Let’s face it, cassette tape sound quality will never be as good as CDs, vinyl records, or digital downloads.
Cassette tapes usually have subtle hissing sounds in the background, especially if they’re older.
Cassettes have a much shorter shelf life than CDs too. Since cassettes are made with magnetic tape, the tape deteriorates overtime and can be affected by outside elements such as light, humidity, and dirt.
Nonetheless a lot of people actually prefer the fuzzier sound of cassette tapes for the sense of nostalgia. And it’s possible your cassettes still sound pretty decent if they haven’t been overplayed. So it’s best to consider digitizing your cassette tapes immediately in order to preserve these sounds before they worsen.
Just because you digitize a cassette tape doesn’t mean the audio will sound as crisp as a digital download. At Kodak, we provide a 1:1 digital transfer for cassettes. What this means is we use the best quality conversion technology possible, but the transfer will always sound exactly like the original cassette tape. Any sort of enhancement or editing isn’t possible.
But like we said, if you listen to cassette tapes because you like the unique sound of cassettes, then you’re in luck because your digital files will sound exactly like your analog media.
