Remember the days when cassette tapes were considered high tech?  Even if you were born into the CD generation cassettes are still not defunct and there are an amazing number of people who are looking for ways to preserve the content that they have stored on cassette tapes.

I encountered someone recently who was desperately looking for a way to reminisce by preserving meaningful music and other content they recorded onto a cassette tape.  This person said they had boxes of cassette tapes that followed them from place to place and wanted to be able to find a way to make their cassette tapes more portable. They had also given up on the idea of ever being able to enjoy the content on “new fangled technology” as they referred to it and at the same did not want to depart with their cherished recordings.

I mentioned that I read about a device which will allow you to capture your audio cassette content on your PC and allow you to enjoy it without having to sift through your boxes of cassette tapes.  As they asked me more questions, I decided to take it upon myself to find out more about this device so I started off on my search.  I gave the Ion Audio Tape2PC a test run and it seemed to have all of the features this person was seeking.  Here is an Ion Audio Tape2PC review which will outline some of the features I found:

How the Ion Tape 2 PC Works

The Ion Tape2PC allows you to have easily access the content on the cassettes without having to carry around all of your cassette units.  You simply connect the device to your PC with the USB cable that is included and install the Ion Tape2PC software on your PC. With the device connected via the USB cable you can simply capture all of the audio content to your PC.  You can then use the digital files right on your PC or transfer them to your MP3 player, iPod, or CD which provides more versatility than some of the cassette to CD units.  Also, there are no special Ion  Tape2PC drivers needed.

Audacity and EZ Audio Converter

Ion Tape2PC provides two different recording applications for converting your cassette tapes.  The Audacity application contains comprehensive features with an interface that takes a little time to get used to but is full of many different capabilities.  Audacity contains settings for adjusting your tape conversions to many different types of formats and you can control the sound quality through a variety of multiple settings.  This application also provides a way for you to divide your sound files into individual tracks based on the silent space on the cassette tape which separates one song from the next. Audacity also provides noise reduction tools to eliminate the tape noise that is typically associated with cassette audio quality.

The EZ Audio Converter offers an easy to use interface for converting your audio cassette tapes to digital files. Unlike Audacity this application does not provide a way for you to split the tracks between songs and instead you must accomplish this by using the track button to record each song separately.  When you have completed recording the tracks a screen will appear which allows you to enter the name of the artist, title of the album and the name of the song.

Ion Tape2PC Software CD

The software CD which is provided with the Ion Tape2PC is easy to load and walks you through the setup process with tech support provided for both the Audacity and EZ Audio Converter applications.  The software is compatible with the Windows operating system and Mac OS X.

Ion Tape2PC Manual

The Ion Tape2PC comes with a manual included or you can download the manual in PDF format from the Ion Audio website.  The manual is about 24 pages and includes a Quick Start Guide.  It is very easy to comprehend and contains clear diagrams of the device with a clear explanation for how to use each function.  The instructions for playback and recording are step-by-step and include diagrams to enhance each step.

There is no Ion Tape2PC troubleshooting section in the manual however they have a technical support service which is available during business hours five days each week.  You can contact technical support via telephone and email and they request that you have your product information when you call; a description of the issue, and you should have the Ion Tape2PC turned on and running at the time of your call.

Ion Tape2PC Sound Quality

Overall, the sound quality of the Ion Tape2PC is quite good considering that you are converting from a cassette which was produced in an era where digital recordings and files were non-existent.  Additionally, you can alter the recording quality during dubbing and set the noise reduction features to clear up the audio quality from the cassette tape. Also, if you have cassettes from your childhood which you have played repeatedly you can use the software applications to eliminate the scratchy sound that comes with normal wear and tear on a cassette tape. Although EZ Audio Converter does not offer any editing enhancements, you can always use the Audacity application which is included in the software to clean up the tracks you have converted to digital files.

Overall, if you are looking for an easy way to preserve your cassette tapes by converting them to digital files the Ion Tape2PC may be your answer.  What’s more is you can connect the Tape2PC to your home entertainment system and use it as a standard dubbing cassette device as an added option.  The unit is very lightweight and does a good job of importing cassette tapes. When doing some research I came across a great deal on an Ion Tape2PC here.