Posted By
Litwr
on 2012-08-27
17:55:57
|  Re: TAP -> WAV -> PC sound card -> casette recorder -> datasette -> c16/+4
It is not very difficult to make the this data transfer. There are only several minor problems.
1. Bad cables. This can be detected by ears or visually by audio editors (Audacity, for example).
2. Inverted data. Some programs (TAP2WAV, old CTF2WAV) produce inverted data. These data maybe fixed by an audio editor or a simple utility. The first long pulse must look like
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3. Low signal level in data. For example, tap2wav gives only 63% of maximum volume and old ctf2wav only 76% in the produced wav-files. This volume must be maximized.
4. Datasette's head position may not correspond to the cassette recorder's. This maybe fixed by a screwdriver. Try to read tape several times with different head position. I use about 30 degree steps.
It is sad that CBM forgot about possibility to hear datasette sound. This sound gives new dimension the work with datasette. There is a simple mod which allows to get this sound. It was popular at Poland. I used it during 4 years with c+4 and made it again with c16 several days ago. It works perfect. I wrote about this mod at http://plus4world.powweb.com/forum/19152#19175. Sorry I was a bit wrong with pin 3. It requires only 5-10 KOhm register which should be soldered between pin 5 (sound input) of audio/video connector and pin 4 (cassette read). I'd soldered FB8 and FB11 wires at c+4 at 80s. I've soldered FB58 and FB16 wires at c16. Maybe connection to pin 3 of audio/video port will also work but I didn't test it.
I've just updated ctf2wav utility. It has options to invert data but it doesn't invert them by default now. It also has a new option to set the signal level.
I used 30-years old Sanyo two tapes stereo system and MB build-in sound card. I encountered with problems with turbo loaders but the standard format is always accepted by datasette.
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