ClearClick Cassette Tape to USB Converter with Cassette2CD Wizard 2.0 Software (Free USA Tech Support)

40 years ago I was preparing to move to Saudi Arabia and it was suggested I not take my vinyl LP's because my personal effects shipment could sit around outside in 40C (100+F) temperatures for a couple of weeks before it got delivered to my residence, so I copied everything I had onto cassettes. Came back to Canada after a couple of years but as time went by I played them less and less and they've sat in a trunk, mostly unplayed, for the last 30+ years. I bought the ClearClick Cassette2USB Converter so that I could resurrect the tapes, convert them on my IMac, load them into iTunes and then play them on my IPhone.My IMac wouldn't recognize the CD with the software but ClearClick Support gave me a link to download it, and it turned out I already had it (Audacity) on my system anyway. At first I couldn't get it to record, which turned out to be a couple of rookie mistakes on my part that ClearClick Support quickly got me through, and now it's just fine. Given that it's processing 40-year-old cassettes that weren't always great recordings to start with, I'm more than pleased with the results. I've never worked with audio files before so I'm learning as I go and I'll likely re-do some of the early attempts but I'm definitely pleased with the process and results. I'm driving around in my car listening to albums that haven't seen the light of day for 40 years. ClearClick Support deserves compliments, it was fast and friendly.

What I found, as other reviewers have written, is that "tape player" is of VERY poor quality, and does not help with the goal of conversion. My proof of this is finding the proper connection cords to connect from my home tape deck system to my laptop. Using that, the EXACT SAME TAPE sounded 100% better. That being said, what you are really paying for is the software, which I found to be MUCH easier to use than others I've seen.

The Converter works good as a tape player and using the Line In connection on my computer also worked great. The USB configuration had a lot of noise while recording. Too much noise to use the USB connection. That leaves me with having to use battery power for the converter. Now I am looking to buy a cassette player that is powered from the wall that has a headphone jack. The included Cassette to CD Wizard software is worth the price of the unit, but there were some issues. When selecting Automatic Track Detecting, the tracks were ended about a second too soon and sometimes there were entirely too many tracks. Also, the directions state when manually setting the tracks that the marker should be dragged from the left but the photo clearly shows it be done from the right, which is correct. The automatic Noise Removal filter made the music sound weird.

I'm not much of a computer person and it only took me 3 tries to figure out what I needed to do but this was easy, what a blessing to have 38 year old tapes transferred to my computer so my children and grandchildren can hear our family stories. I used the basic noise reduction and it did a great job. I have transferred 6 tapes so far and I would have spent $10.00 each for a professional to put each on a CD. Then I would have to figure how to transfer the cd to the computer. It didn't work on my old lap top but my newer computer with Window's 10 was an easy install. I found it was easier to create tracks if I set a time to stop recording, then I only had a few tracks to move around, otherwise the top of the box was full of arrows and no space to say Track 1, Track 2, etc. Well worth the cost. THANK YOU, CLEAR CLICK!!!

Worst purchase ever. Strongly recommend NOT wasting your time or money on the ClearClick Cassette2USB converter. I wasted many hours trying to get this device to work with multiple high end laptops. Neither of the supplied software programs, nor any of the audio capture programs I use all the time, would detect that anything was even connected to a USB port. The audio out of the headphone jack was horrible. I tried multiple tapes. At low volume there was a background screeching that was louder than the audio from the tape. Turning up the volume reduced the screeching but induced rumbling and hissing that was as loud as the music from the tape. Pushing the play button down really hard improved the audio quality slightly, but at best it was still the worst I've ever heard. Fast forward and Rewind were barely faster than play mode. The direction button only worked half the time and sometimes made the device shake like it was trying to go in both directions at the same time. Amazon should have higher standards than to allow their customers to be ripped off by junk like this.

I purchased this product with high hopes but found that the accompanying manual's instructions didn't match the software on the Audacity CD. I emailed for technical help but had to wait over 48 hours for any response. The tech was courteous but his directions still did not match those found in the manual either. Finally after two frustrating days of trying to get a cassette recorded, I was told that I needed to download a newer pdf found on the Audacity CD for an updated manual. This manual's text did match the software, but was so difficult to understand that after another day of working with it I just gave up and decided to return the whole system to Amazon and just buy the CDs for the cassettes I was intending to convert.