Look behind your reel-to-reel player. There should be two RCA jacks. These are often colored red and white.
Plug the RCA end of your 1/8-inch stereo to RCA cable into the jacks behind your reel-to-reel unit.
Look behind your computer and locate your sound card. This often has three to five jacks, each with a small symbol next to it denoting what the jack is for.
Plug the 1/8-inch stereo end of your cable into the jack with the image of a microphone next to it. This is the microphone jack. The audio from your reel-to-reel player will be fed directly into your computer.
Open your recording software. Adobe Audition, Cool Edit Pro, Acid Loops and Fruity loops are just a few of the recording platforms available for free download as a demo online.
Load the reels onto your reel-to-reel tape player.
Press "Record" on your recording program. This should appear as a red dot.
Press "Play" on your reel-to-reel tape player. This will often look like a triangle that points to the right.
Press "Stop" on your recording program and tape player once you are done recording.
Click on the "File" tab in your recording program to save your recording.
Open your CD-burning program. itunes and Windows Media Player are some free programs to use.
Locate the file that you saved your recording to, and drag the recording into the burn window.
Select the "Burn" option on your program. This is often available under the "File" tab. This will burn an audio CD that can be played in most CD players.