#as long as the cassette and vhs digitization remains fun and not a chore then I'm gonna keep up with it as a fun self care hobby

[starstruckpurpledragon]

My first batch of my cassette digitization project is completed. Woo, I can record a few more to the computer tomorrow and start on splitting those up into tracks next. I'm putting the first of the four Eric Clapton cassettes (they're a set) in the next batch along with Cruisin' Classics VI and Beauty and the Beast.

I've picked out seven tapes for the batch and should get them all recorded over the next few days while I work. That's the easy part, of course. Splitting them into tracks takes more time and isn't really something I can do during the work day but I didn't pretty good progress doing a few tracks here and there on days when I didn't have the time to put a few hours into splitting tracks out and doing some spot fixes here and there.

Audacity's repair functions are useful but also (understandably) limited in what they can do. So I think some of the clickier tracks are just gonna be that way. I might go back and try to finesse a few of them later if it really bugs me - Natalie Cole's Nature Boy may very well get a second look down the line, that one's got a lot of clicks in there - but sometimes I have to pick between being able to amplify the track so it sounds better and cleaning up the background noise that comes from wear and tear of the tape over the years.

I've also had some fun playing with the fade options. The untitled tape turned out to be a mix my dad put together at some point with a lot of random songs on one side and some of his favorites from an Eric Clapton Live album on the other. And a few of those tracks started/ended abruptly with the audience clapping so I used some fade in/fade out adjustments to make the start and end of the track sound better without affecting the actually music portions of the tracks. I currently have Before You Accuse me stuck in my head, though, because it was on there three times. (I mean I like that song too, but did it need to be on there three times Dad? It was 45 min of tape per side of the cassette, surely there were two other songs you could have picked...)

I also may have wandered through some thrift stores/second hand stores this weekend and picked up some more VHS and cassettes for cheap. I was able to find Annie, which I could swear I used to have the VHS for but recorded off TV. And the Shirley Temple version of A Little Princess which probably isn't going to usurp the place of my favorite adaptation of that book but I've always wanted to see her version. Also found a Nat King Cole cassette to compliment my Natalie Cole cassette. (I now have father and daughter ^_^ )