DISTRACTIONS
Then we had distractions. A very cute, tiny dog that decided we were going to be his new home. With three dogs already, we can't afford a fourth. Thankfully someone volunteered to adopt him. Also, Monique and her sister spent all last week reorganizing our clutter. eBay had taken over. There's still work to be done, but it makes more sense now. It feels like we have breathing room again.During the same week, my computer kicked the bucket. It started by only booting in low-res and 32-bit. Then it wouldn't boot at all. The next morning, still not booting, but it did attempt to do a repair on the drive. Later that day, it booted up. Over the next few days, it would start up, but with various hiccups. For now it's booting up and working right. It won't last forever, but at least it's working right now.
In that same time frame, we were told our taxes were going to be... a lot. Much more than ever before. Last year I half-way retired. Still working part time, and still selling on eBay. Near the end of the year property taxes were nearly double compared to the previous year. So we sold on eBay like never before to be able to pay it. Now we're having to pay taxes on all the extra income we made in order to pay the other taxes.
As it turned out, it wasn't so bad. Not great, but not "end of life as we know it" bad.
STILL SEARCHING FOR A CASSETTE PLAYER
While all that was going on, the hunt was still on for a tape player. Apparently, there are no "good but affordable" cassette players being made. You can either go cheap/mid-range, none of which had... pristine... reviews. Or you can go eBay with classic, expensive, decks from the 80's. Tough call... you want the final audio to sound good, but the bank is already broke. Cheap was the only option.
There were three models on Amazon that seemed appropriate, in a price range from $25 to $60. All three had a standard headphone audio out jack. With the correct cable, you can go from headphone out, to the computer's Mic In, and digitize the audio with Audacity.
TESTING THE AUDIO
Did a test run, and it works! Not perfect, but I'm playing tapes recorded 30 to 40 years ago... and they were recorded with one of those old Radio Shack shoe-box recorders. I'm thrilled they still worked at all. A little audio wobble under the circumstances is completely acceptable.
One of the reviewers (don't remember which unit it was reviewing) warned of a 'hum' when you used a power cord, and gave advice on how to avoid it. (Use batteries, or buy a $10 Noise Isolator.) It was a well-written review with a lot of helpful info, but he made it sound like not following his advice would result in horrible audio. I disagree.
When the player audio is set to the lowest possible level at which recognizable sounds are playing, and Audacity recording levels adjusted appropriately, the audio was acceptable for the circumstances. Hum wasn't an issue. Bad tape quality, years of tape degradation, and highly variable volumes within the same recording, those were issues. The quality sure wasn't up to sound studio standards. But with all the technical challenges, it was as good as could be asked for.
GOT THE WRONG TAPES
One last issue... now that I can play the tapes, and digitize them, those first two turned out to be recordings of professionally made CDs, which I already owned. Very disappointing. Not the end of the story, though. Last night, going through old boxes, I found two audio tapes that I had personally recorded of Freil playing the piano. Only had time to check one side out. There are 14 minutes of good enough audio, with songs I haven't heard him play since the late 1980's. That made it all worthwhile.
Can't wait to listen to the rest. Hope to find more gems from the past, but it's been too long since writing a new blog. Now you know what's up, and that I'm still making progress!