How to dump cassette software - the basics
Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2006 11:46 pm
We've recently had quite a few messages from people who are keen to contribute to the software database, but aren't sure how to go about converting their cassettes to an emulator-friendly format. So, here's a quick guide to the process. It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it, and there's an almost magical feeling when you can get your stuff into an instant-load format, instead of always having to wait forever for your tapes to load!
First, you need to download wav2cas.zip from http://www.umich.edu/~archive/atari/8bi ... ripherals/. Unzip the archive, and put it in a working directory on your hard disk. There's some great documentation in the archive too.
Next, you'll need a cassette player with some form of output connector. A hi-fi tape deck is best, but a Walkman will do (or even that old machine that you used to use to load cassettes with your Spectrum!). If you're using a machine with separate left and right stereo outputs, it's usually only necessary to connect the right channel.
You'll need to connect the cassette deck's output to the audio input of your sound card or motherboard with a suitable lead. These are quite readily available.
The next step is to record the audio from the cassette as a .wav file on the PC. The "Sound Recorder" program that's built into Windows is fine for this. It can be found in "All Programs" -> "Accessories" -> "Entertainment" from the Start Menu in Windows.
However, Sound Recorder starts up with a default file that's only one minute long, and in the wrong format. You need to go to File->Properties->Format Conversion, and choose 8-bit, mono and 44.1 kHz to get a file that's compatible with wav2cas. Then, you need to have a blank file that's long enough to hold the audio data from the cassette. Most commercial tapes have 10-20 minutes of data, sometimes more. There's an easy way to do this. Simply record one minute of silence, then save the file as "1m_blank.wav" or something. Then go to Edit->Insert File, and repeatedly choose this file until you have a long enough blank file. Then you should save that file under a different name, like "empty.wav".
Now you can press the Record button in Sound Recorder and press Play on the tape deck. Once the recording is finished, save the wave file (in the same directory as wav2cas.exe) using another name.
Next, you click on wav2cas.exe, and you'll be prompted for the file name, and asked to confirm. Answer "no" whenasked if you want to print diagnostic data, and then wav2cas does its magic.
The program produces two output files. One is the .cas file that contains the converted data, and the other is a .hex file. This is a text file that summarises that data that were converted, and whether each block of data was "OK" or bad. This can be useful if the conversion doesn't work the first time, as it can tell you where any errors occurred in the file.
Remember that wav2cas requires 8.3 character filenames - so the name of the .wav file to be converted should have 8 characters or fewer before the ".wav" extension.
If all went well, you should have a working .cas file at this point. If it's one we don't have, we'd be delighted to hear from you!
20+ year-old cassettes are surprisingly resilient, but the conversion process doesn't always work first time around. Sometimes a few tries are necessary. If a conversion fails the first time, it's often worth trying to adjust the line input volume on the PC (using the Volume Control from the taskbar).
Sometimes further audio processing is required, but well-preserved cassettes can often be converted quite easily.
Good luck - and let us know if you have any problems!
First, you need to download wav2cas.zip from http://www.umich.edu/~archive/atari/8bi ... ripherals/. Unzip the archive, and put it in a working directory on your hard disk. There's some great documentation in the archive too.
Next, you'll need a cassette player with some form of output connector. A hi-fi tape deck is best, but a Walkman will do (or even that old machine that you used to use to load cassettes with your Spectrum!). If you're using a machine with separate left and right stereo outputs, it's usually only necessary to connect the right channel.
You'll need to connect the cassette deck's output to the audio input of your sound card or motherboard with a suitable lead. These are quite readily available.
The next step is to record the audio from the cassette as a .wav file on the PC. The "Sound Recorder" program that's built into Windows is fine for this. It can be found in "All Programs" -> "Accessories" -> "Entertainment" from the Start Menu in Windows.
However, Sound Recorder starts up with a default file that's only one minute long, and in the wrong format. You need to go to File->Properties->Format Conversion, and choose 8-bit, mono and 44.1 kHz to get a file that's compatible with wav2cas. Then, you need to have a blank file that's long enough to hold the audio data from the cassette. Most commercial tapes have 10-20 minutes of data, sometimes more. There's an easy way to do this. Simply record one minute of silence, then save the file as "1m_blank.wav" or something. Then go to Edit->Insert File, and repeatedly choose this file until you have a long enough blank file. Then you should save that file under a different name, like "empty.wav".
Now you can press the Record button in Sound Recorder and press Play on the tape deck. Once the recording is finished, save the wave file (in the same directory as wav2cas.exe) using another name.
Next, you click on wav2cas.exe, and you'll be prompted for the file name, and asked to confirm. Answer "no" whenasked if you want to print diagnostic data, and then wav2cas does its magic.
The program produces two output files. One is the .cas file that contains the converted data, and the other is a .hex file. This is a text file that summarises that data that were converted, and whether each block of data was "OK" or bad. This can be useful if the conversion doesn't work the first time, as it can tell you where any errors occurred in the file.
Remember that wav2cas requires 8.3 character filenames - so the name of the .wav file to be converted should have 8 characters or fewer before the ".wav" extension.
If all went well, you should have a working .cas file at this point. If it's one we don't have, we'd be delighted to hear from you!
20+ year-old cassettes are surprisingly resilient, but the conversion process doesn't always work first time around. Sometimes a few tries are necessary. If a conversion fails the first time, it's often worth trying to adjust the line input volume on the PC (using the Volume Control from the taskbar).
Sometimes further audio processing is required, but well-preserved cassettes can often be converted quite easily.
Good luck - and let us know if you have any problems!