Read The Ripping Yarns

or TAR for short... What TAR lets you do. TAR allows you to digitally record music and sound from any analogue source onto your Macintosh computer. You can record from cassettes, vinyl, 8 Track, reel to reel, even VHS, in fact anything that you have playback equipment for. TAR supports 16 and 8 bit recordings in stereo and mono. TAR records straight to disk, so it does not require large amounts of RAM. Uncompressed CD quality digital sound produces huge files - about 10 Mb per minute. (Both sides of a C-90 cassette, recorded on Auto Reverse would take 900 Mb.) TAR has powerful and easy to use editing features that let you break albums or cassettes up into discreet tracks. This is very important if you don’t always want to listen to tracks 1,2,and 3 before track 4. TAR produces tracks in AIFF format which are suitable for burning direct onto CD, or for compression into Mp3 files. TAR lets you select a Mp3 encoder, or any other application, and gives you the option of sending your saved tracks to this application. What TAR does not do TAR does not burn files onto CD. If you have a CDRW then you almost certainly got bundled software with it - probably the excellent Toast. TAR does not encode Mp3s, but it allows you to select an encoder of your choice, and sends the files to that. There are some suggestions about free Mp3 encoders that you can download off the net below. TAR does not do any digital signal processing, but you can also use the encoder selection feature to send recorded tracks to any application including a DSP. What you need PPC Macintosh Computer 8 Mb Free Ram System 8.1 or later. - it might work with 7.6 but I haven’t been able to try it. Monitor Resolution 800 x 600 pixels minimum. Approx 500 Mb disk space. Note that less than 2 Mb of disk space is required for the program, the rest is for your recordings. Audio Equipment You can record onto your Macintosh through the internal microphone, however you might prefer to record from vinyl, tape, radio or other analogue source. You will need an amplifier, the source (turntable, cassette deck etc), and some speakers. Make sure that your Macintosh and all audio equipment is turned off while you are making connections. Most Macs have a 3.5 mm stereo mini plug sound in port. You will need an audio cable with the stereo mini plug on one end, and two RCA phono plugs on the other for connection to your amplifier. Some Macs (AV types) have phono sockets and these can be connected to directly. There are pictures of the correct cables, and other useful info in Mac Help. Look under “Connecting audio equipment for inputting sound into you computer” in Mac Help under the Help menu in the Finder. You need to connect your Mac to a tape out port on your amplifier. You may also be able to connect your computer’s sound out port to the tape in port on the amplifier. You can then treat your Mac as if it were a cassette recorder. The newest Macs have sound inputs via their Firewire or …