How to copy music from a tape deck to your Windows XP Home computer?

To record/copy music from a tape deck, follow the steps below:

1. You may use Windows Sound Recorder but before that you must connect your tape player (deck) to the computer.
2. Make or buy an audio cable with two headphone jack at both ends (in most cases).
3. Connect one end to the "phones" output of your player (deck) and another side to "line in" of the computer.
4. Open Windows volume mixer and go to recording section and choose "line in" as source.
5. Play your tape and record it by sound recorder but for any further edits like noise reduction reverbs etc, you will need software such as Cool Edit Pro and so on.
6. You may the recorded files to MP3 or any other file format using the above mention third party software.