Audio transfer from Sony IC Recorder to my Macbook Air

[singer27]

I've come into possession of a Sony IC Recorder - ICD-B600 (2006 or 7) and I'd love to transfer the audio on it to my macbook air. There is no USB port and I already have 3.5mm audio cable, which ideally should allow this transfer.

As of yet I'm not sure how to get my computer to recognize that IC recorder and after that which application I need use to import the audio. Audacity? Garageband? It seems that I don't need to download a driver for the IC recorder.

Any thoughts or how-to advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks

mar

 

[chscag]

Welcome to our forums.

Sony provides detailed instructions on how to record the sound from their IC recorders to a computer. Unfortunately, Sony typically only provides those instructions for Windows. I'm fairly certain you can record the output from your IC recorder to the input/output jack on your MacBook Air. (selectable from System Preferences, Sound) You can give Garageband a try since it's already on your Mac. Quicktime will also work but I believe you would need the Soundflower plug in (free). Hopefully our audio expert moderator "Slydude" will chime in here and help out.

 

[singer27]

Yes, that is what I have come across that Sony gears their advice to Windows users. Thanks. I will try this. The recordings are already there on the IC recorder, I'm just trying to upload them to my computer. Will report back!! Thank you.

 

[Slydude]

I did a bit of poking around on their site. They have directions for recorders with and without USB ports. I don't see Mac directions but I think the Windows directions can be adapted and should work. They can be found here for reference. Try connecting the cable from the headphone jack on the recorder to the microphone input on your computer. Almost any sound recording program should work.

Before you start recording go into the preferences and make sure it is set to accept input from your MacBook's mic. Then start a recording in the software and press play on the recorder. When the recording is over you should be able to have the file in any format the recording program supports.

Before you start recording make sure that the recorder is fully charged or plugged into an electrical outlet.

 

[singer27]

Thanks, I will check this out. I'm not actually doing any recording. For some background, this is an IC recorder that I found while cleaning up a friend's apartment who recently died at age 32 so finding these recordings is truly a gift. I'm determined to make a sound file so her family and friends can here her voice. Will check back!

 

[Slydude]

Great idea. What I mean by starting a recording is to start one within the recording software on the computer then press play on the recorder.You will literally be transferring the sound to the computer by using the computer to make a recording of what's on the device. As long as you don't accidentally press record on the Sony device it shouldn't destroy the original file. You're pressing record inside the computer software not the Sony device.

I didn't think about using QuickTime (Thanks Charlie). That should work and the software is dead simple. Here are the directions for doing that. In some versions of OS X the downward facing triangle in the directions is literally right next to the record button.

 

[singer27]

What I haven't figured out yet is how to make either Audacity or Garageband aware of the IC recorder being plugged into my computer. All that comes up in sound preferences, is "external disc," but if that's it, neither application is yet ready to import that data.

The first task at hand: get my computer to be aware that there is a device plugged into it.

I'm not naturally tech savvy so I appreciate all this help.

 

[Slydude]

Plug the device into your Mac and turn on the device. What options appear in the Sound preference pane? Make sure you click on the input tab to see the choices.

 

[singer27]

In the sound preference pane it still only lists,"internal microphone" for input.

 

[Slydude]

I have a suspicion I know what the problem is. You are probably using a cable that is a 3 pole 3.5 mm connector (standard headphone connector on each end). If your MacBook Air is one of the recent ones the audio jack is a combined headset and mic jack. I think this adapter can be plugged into the end of the cable you have and should make things work. These can be found in many places. The important thing is that one end of the cable must be a 3.5 mm 4 pole connector. The 4 pole part is the important thing here.

 

[KevinJS]

Just discovered something that may or may not be useful. I have a Braven 625s Bluetooth speaker, which I'm using to listen to music on my iPhone.

I was following this thread and was poking around my Mac. I discovered that the Braven shows up as an input device in System Preferences/Sound.

Presumably, this means that the Sony output could be sent to the Braven using a standard 3 pole 3.5mm cable, and from there to the Mac via Bluetooth.

I was recently experimenting with transferring recordings from reel to reel tape to computer, and was reduced to using my Windows computer. When I'm home in a couple of days, I'll try this method and see if it works and report back.

 

[singer27]

Thanks!! I'm off to bed but will get to working on this tomorrow.

 

[KevinJS]

Looks like my idea with the Bluetooth speaker was a flat bust, as I would have realized if I'd thought about it a bit more. The mic connection is separate to those for the sound output.

I plugged my Sennheiser Momentum headphones into the Mac. They have the 4 pole plug and they immediately change the microphone in System Preferences/Sound from internal to external, so there's progress. Unfortunately, the other end of the cable is a tiny version of a 4 pin, so all it will plug into is Sennheiser headphones.

So I built a cable from parts, and it didn't do a thing. It appears that a 4 pin microphone cable has an attenuator built into it. I think I remember reading that somewhere.

It looks as though this kind of gizmo is going to be the cheapest way of achieving the desired result:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00CPEZ4J6/

 

[singer27]

Thanks I will check into that gizmo. I haven't worked at all on continuing to solve this problem today. I'll get back to it tomorrow. In the end I may take this query to an acquaintance of mine who is a sound engineer. I just really want to get it done myself! With the help of this forum, of course. More soon!!

 

[Slydude]

@KevinJS That might work. There are similar devices with USB connections on one end and 3.5 mm connections on the other end. This avoids the whole 4 pole 3 pole confusion. I've used the Griffin Technologies iMic but there are others - some cheaper.

 

[KevinJS]

@KevinJS That might work. There are similar devices with USB connections on one end and 3.5 mm connections on the other end. This avoids the whole 4 pole 3 pole confusion. I've used the Griffin Technologies iMic but there are others - some cheaper.

I hope so. I'm going to buy one of these things, or something similar. I have a project on the go, which directly pertains to this thread. I can already accomplish it using a PC which has a simple mic input, but I'm stubborn. I want to use the Mac. Briefly, a young girl made some recordings and would like to hear them again. She was about 13 when she made them (on reel to reel tape) and is 65 now. She kinda-sorta remembers that it might have been The Beatles that she recorded. I want to bring those recordings to life for her.

Since I started trying to figure out how to get this done, I realized that we are adding complexity to what is quite a simple problem. The recordings could easily be transferred to cassette tape with very little fuss, but, hey, we live in a digital age, so let's get it right, eh?

 

[Slydude]

That should be a piece of cake. I did something similar with cassettes several years ago. What input/output options do you have on the reel-to-reel deck? If you have RCA tape outputs available heres the setup I used:
1. iMac or similar adapter with USB connections on one end and 3,5 mm on the other. If you've got some other audio interface that will likely work but these devices are cheaper and should give good results.
2. Cable connecting the microphone (input) side of the adapter to the output connections on the tape deck or tape out if the deck is connected to a stereo.
3. I'd probably do the initial recording in an uncompressed format, make a backup of those recordings, then make any format changes (mp3, lossless,etc) after that.

It may take a bit of tweaking the audio software settings to get things right but it can be done. Generally what I have done is to find the loudest portion of the recording and adjust the levels based that so there is uno clipping/distortion.

You probably know at least as much about this and probably more but let me know if I can help.

 

[KevinJS]

Thanks, Sly. The inputs and outputs on the reel to reel are identical to those of a cassette deck, with the addition of a DIN plug which can replace all 4 RCA connections. The tape deck will be connected directly to the adapter. I won't be using my Akai, since it only handles tape speeds of 3¾ inch per second and 7½ per second. I have another deck which handles both of those speeds and the 1 7/8 ips that the recordings were probably made at.

My decks have variable output and are 3 head machines, so real time monitoring of the recording is possible. The recordings will be uncompressed and transferred to a thumb drive for use.

It has occurred to me that the solution we are looking for in this thread is for a mono mic, and I'm going to require stereo, so the USB adapter is likely the way to go.

If worst comes to worst, I can always go back to the PC, but I'd really like to find a Mac solution.

 

[Slydude]

If I understand these combined audio in/out jacks correctly something like this should work. I used the three pole version of this and it worked pretty well. At that time there was no need for the four pole connector because the input and output were handled by separate jacks on the computer.

Some of the USB devices can handle higher sampling rates than using the sound input method but that shouldn't be an issue with what you are recording. Either connection should be more than capable of handling the needed resolution.