Thanks Mivo.
EDIT: After posting the the big reply below and then going back an re-reading the OP's original post, I am not clear if YOU want to make tapes of YOURSELF, and then send them to her, OR you want to set her up for recording at HER home, and have her send YOU the tapes that you convert to CD?
I somehow answered for and assumed the LATTER. If your question is the FORMER, then I might answer it a bit differently.
Please clarify.
OTHERWISE, my answer for the LATTER OPTION as I had originally said is below:
FYI: I'VE NOTICED THAT LOTS OF TIMES FOLKS JUST GLOSS OVER THE WALL OF TEXT IN MY POSTS AND END UP REPEATING EXACTLY WHAT I SAID BECAUSE THEY DO NOT READ ALL THE OTHER POSTS BEFORE MAKING THEIR REPLY TO THE THREAD. I WOULD STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MY ~40 YRS OF IN-DEPTH RECORDING EXPERIENCE AND READ THIS POST IN FULL. THANK YOU.
TO THE OP:
From experience with my own mother who is going to be 74 this year, the simplest setup, with a minimum of parts, and minimum of buttons to press is going to be the best way.
All of this business with an
88 yr old woman learning to use preamps and USB and computer is going to fry her brain and she is likely to give up in frustration,
or torture you for repeated tutorials which she is never going to be able to remember, even if she takes notes and writes everything down.
Go to Radio Shack or Best Buy and get whatever mic you can find that will plug in to the 3.5mm jack (not 2.5mm) and make sure that this mic does NOT have an on/off switch since nobody will ever remember to use it properly. You may have to get a mic that has a 6.3mm (or 1/4" in imperial units) plug and then get the MONO adapter to reduce it down to the 3.5mm (1/8") of the cassette recorder.
Your most compatible mic will be a 'tape recorder microphone' which is a dynamic mic that has 2 plugs, one 2.5mm (to pause the tape transport FROM an ON/OFF switch ON the mic itself) and 3.5mm (for the audio from the mic), ys this is DIFFERENT from the first option above, which will usually be a MUCH better mic, even it is a First-Act $20 'vocal' mic, or a Behringer XM-8500 from Amazon.
If you are not using a 'tape recorder mic', you will end up with a mic that has either an XLR or 1/4", AND then might need to purchase a cable and an adapter down to 1/8" (3.5mm)...
Then I would get some 60 minute NORMAL tapes, not CHROME OR METAL since the record head on a small tape recorder will NOT have enough
voltage to use the better ferrite laminates on CHROME OR METAL tapes. Something like the TDK D-60 or Maxell UR-60 should be fine. But the 4-pack or 6-pack. Put the little LABELS on the tape cartridges. Show her how to write the names of the songs on the INDEX CARD that comes in the little plastic box for each cassette. Label each cassette and index card to match - MAMA SONGS #1, MAMA SONGS #2 etc...
There will be some hiss in the recording, which will be nowhere near CD-quality, but if you want to preserve her memories this is the easiest setup of equipment.
Put the tape in the machine, plug the mic in, and set it into record mode and you might have to adjust the RECORD LEVEL via the VOLUME control on the side.
This is likely to be the SIMPLEST way, unless she already has a tablet or smartphone and is VERY comfortable with it's use.
TO make a CD from the TAPE, YOU are going to take the tape and maybe even the cassette player and using the proper cables, YOU will record from the PLAYING tape into your COMPUTER to a WAV file, with a program such as AUDACITY (runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, etc), and then after, you can use a CD RECORDING program to make a MUSIC CD to play in the car, etc...
With Audacity you can remove the tape HISS, and other artifacts with the built-in effects and there are about 2000 additional FREE effects and filters that are just a download away, some of which are specific to cleaning up recordings imported from analog audio tape.
There are THOUSANDS of software programs to use, across ALL VERSIONS of Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, etc, but without knowing your computer setup, I cannot recommend which one.
IMHO: Any other procedure or method, with an aged elderly person, with possibly poor retention of technical details, is likely to be nothing more than torture for all involved and a painful exercise in frustration and futility.
There are lots of other details that I've left out here, but these are the basics...
I am happy to consult further and hope this helps get you thinking in the right direction...
Good Luck!
