' coming in loud and clear. Some static, though. A connection issue. I'm off to figure it out!

Thanks.