# Solved: Transferring cassettes to laptop?



## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

I have a Fisher CR-110 cassette player (I can't find any links for it on the internet, other than a link to a user's manual for purchase, or I'd post a picture of it) --- I thought I could somehow hook it straight to my laptop, but, obviously it is wanting an amplifier connection.

I've managed to do that, but, now, I don't know what to do next to hook it to the laptop. I have the red/white/mini stereo? cable that will plug inito the headset? jack of my laptop. However, I don't know where to plug the other end? Into the amp somewhere, I'm assuming? There is another set of inputs (red/white) on the cassette player too, but, I'm figuring that they don't go there?

Oh, and the cassette is playing through my sound system now, so, I've managed to get that connected correctly  *whew*


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## vicks (Jan 31, 2005)

The way I transferred the cassettes to my pc is.....
Used my Sony Walkman with RCA cables plugged into headphone socket, the other into the microphone on the computer. (I used a splitter so I could also listen with headset at the same time.) then used the free program Audacity to do the transferring thru. Works great....
Hope this answers it for you.
vicks


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Wow, there are Sony Walkman Cassette Players? 

Thanks for the tip. I'd really like to get this silly cassette player connected though. It's become a challenge now


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## telecom69 (Oct 12, 2001)

Hi Candy, There should be a *tape output socket/s *on the amplifier,that is what you need ...

You are putting the signal from the tape player into the amp to be amplified and now you have to get it back out again and the tape output sockets serve this purpose, you then connect the tape output to your computer ..thats how I do it anyway


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## Soundy (Feb 17, 2006)

You actually don't need an amplifier. Just connect the PLAY OUT jacks on the deck to the LINE IN jack on your laptop. Or if you want to leave it connected to the amp, use the amp's TAPE OUT or REC OUT jacks.

The catch is getting the sound into your laptop: some only have MIC IN jacks, and you MUST use a LINE IN for this, as most MIC inputs are mono only, and will be overloaded by the cassette's signal.

As a last resort, you could get something like this:


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Hi Soundy, thanks for the repy 

I have a headphone jack on the laptop, wouldn't that be a better place to connect it?

But, in any event, you are saying I don't need the amp? If I don't need the amp, then I can connect it to my desktop sound card? There are two sets of red/white connectors on the tape deck. Record and playback.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

telecom69 said:


> Hi Candy, There should be a *tape output socket/s *on the amplifier,that is what you need ...
> 
> You are putting the signal from the tape player into the amp to be amplified and now you have to get it back out again and the tape output sockets serve this purpose, you then connect the tape output to your computer ..thats how I do it anyway


Hi Bob, Thanks for the reply. There are a whole lot of connectors on the back of the amp  I think there is also a DVD or VCR running "through" it. I don't want to mess up how it's working now, for sure, as I could never figure out how to make it work again. I have enough trouble with my 3 remotes to control my DVD and TV in the bedroom   Not real sure why I need 3 remotes either


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## Soundy (Feb 17, 2006)

AcaCandy said:


> Hi Soundy, thanks for the repy
> 
> I have a headphone jack on the laptop, wouldn't that be a better place to connect it?


No, because a headphone jack is an output; you're trying to get sound INTO the laptop.



> But, in any event, you are saying I don't need the amp? If I don't need the amp, then I can connect it to my desktop sound card? There are two sets of red/white connectors on the tape deck. Record and playback.


You don't need the amp; just use the RCA-to-mini-TRS cable to connect the PLAYBACK jacks on the deck to the LINE IN plug on any sound card, be it your desktop or your laptop.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Thanks again. I'll give it a shot in a few minutes. I take it that I should be able to hear it then? Through the computer, once it's connected correctly?


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Also, you mentioned that the mic in might be an overload? Will it damage anything? Should I use the line in on the computer? I guess if I have to move the cassette deck anyway, that will probably be the wiser choice? No?


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## vicks (Jan 31, 2005)

AcaCandy said:


> Wow, there are Sony Walkman Cassette Players?
> 
> Thanks for the tip. I'd really like to get this silly cassette player connected though. It's become a challenge now


Yes, it is bordering on antique!!!!
Vicks


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## Soundy (Feb 17, 2006)

It likely wouldn't damage anything on the mic input, it would just be noisy and distorted, and the sound would only be in mono (probably just the left channel). Microphones generally output at a much lower level than line signals, so mic inputs often boost the signal significantly, which can distort the line signal. 

Mics also often require a much lower input impedance (600 ohms or less), whereas line inputs present a much higher impedance (10k or more); the low impedance of a mic input can present too high a load to a line driver, which will also result in distortion.

It also depends somewhat on the sound card - newer computers' onboard sound usually allow all jacks to be selectable, so any of them can be used as a mic input, a line input, or an output... but those inputs that are mic-only will have a problem with it, which is the case with most laptops' mic inputs, in my experience. If the laptop has a designated LINE input, or if the MIC input can be configured as a LINE input though, you're okay.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Thanks again. I have to run out to pick up a new video card (free after rebate  ) so, I'll try to get to testing this when I return.


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## telecom69 (Oct 12, 2001)

AcaCandy said:


> Hi Bob, Thanks for the reply. There are a whole lot of connectors on the back of the amp  I think there is also a DVD or VCR running "through" it. I don't want to mess up how it's working now, for sure, as I could never figure out how to make it work again. I have enough trouble with my 3 remotes to control my DVD and TV in the bedroom   Not real sure why I need 3 remotes either


I shall be watching to see if this other way will work,I was just going on the fact you said "obviously it wants an amplifier connection" assuming that you had tried it without the amp ...yes there are lots of connections on amplifiers but they should all be clearly labelled and you shouldnt have to remove anything already connected....waiting patiently now to see if it works for you


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Ok, I'm testing this now. I'm not sure if I should hear anything on the laptop? I have it connected to the mic in?

Playback red/white connectors are going to the amp, I can hear that it's playing through those attached speakers.....the record red/white connectors are attached to the laptop mic in.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

I used the sound recorder to record, didn't look like it was recording, but, on playback, I can hear very faint music. 

I now have disconnected the amp, have it straight to the laptop....and the sound recorder is at least showing green like it's recording. Although, the playback can't be heard well either


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

It's working 

I connected it to the line in on the desktop, and nada. Upon checking the mic, line in, etc. the line in wasn't set as default?  so, I changed that, then tried to record with sound recorder, and it played back   

NOW, is there anyway to listen to what you are "recording" WHILE you are recording it?

I'm guessing I'll need to use something other than sound recorder for a whole cassette


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## Soundy (Feb 17, 2006)

Clarification required: which attached speakers, those on the amp, or the computer? If the former, do you get anything out of the laptop speakers? Which connectors on the amp are your wires plugged into?


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

The attached speakers to the amp. Nothing out of the laptop during the time it was connected.

On the amp, I had the connectors from the cassette out to tape 1 in, then tape 1 out went to the mic input on the laptop.


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## Soundy (Feb 17, 2006)

Okay, so now you need to open the Windows mixer (double-click the Volume icon in the System Tray) and make sure the Mute box is unchecked on the MIC input, and that the level is turned up.

For recording, you need to switch to the Record mixer - go to Options -> Properties -> Adjust volume for -> Recording. Make sure the checkbox for Microphone is selected, then click OK - the mixer should change to Recording Control. Then make sure the Select box is checked for the Microphone channel (most cards will only allow you to select one source at a time).


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Right now, I'm recording to the desktop, and I don't hear anything either, but, I can see that Audacity is recording. I've already managed to do one complete cassette, convert to MP3 format and play it back  

I'm a happy camper. I can see this will be time consuming, and if you forget about the recording, you get a lot of blank space that you have to remove, but, 1 cassette down, about 100 to go


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Soundy said:


> Okay, so now you need to open the Windows mixer (double-click the Volume icon in the System Tray) and make sure the Mute box is unchecked on the MIC input, and that the level is turned up.
> 
> For recording, you need to switch to the Record mixer - go to Options -> Properties -> Adjust volume for -> Recording. Make sure the checkbox for Microphone is selected, then click OK - the mixer should change to Recording Control. Then make sure the Select box is checked for the Microphone channel (most cards will only allow you to select one source at a time).


I'll check that out to see if it will indeed work on the laptop  as that would be nice to know as well. The laptop has a built in mic, and of course a mic input as well...not sure if that became an issue when I had the laptop connected.

It's now in front of my desk, so, I can retest the setup without the amp of course.


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## K7M (Feb 27, 2000)

I use polderbits for my recordings, Here is a link to their page.
http://www.polderbits.com/HowToConnect.htm#input
It shows how to connect to your desktop or laptop computer. Even if you don't use their program the hookups are the same.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Thanks, I'll check out that program, it looks more interesting than what I'm using


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## vicks (Jan 31, 2005)

AcaCandy said:


> It's working
> 
> I connected it to the line in on the desktop, and nada. Upon checking the mic, line in, etc. the line in wasn't set as default?  so, I changed that, then tried to record with sound recorder, and it played back
> 
> ...


the way I have done it, I bought a splitter and had one cable go to the computer and the other plugged a headset into it. (got it at Radio Shack and still gives stereo sound).
When I got everything onto the computer, and converted to MP3s I burned the music to cd (made some playlists so we can hear different songs (artists) on one cd for in the car etc.
It is kinda fun to see what you can do.
vicks


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

I have one of those splitters around here somewhere, I'm sure.

Now, since you mentioned stereo, while it's recording, I can only see the left with activity, however, when I play back, I hear sound out of both computer speakers. Should I be concerned about that before I record too much? 

Also, I'm guessing I should probably save each song by itself instead of the whole side of each cassette, but, that sounds like way too much work 

At best, I'll probably listen to them on either the computer or my Zune player, so, I guess listening to one whole side rather than being able to fast forward to the next song isn't a real big deal?


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## stantley (May 22, 2005)

AcaCandy said:


> I can only see the left with activity, however, when I play back, I hear sound out of both computer speakers. Should I be concerned about that before I record too much?


Yes, you should get that working right because when you put the songs on the Zune you might only hear sound from the left earplug. Make sure the plug going into the PC has two black bands (stereo) and not one (mono).



AcaCandy said:


> Also, I'm guessing I should probably save each song by itself instead of the whole side of each cassette, but, that sounds like way too much work.


The way to do that is save the whole cassette as one big file, then using Audacity put a cut between each track, export the file and you'll have one file per track.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Hmmmm....thanks, I'll check that as soon as this last one finishes 

Another question, I've been converting to MP3, but, I accidentally converted on to Windows Media Player, and the WMP file plays back much louder than the MP3s.  Should I be concerned about that?

I haven't tried to put anything onto my Zune yet. I was just cleaning it up from some "free downloads" that expired after 14 days.


Oops, edit, I meant WAV file instead of WMP file.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Ok, I checked the plug, it appears to look like the one in the link posted above #23.....with 2 whatever you call them............


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Ok, new info. When I use Audacity to playback, I have both green lines, right and left playing back, but for whatever reason, the recording red line side only shows left?


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## stantley (May 22, 2005)

AcaCandy said:


> Another question, I've been converting to MP3, but, I accidentally converted on to Windows Media Player, and the WMP file plays back much louder than the MP3s.  Should I be concerned about that?
> Oops, edit, I meant WAV file instead of WMP file.


Normally how it's done is you record a big .wav file, cut it up and export individual Mp3 files. When you're satisfied with the results you can delete the original .wav file since they take up a lot of disk space. If you played the .wav and Mp3 files through different media players could account for the different volumes, otherwise they should be about the same.

Once you have a bunch of Mp3's you can normalize the volume with Mp3Gain to get them to have close to the same volume. 


AcaCandy said:


> When I use Audacity to playback, I have both green lines, right and left playing back, but for whatever reason, the recording red line side only shows left?


If you're recording in stereo both left and right volume level meters should be active when you record and during playback, so I'm not sure what's going on there. You could double check the connections and look at the balance indicators in Volume Control.


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## Soundy (Feb 17, 2006)

AcaCandy said:


> I'll check that out to see if it will indeed work on the laptop  as that would be nice to know as well. The laptop has a built in mic, and of course a mic input as well...not sure if that became an issue when I had the laptop connected.
> 
> It's now in front of my desk, so, I can retest the setup without the amp of course.


Plugging into the MIC input should disconnect the built-in mic.

Just keep in mind, that unless that input is actually a stereo jack, you'll only be getting one channel of audio from your tapes, so you'll lose any stereo information.


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## Soundy (Feb 17, 2006)

AcaCandy said:


> Ok, new info. When I use Audacity to playback, I have both green lines, right and left playing back, but for whatever reason, the recording red line side only shows left?


That's probably because, as I noted, the mic input is mono-only. Is your Audacity file showing one waveform, or two? A mono waveform plays back in both channels, which is why it's showing two meters on playback.

You need to check your Audacity settings to ensure it's creating a stereo recording, but again, unless you mic input is actually a stereo jack, you're still only getting one channel from it, so even with a stereo file, it will only play back in one ear.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

It's currently connected to the line in on the sound card on my desktop PC. I kinda gave up on the laptop for the moment.


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## Soundy (Feb 17, 2006)

I found on Audacity on my machine, it will default to recording a mono file, even though the default is set to two-channel recording.

Go into Edit -> Preferences, then in the Audio I/O section, under Recording, select the Channels pulldown, and select "2 (Stereo)" (even though it's probably already selected). Hit OK and then try again - you should get two waveforms showing instead of one, and both record meters running.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Thanks, I'll try that on the next cassette.

I was pretty bummed out with the last one I did last night, one of my favorites, Fleetwood Mac  recorded at super duper low levels.....I guess the tape is just worn out from being played too much


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## Soundy (Feb 17, 2006)

Well, the best option is to get the level up as much as possible while recording - use the sliders in Audacity and/or the Record Mixer to get it to the point that the waveforms have shape without becoming hard lines across the top and bottom.

Once it's recorded, you can use the Normalize function under the Effect menu to boost the level back up. The default options on it should work fine. Apply it to the entire recording and it should pull all the levels up to the highest possible without distortion. Just remember that boosting at this point will also boost any noise that was recorded as well.

Really, though, you probably want to look at some other software that's specifically designed for this purpose - they'll usually have features specifically designed for creating CDs, such as creating track markers without the need to actually split the recorded file into multiple files first, or to allow you mark the track starts and ends and then split it up in one batch process.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Any recommendations on the "other" software?

Depending on the cost, it might be worth it......I can pretty much replace everything by buying CDs anywhere from $2 to $5 a piece. I usually pick them up at the local flea market.


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## K7M (Feb 27, 2000)

If you are refering to Polderbits, I have used it for about 5 years. You can download it and it is fully functional for two weeks with no restrictions. I find it easy to use and it has scratch, hiss, and crackle filters as well. I converted all my vinyl to CD.


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## Soundy (Feb 17, 2006)

Yeah, not familiar with that one myself... but that's the TYPE of software I'm talking about. There are others out there; sorry I can't recommend any in particular, as I've not had a lot of use for them; when I HAVE done that sort of work, I've used Wavelab, but that's a fairly expensive commercial product (used it to master a buddy's band's CD that I also recorded and mixed, it's a great package, very powerful).


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## stantley (May 22, 2005)

I used Magix Audio Cleaning Lab to convert about 400 LP's and 100 tapes. It has automatic track recognition so it creates the track markers for you. You can get it new for about $40 and older versions for about $20.

The main reason I got it was because it cleans up pops and clicks in vinyl, a feature that you wouldn't need if you're only doing tapes. But it also has settings for tape that eliminate hiss and compensate for hi-frequency loss.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Thanks again for all the great help and suggestions from all!!!!

I'll go ahead and mark this solved now.

If I run into any more issues, I'll post back


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Soundy said:


> I found on Audacity on my machine, it will default to recording a mono file, even though the default is set to two-channel recording.
> 
> Go into Edit -> Preferences, then in the Audio I/O section, under Recording, select the Channels pulldown, and select "2 (Stereo)" (even though it's probably already selected). Hit OK and then try again - you should get two waveforms showing instead of one, and both record meters running.


:up: Yep, that was it, only recording in mono  Now, to redo 5 cassettes


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Ok, this is strange. I tried to play the low sounding one again, now that the audacity has been changed to stereo, and it sounds fine  I think I'll transfer a couple to my Zune and see how that sounds.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Transferred to Zune. All of them, regardless of how they were recorded, seem to be playing normally 

I think I'm good with everything!

Thanks again to all :up:


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

And I guess I'll have to try to split them into singles, instead of leaving them in one long mp3


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## Soundy (Feb 17, 2006)

Yeah, as noted, one advantage of software dedicated to this task is that the splitting process is more automated.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Yes, I think I'll look into that further! Much thanks again :up:


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Ok, another question...sorry.

I have some small files, 17KB, etc. that say Audacity Project Files, do I need these? When I open them the songs play....but, those can't be the actual music files, right?


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

4) Decide if you want to "monitor" your recording, that is, hear it played back as you make it. If you do, and you are on Windows or Linux, you can use what's known as "hardware playthrough". To do this, open the system sound mixer e.g. Sounds and Audio Devices in the Control Panel of Windows XP or earlier, unmute line-in as a playback device, and turn the volume up. If you are on OS X, simply go back to Audacity's Audio I/O tab and enable "hardware playthrough". If this does not work, or if the playback and recording devices on the Audio I/O tab are different, choose "software playthrough" on the same tab, which works on all operating systems. 

Note the sound with software playthrough will be heard after a slight delay, and causes some extra load on the computer. 



Reading the Help files helps


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## lister (Aug 10, 2004)

Also uncheck the 'input monitor' mute box in volume control.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

I'll have to find that first


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

http://club.vaio.sony.co.uk/clubvaio/gb/en/exploration/software/sonicstagems.jsp

I just stumbled across that software already installed on my Sony Vaio


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## Soundy (Feb 17, 2006)

AcaCandy said:


> Ok, another question...sorry.
> 
> I have some small files, 17KB, etc. that say Audacity Project Files, do I need these? When I open them the songs play....but, those can't be the actual music files, right?


Those aren't necessary - they're files Audacity creates with the info for the session you were working in, such as the names and locations of the actual audio files. They're used mainly if you're working on a project in Audacity and want to save all your settings and changes to work on later.


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Thanks! I'll zap 'em then


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