Quote:

however the only cassette device I have does not have RCA outputs, only speaker outputs & a stereo headphone output. ....



More than a software suggestion, you first need a quality cassette deck.

Beg, Borrow, get your hands on one to do the task.

**Examine the tape heads for cleanliness, scratches, etc. Do not use a scratched head of any kind on your precious tapes. One pass can ruin the tape permanently. Also examine the rubber pinch roller(s) and don't use any deck that has shiny, mirrored or "barrelled" worn pinch rollers, a recipe for not only bad audio in the wow and flutter dept. but a situation that can also result in the dreaded "eaten" cassette tape as the tape skews off of the barrelled worn pinch roller. Rubber pinch roller should be square to the capstan, in other words, *flat*.

**CLEAN the heads, tape path to include rubber pinch rollers w/alcohol and cotton swabs before *every* playback. Oxide buildup on the heads and tape path is not good for the next tape recording. Cleanliness is indeed next to Godliness when it comes to working with analog tape. Allow the path to dry thoroughly before attempting to run a precious tape through there. Only takes a couple or three minutes for that.

**Also get a tape path demagnetizing tool and use it on the deck's heads and capstan, tape guide path, before every session.

**First thing to do when you pop a Cassette in the deck is to FF it all the way to one end and then Rewind it all the way back. This is to put all the windings at the same tension as the deck operates. Can eliminate tape tension wow and flutter problems before they can rear their ugly little heads on your final recording. This should be done when recording any reel-based media, is especially important on tapes that have been sitting around in storage, for over time the tape windings can bind to each other, not a good thing when the transport is supposed to be moving the tape at an even speed across the tape head(s).

**fIND OUT IF THE TAPE WAS RECORDED USING DOLBY NOISE REDUCTION, AND IF SO, WHICH TYPE. Failure to play back using the same type of Dolby Noise Reduction will result in skewed EQ of the original recording. The same goes for tapes made with Ferrous-based, or Chromium-based, etc. and if you have those, the deck used should have the switch for the proper EQ curve of the various tape formats.

**LISTEN FIRST TO THE RAW DIGITAL RECORDING. Don't just blanket apply any noise reduction algo or anything else digital unless and until you have listened carefully to the raw digital recording and ascertained what's *wrong* with it. There may be little need to do anything at all here, maybe some tapes will sound good "as-is" while others not so good, etc. Make *decisions* rather than invoke some blanket set of algorithms to the entire batch.


But your hurdle to cross first is that cassette deck issue.

Get your hands on a rather decent one for the purpose, don't waste your precious time with a sub-par cassette deck -- and if it has only headphone jack output, it is very likely to be sub-par for this purpose.


--Mac

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