Help Me Start, Please!, Need advice on what to buy. :-) Options

[ibnabouna]

Hello,

I have a question for all of the professional audio buffs that hang around here.

On my not-so-spare time, I build and run the web site at http://www.coptichymns.net/ , which is dedicated to the digitization and preservation of rare hymns of the ancient Coptic Orthodox Church (talk about niche market, huh).

Anyway, I currently encode all of my audio in RealAudio format via RealProducer Basic. I have a USB iMic connected to my DP G4, which, in turn, is connected to my stereo's headphone check. This is an extremely simple setup, I know.

I would like to begin doing more "hardcore" digitizing. My major concern at this point is that cable going from the stereo's headphone jack to the iMic. I think I would get better performance and quality from an RCA cable instead, right? Unfortunately, my stereo doesn't have that jack, so I guess I need to buy a completely new tape deck to play these ancient tapes and get the best possible quality for further optimization.

Now that you have my story, can anyone suggest a good quality tape deck that works well with Macs? Any other suggestions as to how I can make this endeavor more productive?

Thanks so much in advance.

[ibnabouna]

Hi, Presto,

Thank you for your elaborate reply!

I wish I read your post earlier this morning, when I ordered the following components from JandR:

1) Sony TCW-E475 Cassette Player/Recorder (a simple component cassette deck that has Dolby B, C, and HX noise reduction)
2) Audiophile 2496 sound card

After reading all of the helpful suggestions in this post and doing my research, I forged ahead with the Audiophile card, because the other alternatives have almost non-existent OS X support. I should have mentioned that I am a recent Mac "switcher," and as such, know how to do things pretty much in OS X only. OS 9 and Classic are almost alien to me; it took me a whole day just to figure out line-in playthough from the iMic. The reviews of the Audiophile were pretty strong all-around. Plus, it's a PCI card, which means I don't have to waste my system resources on the USB connection. Finally, not only did the MBox seem to be unsupported in OS X, but the included--Protools 5.2 LE--doesn't run on OS X. That would have made my audio solution almost entirely OS 9, which, for reasons stated above, didn't seem ideal to me.

So, with all of this in mind, do you think I made a mistake? I know the Mbox has a built-in preamp or something; should I get a separate one to go from the cassette deck to the Audiophile card to ensure enough power?

To answer your question. almost all of my tapes are vintage, being recorded in the 40s-60s and mass duplicated throughout the years. This has undoubtedly added to the distorion in the tapes. My goal is to attain the best possible digital recording of these tapes so I can encode them in RealAudio format and eventually use the master files to make CDs (once the copyright stuff is worked out with the holder in Egypt).

I'm just worried I made the wrong choice now. Please let me know if I should cancel my order and still go with an Mbox over the Audiophile 2496 card and whether I need a preamp.

Thanks again for the help.