For those who grew up in the 80s or 90s, the cassette tape was the dominant music format through most of their childhoods. But with the fast development of electronic and digital technologies, audio cassettes have been replaced by more convenient music players years ago. In the world of digital audio files, we need to protect those cassette tapes by converting them to MP3 format. Of course, you can hold on the originals, but without having a digital copy, you probably run the risk of losing your favorite records as time goes by.

Unfortunately, the process for converting cassettes to MP3 was rather painful that it has kept this project at bay for years. But now we've figured out several ways to do it in no time with just our computer, cassette player, and a few free programs. We simply call them cassette to MP3 converters. Anyway, how to convert cassette to MP3 exactly?

Solution 1: Convert Cassette to MP3 with Leawo Music Recorder

To convert cassette to MP3, your first solution is Leawo Music Recorder, one of the best cassette to MP3 converters. Leawo Music Recorder is the best audio recording software for music lovers to record any audio and music on Windows OS. It allows users to edit and download music tags as well as to edit, add and delete playlist to play back recordings.

video-converter

Leawo Music Recorder 

☉ Record any music file from computer stream audio and built-in input audio.

☉ Record music from 1000+ music sites like YouTube, Facebook, Veoh, VEVO, etc.

☉ Schedule music recording via the internal recording task scheduler.

☉ Automatically/manually add and complete music tags like artist, album, cover, genre, etc.

After downloading and installing it on your computer, you could follow the below steps to learn how to record a voice note on computer with Leawo Music Recorder.

Step 1: Set audio source

To convert cassette tape to MP3 with Leawo Music Recorder, you should load the cassette tape into the recorder system first. Click the bottom-left "Audio Source" icon to set audio source you want to record. And there are two options for you to choose from: Record Computer Audio and Record Audio Input. In this case, you should choose the latter one - Record Audio Input.

record audio from a website with music recorder

Step 2. Set output directory

Click "General" tab to set destination output folder in the "Output" box. You could even adjust the program interface language.

output settings

Step 3. Set MP3 as output format

Set the format for your recording. Open the "Format" tab and you will get a pop-up as below. Select "mp3 Audio (*.mp3) in the "Output Format" box and finish the format setting regarding Bit Rate and Sample Rate.

output settings

Step 4: Start to record cassette tape to MP3 audio

Click the red "Start" button and then play the cassette tape to start recording. Leawo Music Recorder automatically captures cassette tape audio and starts recording. Make sure you click the "Start" button before playing the music in order to avoid any miss.

download wav audio

Step 5. Edit music tags

Click the red button when you finish recording. When the recording process finishes, the recorded music files could be managed in the "Media" interface, where you can see the recording Library and Playlist. As a professional cassette tape to MP3 converter, Leawo Music Recorder could automatically download and add music tags to recordings. But you could right click the desired recording and select "Edit Music Tags" to edit Title, Artist, Album, etc.

Edit live stream recordings

Solution 2: Convert Audio Cassettes to MP3 by i-Sound Recorder

i-Sound Recorder is your second solution to convert audio cassettes to MP3 on Windows. i-Sound Recorder is an software that you can use to record audio for up to three hours per recording file. It can be used side by side with other software, which allows you to record sound while you continue working on PC.

Step 1. Launch i-Sound recorder

To convert cassette tape to MP3 with i-Sound Recorder, you should launch i-Sound Recorder first.

Start-i-Sound-Recorder-5

Step 2. Destination codec and folder setting

Secondly, let's set the target file folder to keep recorded MP3 file. Click the "Settings" button on the main interface, the following window will pop up. Set the "Destination File Folder" as you wish. Also, you may click "Customize" to rename the output files.

recording-settings

Check the codecs of the left side, choose MP3 as target format.

After that, go back to main interface. Hit the round button in the center to start record. You may pause when what you wanted have been recorded. Click the Play button to check what you just record. Stop your recording when what you wanted has been recorded. For more detailed functions, try "SCHEDULER".

Solution 3: Convert Cassette Tape to MP3 with QuickTime Player and iTunes

If you are a Mac user, how to convert cassette tape to MP3 with built-in software? QuickTime Player will be your choice. More than just a video player, it's an easily-available and well-supported choice for doing basic audio and video recording and editing. To begin with, you must make sure everything is ready.

Step 1. Start & record

Find and open QuickTime Player in your Applications folder, click "File," then "New Screen Recording." Do not forget to choose and audio input source below Microphone in the pop-up menu. After recording, get the output audio file in destination folder. However, the file is not in MP3 format but M4A.

Convert cassette tape to mp3 with quicktime

Step 2. Convert M4A to MP3

The next step is to convert M4A format to MP3. Launch iTunes, select Preferences. Under General tab, click Import settings. Select Import Using to MP3 Encoder and press OK.

Convert cassette tape to mp3 with quicktime

Press OK to save changes, and to close the General Preferences window. From your iTunes playlist, select the audio file that you want to convert to MP3. Once done, back on the iTunes main interface, right-click the M4A file, and choose Create MP3 Version from the displayed context menu to convert the file to MP3 format.

Video Demo on How to Use Leawo Music Recorder