Digitalize Cassette Tapes
Mark Tapes after Digitalize
My cassette collection is quite extensive. Some of these cassettes I bought and many of them are recordings that I have made myself from the radio.
To make the tapes last longer and not take up so much storage, I have been converting them to MP3 audio.
How I Get it Done
My Aiwa CA-DW480 CD Carry Component System outputs the audio to my Sony IC Recorder ICD-UX570 digital audio recorder. This recorder automatically adjusts the audio so that there won't be any audio clipping, etc.
Then, I upload the audio to my computer and rename it to the tape. If I don't know the tape or if it's not identified, I just put the brand of the tape.
In the end, when I am finished with the digital process, I put a red sticker with a date on the tape. I do this so that I will know when the tape was backed up and how long ago.
At some point, I will dispose of the tape.
Commercial Music Tapes
The reason why I digitize some of my commercial music collections is that they do not have all of them online. I was surprised to find out that many cassette tapes did not get converted to commercial mp3 files. This is especially true with commercial collection tapes.