Reel to Reel How To?

[chopper]

I found and old audio reel to reel tape that I would like to export to digital.

I also have an old reel to reel which I am told works.

I have no idea how to do this. Any help here?

I moved the reel to reel from the closet, it is a total tank and must weigh 65 pounds or more.

[clay]

1/4" plug from headphone out on reel to reel to mixer, and from mixer into computer.

[cbelt3]

Oh.. My... God .... (panting)..... Reel to Reel... oooh.... (swoons).

Ok, I'm better now.

What clay said. You'll have to adjust the mixer levels to get a good line in signal into your computer and avoid clipping. watch your VU meters...

The A-D quality may not be the best in a vanilla 'sound card'. There are much better technologies out there, but at least you can give it a shot with the technology you have.

[Buck]

Wow. It looks like the one I used to have.

[Ombligo]

And if you don't have the mixer, just playing into a microphone. It will be in mono and not high quality, but works.

[colonel panic]

Should be either 1/4" or XLR outputs on the back of the tape machine. Take those outputs into the mixer, then mixer main outputs into your computer. Ideally you should use an USB or FireWire audio interface to go into the computer, but you could also go from the mixer to the mini audio input on your mac. Clean the heads on the tape machine before you start with some 99% pure isopropyl alcohol and qtips. Be careful with the tape as it is probably old and fragile.

[davester]

I'd try using the line outs (probably on the back or side) into an A/D converter like the Griffin iMic rather than using the headphone jack. That way you have one less source of distortion (the probably low-specced headphone amp) to pass the sound through. The VU meters on the deck are irrelevant since you're playing, not recording.

[Catzilla]

You might want to turn that reel around...

[deckeda]

and watch a video or two on YouTube for the X 360D

"works" -- turns on

That external mixer isn't needed. Line out RCA jacks to computer's stereo 1/8" mic/line input. Or the headphone jack if the line out's no good. The X 360D also has DIN for the line-level but you'd need to get a different adapter.

Don't worry about using a better ADC from what an audio interface can offer until you determine how well it plays back the tape (assuming the tape is decent to begin with.)

[WHiiP]

If the Reel really isn't working it is probably because the rubber belts that make everything turn are "dead."

Google for the belts and buy new ones. Simple to figure out once the insides are exposed, but you can probably find a diagram on google too.