Record from cassette to CD

My brother-in-law and I haven't had many conversations. No bad vibes, we just haven't spent much time together. And his e-mails are terse. So I was suprised to find one which asked a technical question. I like tech questions when it comes to audio! He wanted to know how to make a CD from a cassette. I explained it and added, "but if this doesn't make sense for you, I'd be glad to do it, just send it to me. No sweat." His next E dropped the bombs. Cluster bombs. "I have about 20 cassettes to copy."

I'm now looking through his collection and trying to figure out how to do this - I have the burner but the cassette player is putting out like a catholic girl after confession (sorry) - like very little output. I sleep on it. An ah-ha moment greets the day and my hand hits the very right adaptor I need to pull a signal out of the headphone output.

Now I fret about levels and fuss.

Then it hits me - he's dropped the needle on records (this is really cross-generational!) and hit record at the same time. This explains why everything is "upcut" - an upcut is where the beginning is missing. Because you can't record on the tape LEADER which is about 10 seconds of blank.

So I feel better. I am doing the best I can and persevering because our old casette player has no auto reverse... running back to check every few minutes.

And yet - it's family. It's what you do.