"Is there anyone in the Toronto area, preferably Durham region, with the ability to create one or more MP3 files suitable for posting on the Internet?"

I'm 95% sure BucketHead would be willing to help ;-)

Posted by: Anonalogue at January 1, 2006 07:53 AM

jack from the player's audio to your line in on your sound card. fire up the freeware audacity software http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ click digital record, start the tape, voila. export to mp3. post to site. a child of twelve could do it.

Posted by: Ottawa Core at January 1, 2006 10:51 AM

"a child of twelve could do it"

I don't know if I'd call out a guy named ANGRY!

Posted by: pale at January 1, 2006 11:38 AM

"a child of twelve could do it"

Well, presumably that child has a cassette player. You see my problem. Best bet is use the player in the van and take up the offer to record it via the UMS phone, as per one of the emailed offers. Today is a bit crazy with the kids, but I'm going to try and arrange it later.

Posted by: Angry in T.O. at January 1, 2006 11:54 AM

okay, it's a family aphorism used to denote the ease with which one should be able to accomplish what appears, from demonstration by another individual, to be an easy chore. yes, it was normally followed with a swat up side the head for whining. it's certainly not to be construed as a "call out". please ANGRY your immense importance to the blogging world should, perforce, command adherants to rush to your home and fix you up. if i were there, i would. you know that.

we have a similarily well respected call-in radio host here in ottawa named lowell green. he's been broadcasting here for more than 30 years. he's an institution. some find his brand of politics over the top but we live in a lefty heaven here in the heart of troughland so go figure. i just call it common sense. he's got quite a following amongst us right thinking kind. his tag line for his program is "island of sanity". when we call him to discuss the newest round of politically correct idiocies he's referred to as the "commander". the same respect and familiarity (brothers in kind) is extended to ANGRY. i'm sure he knows it. if not, he should. he's a giant amongst us and will continue to be so as we pummel the government to act for us.

btw, here's lowells bio: http://www.cfra.com/hosts/lowell.asp

Posted by: Ottawa Core at January 1, 2006 01:38 PM

most of us don't have soundcards that accept external hardware? I would just love to be able to convert some of my classic old albums to mp3 files without having to buy a 300 dollar soundcard

Posted by: Disgruntled in Alberta at January 1, 2006 01:56 PM

You don't need expensive hardware.

I have an SB Live Value (retail less than 100$), you just use a male to male stereo 1/8th cable, hook one end up to a walkman, the other end to your cards line in jack (which almost any cheap soundcard has).

Then you can use any wav editting program to record it, windows Sound Recorder (which comes with every Windows OS since Win 98) will do it (but not well), and then you can easily convert it to an MP3 using any number of methods (notably - LAME).

Angry's obvious problem is that he doesn't have a tape recorder. Angry, any good Journalist should have a tape recorder. A visit to the sony store and you should be able to get a Voice Operated Recording tape recorder/player for under 100$. The would do just fine, then you can also use it to tape interviews you do as a member of the pajamas media. DO NOT GET A SMALL COMPACT TAPE SIZE RECORDER, as you want to be able to save your tapes and they are much more expensive.

Posted by: Paul Morrison at January 1, 2006 05:33 PM

If you have any trouble with it, Pumpkin, let me know...Techno-Hubby has the gear to do it.

Cheers.

Posted by: Wonder Woman at January 1, 2006 08:51 PM

most of us don't have soundcards that accept external hardware? I would just love to be able to convert some of my classic old albums to mp3 files without having to buy a 300 dollar soundcard

Paul Morisson is right -- pretty much any run-of-the-mill sound card has a "Line" jack (for line-in) and a "Mic" jack too (for a dedicated microphone, usually). Usually, they're even colour-coded too (I think pink is the microphone jack).

Then you can use any wav editting program to record it, windows Sound Recorder (which comes with every Windows OS since Win 98) will do it (but not well), and then you can easily convert it to an MP3 using any number of methods (notably - LAME).

Windows Sound Recorder actually will work very well, but you have to change the program's record settings using the "Save As..." menu. I think by default it's set for 22 kHz, 8-bit PCM (so basically, mono-channel sound quality). But it can be adjusted to CD-quality with just a couple mouse-clicks.

The only drawback is that it records in WAV format (CD audio format), which means large files (6 to 10 MB per minute).

Posted by: kennethk at January 2, 2006 12:53 PM