What you need
A tape deck’s LINE OUT, the two RCA sockets on the back, plugs straight into an audio interface, a small box that brings cables into the Mac over USB, like a Focusrite Scarlett. A USB cassette player has that box inside, so its cable goes straight into the Mac.
A USB cassette player
A tape deck
Two ways in. The tape deck’s line out goes straight into the interface.
Without a LINE OUT, use the headphone jack with a 3.5 mm to RCA cable, volume halfway.
Dolby is a hiss-reduction setting many tapes were recorded with, and the label says so (Dolby B or C). Match it on the deck. A Dolby tape played with Dolby off sounds too bright, and a tape without Dolby played with it on sounds dull.
Set the level
Play the loudest part of the tape and turn up the interface’s gain until it’s loud, with the clip light never on. Aim for peaks around −6 dB. Once you press Record, DOT’s live waveform shows the level.
A recording that distorts can’t be fixed. One that’s a little quiet can, with DOT’s Normalize volume setting, which turns the whole recording up by the same amount.
Record with DOT
- 1
Rewind to the start.
Of the side, or of the song you want.
- 2
Open DOT and click Source.
Turn Mics and inputs On and choose the interface or the USB player. On an interface, press Play on the deck, and DOT finds which inputs the tape is on, for example Inputs 1–2.
- 3
Turn Sound from your Mac Off.
Only the tape is recorded, with no notification sounds from the Mac.
- 4
Record.
Press Record, then Play on the deck, and Stop & keep when the song or the side ends. For one song per recording, pause the deck between songs.
- 5
Name it.
Double-click the recording’s row in the list (“Side A” or the song’s name).
The tape deck alone, with the Mac’s sound Off.
DOT trims the silence at both ends. Tape hiss isn’t always quiet enough to count as silence, so check the start, and drag the trim handle in if it needs it.
A song at a time, or a whole side
For a mixtape of music, record one song at a time. DOT gives each recording one key and one BPM, so each song gets its own.
A whole side as one recording: one BPM and key for four songs
One recording per track
Track 1
122 BPM
A minor
Track 2
96 BPM
D major
Track 3
128 BPM
F minor
Track 4
110 BPM
G major
Example values, not from a real tape.
For a family recording, a radio show or a talk, record the whole side at once. DOT has no length limit. It shows a key and BPM only when it hears music, so for speech they usually stay empty. On a 45-minute side of music, it reads the key from the first 10 minutes.
For records, which need a phono preamp too, see the guide to digitizing vinyl records on a Mac.
Save as MP3 or WAV
Export each recording, or drag it from DOT’s list into a folder in Finder.
- MP3 at 320 kbps is small and plays everywhere, with the BPM and key in its tags.
- WAV or AIFF keeps the full recording, at 48 kHz and 16-bit.
What DOT doesn’t do
DOT doesn’t reduce hiss, and it can’t fix wobbly pitch from a stretched tape. Audacity is free and has a Noise Reduction effect.
It doesn’t split a side into songs. Record one song at a time, or record the side and split it in Audacity with labels and Export Multiple.
It saves 16-bit WAV and AIFF. For a 24-bit archive, record in Audacity or GarageBand.
Sources
1
- Sample workflow for LP digitization, Audacity manual (the same steps apply to tape)
