Convert Audio Tapes to Digital Files
Cheap Way
To copy your tapes to your PC for digital archiving, you'll need exactly three things:
1) A cassette player
I dug out my old Walkman, which I found perfectly suited to the task, but you could also use a tape deck.
2) A stereo patch cord
Specifically, you need a cable that connects your Walkman's headphone jack to your sound card's line-in jack. You can get one at Amazon for around $5. If you're connecting a tape deck, you may need an adapter to accommodate its larger headphone jack.
3) Audacity http://www.audacityteam.org/download/
An open-source, cross-platform program that makes simple work of recording and editing audio. It's available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. If you plan to turn your tapes into MP3 files, make sure to get the LAME MP3 encoder as well; there's a link to it on the Audacity download page. (Detailed instructions on setting up the LAME MP3 encoder are also available online)
Getting Started
Once Audacity has been installed, open it up. Turn the input volume all the way up and press record.
Right after that, hit the play button on your tape player.
Now, you must wait for the duration of your tape. If you accidentally go a bit over without pressing stop, it’s no big deal because we can cut out the excess later. After your tape is done playing, hit the stop button and we’ll begin to process the recording.
You will undoubtedly have at least a couple seconds of excess noise at the beginning and end of your recording, so highlight that section (just drag your cursor across that area) and hit delete. Repeat this process for the end of your recording until you’ve gotten rid of all the excess noise.
After you’ve trimmed the excess and ensured that you got a quality recording (just hit play to hear what you’ve got), you can save the data into an audio file, such as MP3.
Just go to File > Export to be presented with all the formats that you can save your data in.
To compress your file into a reasonable size but still retain the maximum quality, select FLAC. For maximum compatibility and more compression, while still retaining a very reasonable amount of quality, select MP3.
Once your data is exported, you can play back your file anytime you want in your favorite media player (or on your phone, etc).
Easy Way
Handy USB Cassette Player and Tape-to-MP3 Digital Converter
Tutorials
http://www.magix.com/us/support/know-how/tutorial-videos/rescue-your-vinyl-tapes/