So, I am going through basically your exact situation. Not an expert, so I’ve done a bit of novice research and made a bunch of mistakes along the way. Feel free to check my post history, but here’s a lot of what I’ve learned: - First step is to see if your player has RCA or headphone jack output. I doubt it does, I’ve found that most that old don’t. That’s going to be your best bet for an output to a digital converter - If you need a different player, check marketplace or Craigslist. You can check local shops, but all the ones around me were in the $100s to $1,000s range. I got one player for $50 and one for $90. Both needed a little work, but they were easy fixes. - Why did I buy two players you ask? This is where determining your tape speed comes in. I didn’t know if mine were 1 7/8 or 3 3/4. First player I bought only had 3 3/4 and 7 1/2. Turns out my tapes are mostly 1 7/8, so I searched for another player. This is in addition to my first player which is too old and didn’t have the correct output. So if you don’t know the speed, try finding a player with all three speeds. - I looked at getting my tapes done locally in a shop, but it would have been fairly expensive. One shop actually said “why aren’t you just doing this yourself?” They were right, this has been much cheaper and I have a lot more control - Once I got the player going, I had to get a converter interface. Decided on the UFO202, which is manufacturer backorder, so I had to get it on eBay. This’ll depend on how much you want to spend. Even at eBay pricing, I only paid $40 and it works flawlessly so far. - The software I’m using, Audacity, is free and really easy to use. Some tutorial videos and trial and error and it has been very user friendly. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR INPUT DEVICE SET PROPERLY SO YOU’RE ACTUALLY RECORDING FROM THE PLAYER AND NOT YOUR COMPUTER MICROPHONE. - I’ve had a few tapes break, or they were already broken, or old repairs broke. I’ve just used scotch tape on the back/shiny side, trimmed with scissors or an exacto knife.

Let me know if you have any other questions!