Audio to Wav conversion

Anything related to the tools Tap2Wav, Tap2CD, Tap2Dsk, Sedoric Disc Manager, Tape Header Creator, WriteDsk, and generaly speaking tools related to the management of Oric data files and devices.
coolman66
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Audio to Wav conversion

Post by coolman66 »

As a novice can anyone help with tips on how to convert an oric game tape (Audio) to wav , I assume its not just a matter of loading the tape into a converter program and saving out the resulting wav file I am supposing there are a few settings to adjust ,Mono or Stereo 16 bit or 32 bit and possibly many others , any tips would be appreciated.
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Dbug
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Re: Audio to Wav conversion

Post by Dbug »

I really depend of the program you use, and these days there are many options.

25 years ago we were limited to Tap2Wav which would just convert the TAP to a normal speed WAV file you could just replay, and they were just mono 8 bit because you don't need high definition audio to just encode some ____-----_____-_--_---__ type of signal.

20 years ago appeared Tap2CD, which is a variant of Tap2Wav which adds a small custom loader which send loads the rest which is encoded in a different way allowing to load much faster when using digital devices like laptops or CDs

Since then Symon has been working hard, created new formats with better loaders, there's some android apps that can replay the TAP file directly to audio, etc...

The bottom line is:
- If your target is to recreate physical tapes, use the old Tap2Wav with the default settings, will just work
- For everything else, just use one of the modern fast loaders which all come with their own documentation and gotchas
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Vyper68
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Re: Audio to Wav conversion

Post by Vyper68 »

+1 for Symoon’s Novalight software. It loads Oricium in around 17 seconds :)

I normally use Tap2Wav and sometimes TapClean if the tape isn’t too good. Then try to Novalight the .wav file to speed up the loading. I normally use Audacity for all of the recording and playback, others might use different software.
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Symoon
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Re: Audio to Wav conversion

Post by Symoon »

coolman66 wrote: Fri Jan 14, 2022 9:05 pm As a novice can anyone help with tips on how to convert an oric game tape (Audio) to wav , I assume its not just a matter of loading the tape into a converter program and saving out the resulting wav file I am supposing there are a few settings to adjust ,Mono or Stereo 16 bit or 32 bit and possibly many others , any tips would be appreciated.
I think coolman66 was asking for TAPE to WAV, not .TAP to WAV? I'll answer this way ;)
Ok, you need of course to plug your tape player to your computer using an audio cable (I'll say 'PC' because I know nothing about Macs).
Then you have to record what's going out of your tape, using for instance Audacity.

PC side, you can directly record to the format required by most Wav to TAP conversion tools: mono, 44kHz, 8 bits.
BUT I do recommand that you record your tape in STEREO, since it allows later the choice of using the right or left channel for the conversion tools - and belive me on some recordings, one of the channels can be almost silent, or have drop outs!
The volume must be high enough. It shouldn't be too much of a problem if it's a bit too high (saturation).

On the tape player side, it's better if you can use a small screwdriver to adapt the reading head to the recording, so you get a clearer sound.
BUT beware: sometimes, it's better NOT doing this, it depends on the tape preservation.
I explain: having a clear sound allows to have a better rendition of what's on the tape. But old tapes sometimes generate strange little distortions, that conversion tools won't like. And that can be avoided it you DON'T get a clear sound. Just like blurring a picture a bit erases the small details and can give a "softer" picture. But I'm already talking of advanced tricks here.

That's the most important that comes to my mind, and don't get depressed: some tapes can be converted with a single recoding, worst will require re-recordings until you get tired of it! (ask Steve, I sometimes asked him to try again doing WAV files 4 or 5 times).

PS: thanks for Novalight support :D I still had a faster version in the works, but still wondering if it's worth doing as it seems a bit less reliable.
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Re: Audio to Wav conversion

Post by ibisum »

I just got one of these to try out with some transfers:

https://www.elektronik-star.at/Multimed ... t-USB.html

It has a USB port for easy transfers from cassette -> .WAV file.

I'm going to try it out with some of my own tapes/software - I don't have any original Oric tapes worth trying, though.

If anyone has any tapes they'd like to transfer, I'm happy to do it if you send them to me. Maybe this ClearTech cassette recorder/player can do no-fuss transfers directly to .WAV without much hassle .. I'll find out in this weeks Oric hacking sessions ..
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Re: Audio to Wav conversion

Post by Vyper68 »

If I want to archive a cassette tape I have picked up I normally use my Ferguson 3T31 to play into my laptop recording in Mono @44.1khz. I then trim the .wav file a little then export it as a 8-bit unsigned file. Then I run wavclean and then either wav2tap or Novalight. I use Novalight on my laptop but I have a TZXDUINO that can now play Oric cassette files and use that for the standard files.
That cassette deck with the USB socket look interesting.
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Re: Audio to Wav conversion

Post by TGP »

Hello, long time no write, but I do lurk from time to time.

I finally have a tape player I can use to transfer Oric tapes to PC. I've tried a few, some work, some don't and I'm still at an early stage of learning what to do and what works best. The deck is a TEAC W-1200 - it has USB connection for easy connecting.

At the moment I cam creating wav files and running these in Oricutron. Can't get them to work with the various tools for cleaning them up and making TAP files in, so I might need a bit of help there. I don't think I'm recording the WAVs in the right format for the tools.

I have a working WAV file of the English translation of Panic by No Man's Land. I notice on Oric.org that the French version is the only one there. If we can get this wav file turned into a TAP, then the English version can join the French one I guess.

Best regards,

TGP / Jim Groom / Lothlin
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Re: Audio to Wav conversion

Post by Symoon »

Hi Jim,

Good to hear from you, and that you're back in the Oric World ;)

Regarding WAV format, please read my post above (Sat Jan 15, 2022 11:34 pm).
If you don't go any further, please share a WAV file on some download site, I'll check it.

Latest tapetools:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/euphor ... %20format/
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