How I used High-Technology for a low-tech solution

A friend of mine recently asked me if I could transfer some audio from a compact disc onto a cassette tape. Being a child of the 80’s and 90’s I was no stranger to the old standard so I said, “Sure I can do that, not a problem!”  This, however, turned out to be an adventure that frustrated me to no end, except there was finally an ending worthy of the job.

I took the cd and tape given and inserted them into a cd player / tape recorder combination machine, that I have This machine is from 1995, but has gotten little use over the years since I have moved onto using music on other machines and computers.   I turned it on, checked the settings Dolby Sound, Tape Select, Dubbing Speed. I inserted the tape into the second tape chamber where it records and made sure that the side was rewound to its beginning so that I can start recording on it.

I inserted the disc into the first disc slot of its 5-cd chamber and everything was looking good, but once I pressed play on the cd player the audio would almost immediately cut out and skip horribly. So I removed the disc and looked at its data side and noticed millions of scratches. (No wonder it failed, now what do I do?)

I then thought if I took this separate 5-disc cd player and hooked it up to the combination machine that maybe I could get the cd to play correctly and then I can record it. So I dig that out of storage as well, hooked it up and the cd played correctly, except that through the combo/machine, the sound was really distorted with high and low sounds fragmenting as it played. I was adamant about not recording a crappy tape for my friend so I drove on somewhat distractedly.

I thought back to an older (1994) boom box tape/cd player combo I had and remembered it was still working, so I dug it up and this time the cd player part worked beautifully, but the tape player would not accept the cartridge. There is a spring that has failed and it keeps the round disc that drags across the tape down in the way of the tape cartridge from entering into the chamber so recording is a no-go.

I then remembered that I have (a much newer-only two years old) small portable tape recorder that I could at least get a real cheap copy of a recording from listening to the audio coming from the speakers on my computer. This too failed, for some reason it would record no sound and not play any sound, yet all of the other buttons functioned just fine.

I flashed back to the movie ‘Demolition Man’ and said the phrase “Enhance your calm John Spartan!” This helped bring me back down to earth and I suddenly got the brilliant idea that if I take my big combo Cd/Tape machine and connect it to the computer then I can manipulate the audio to make a clear sound.

So I moved the bulky thing to my computer and ran an audio line coming from the computer that has a left and right split audio connecting cable into the machine and set the machine to ‘Phono’ and the audio to ‘Dolby Surround Sound with the Pop audio format.’, and the volume on level two. On my computer, I set the base and treble down to minimum and then the volume down to below half of its bar range and ran the cd.  The Audio came out crystal clear.
 
I was elated.
 
I then set the cd and tape recorder to play/record at the same time and let it go.
 
SUCCESS FINALLY!!!!