Cleaning Up Cassette to Digital Recordings (Help.Me)
Tricksta
I am far from an Audio Pro, yet have been trying to take some old
cassette tapes and restore the sound quality they originally had, and
enhance it even. As for this file in particular it seems to have lost its
high's and mids. When I run it through a simple EQ plugin I just dont get
the clarity I need, it just sounds worse.
Here is the steps I took in recording this tape.
#1 - Used a brand new Sony Tape deck , with preamp mixer and got the
sound quality as close to 0 DB as I could (as reccomended by many audio
recording sites I have read). I recorded at 44.1 hz, 16 bit through my
SBLIVE card. I saw no loss in quality from tape to digital.
#2 - I then loaded Wavlab and watched the spectrum analyser and saw the
highs and some mids were very low. I tried to raise this up in value but
it just made the sound even more distorted than it already was.
I have many tapes like this I would like to restore, re-master (or
whatever the term is). I have attached this file (in original .wav
format) and uploaded it to the alt.binaries.sound.mp3 newsgroup. The
topic is called:
"Sound Pro's can you give tips on how to fix this Audio File?"
You can also download the .wav file clip at -
http://www.lvcm.com/trick/badwav/badwav.wav
Any help on cleanup (what software/settings to use), examples , web links
on fixing this sorta of stuff is GREATLY appreciated!!!! Heck if someone
wants to clean it up themselves and email it back with the steps you used
to do it, that would even be better.
This advice would be Pricessless, thanks again in advance to anyone who
can help this audio newbie.
Email - tr...@lvcm.com
Thanks,
Trick
PS - I have read about the CEDAR system, is this hardware based only???
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Raymond
>I have many tapes like this I would like to restore, re-master (or
>whatever the term is). I have attached this file (in original .wav
>format) and uploaded it to the alt.binaries.sound.mp3 newsgroup.
MP3 will degrade the sound even more than the origanal.
>This advice would be Pricessless, thanks again in advance to anyone >who can
help this audio newbie.
Sonic Maximazers are sopposed to help cassette tapes with sound quality.
Carey Carlan
> Thanks in Advance for any help one of you might offer.
>
> I am far from an Audio Pro, yet have been trying to take some old
> cassette tapes and restore the sound quality they originally had, and
> enhance it even. As for this file in particular it seems to have lost
> its high's and mids. When I run it through a simple EQ plugin I just
> dont get the clarity I need, it just sounds worse.
Before you try to restore highs on the receiveing end, try it on the
sending end. Make sure your heads are squeeky clean and aligned to match
the tape you're playing.
Misaligned, dirty heads won't pick up any high end to clean up.
Arny Krueger
"Tricksta" <tr...@lvcm.com> wrote in message news:3eb2fe3d$1...@127.0.0.1...
> Thanks in Advance for any help one of you might offer.
>
>
> I am far from an Audio Pro, yet have been trying to take some old
> cassette tapes and restore the sound quality they originally had, and
> enhance it even. As for this file in particular it seems to have lost its
> high's and mids. When I run it through a simple EQ plugin I just dont get
> the clarity I need, it just sounds worse.
Transcribing cassete tape involves some of the same considerations as
transcribing LPs. You might want to look at these two sites for some
approaches and products:
http://www.delback.co.uk/lp-cdr.htm
http://www.a-reny.com/iexplorer/restauration.html
Scott Dorsey
>I am far from an Audio Pro, yet have been trying to take some old
>cassette tapes and restore the sound quality they originally had, and
>enhance it even. As for this file in particular it seems to have lost its
>high's and mids. When I run it through a simple EQ plugin I just dont get
>the clarity I need, it just sounds worse.
This is because the tape azimuth is off. You cannot fix this digitally,
you have to fix this in playback by adjusting the head azimuth until the
top end comes back.
You will KNOW it is an azimuth problem becvause it's worse when you sum it
to mono.
Get a jeweler's screwdriver and tweak the azimuth control on the deck until
you get as much high end as possible with the output summed to mono. (If
the original is mono you can use a scope and watch the lissajous between the
two channels, too, to make sure it's really correct).
After doing it, get the alignment tape and realign the deck so it's correct
again.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
jonas aras
1. I used Waves LMB (a multiband compressor/expander) as an expander to tame
down the noise. It basically works like a multiband noise gate, but without
a gate!
2. It still wasn't quite clean enough, so I then processed it with Waves
X-noise.
3. I then used Waves LMB again, but this time as a multiband compressor to
get the basic balance between the instruments where I wanted to hear them.
4. I set up an auxillary bus with a VERY short reverb with a 30ms predelay
to open up the sound just a bit.
5. I used the Waves L2 limiter at the end (on the master bus) to get the
sound as "in-your-face" as possible.
Let me know what you think of the results.
That said, the original transfer isn't that great. I've done some amazing
things from cassette masters.
Cheers,
Jonas
"Tricksta" <tr...@lvcm.com> wrote in message news:3eb2fe3d$1...@127.0.0.1...
Jny Vee
>
> #1 - Used a brand new Sony Tape deck , with preamp mixer and got the
> sound quality as close to 0 DB as I could (as reccomended by many audio
> recording sites I have read). I recorded at 44.1 hz, 16 bit through my
> SBLIVE card. I saw no loss in quality from tape to digital.
if you skipped (allign the cassette head to MATCh the cassette you;re
playing" then you;re lost already. Without doing that you can;t get
results worth having and you CAN:T fix that later.
--
Perspective is vital to wisdom. It is indeed a good
thing to know that for every ELECTRIC LADYLAND there
were months/years/decades of tracking The Archies.
>> Help Keep The Net Emoticon Free! <<
jonas aras
To use LimMB as a downward expander, I've enclosed my custom settings as an
attachment. Copy this file to C:\Program Files\Waves\Plug-Ins\Plug-In
Settings. If you already have custom presets for the LimMB, don't overwrite
your existing file!
I usually start with the preset called "trilucences noise floor". Begin by
looping a section of the file that just has the noise and no music. As you
watch the display in LimMB, you'll see that the noise floor has a particular
"shape" across the different bands. What you want to do is to raise the
thresholds for each band to where they are just above the noise floor. Any
signal that falls below the thresholds is magically lowered by 18dB! You'll
probably want to render the effect at this point. This is usually enough
to remove noise from tape recordings. Your file still had some garbage that
I didn't like......
Here comes X-noise. Again, loop the same section (noise only) and make sure
that X-noise is set for high resolution. As the sound is looping click on
the "learn" button, then click it again. You will then have a graphic
representation of the noise. Save this curve as a preset (badwav 1?).
While still looping this section, you'll have to monkey around with the
threshold and reduction settings to make the noise disappear. If you click
on "difference" you will be hearing only the part of the signal that the
plugin is taking out. At this point you'll want to see how x-noise is
working as the music is playing. Click on the "difference" button as it's
playing. If you hear music while the difference button is engaged, you're
sucking out music, not noise....you'll have to set the threshold and/or
reduction settings lower until you find a happy meduim. Don't worry if the
the file still sounds dark here.
For eq-like adjustments, call up the Waves LimMB again. You can use a
preset such as "MultiElectro Master". As the music is playing, set the
thresholds for each band to where they are just below the peaks (we're
gently compressing the peaks). At this point, set the gain for each band as
your ear tells you to, it's basically a fancy 4-band eq. You will want to
experiment with the width of each band as well. There are no rules here,
but here are some basic eq suggestions: Most signal below 60hZ is crap and
can often be cut out completely. Most people like the sound of a gentle dip
somewhere around 500k, it sounds a little more open.
1000-5000 is where the punch is on most mixes.
I used a reverb that had a VERY short tail on it (I think it was "Studio A"
in R-Verb). I set the predelay to about 30 ms. This means that the reverb
signal starts a little after the original signal starts, which allows for
more clarity. I also shortened the length of the reverb in this preset. I
just wanted a bit of "3-D" in this song!
Finish with L2 to get it as loud as you can. Set the threshold to cut into
the peak of the signal by 1-3 db and leave the out ceiling at 0 or just a
hair below 0.
You could chain all this together in your computer, but my system couldn't
handle all this at once (P3, 866mHz, 512mb RAM).
Yes, I do this professionally (mostly jazz and classical chamber music
projects) and you've stolen some of my major tricks here!!
Let me know how it works out.
Cheers,
Jonas
"jonas aras" <jsa...@sbcglobal-123nospam.net> wrote in message
news:GuTsa.1070$%h3.159...@newssvr15.news.prodigy.com...
Tricksta_
with me, and the people who offered advice on links and Azimuth (Adjusting
the Head, etc).
I have been playing around with this alot, and finding GREAT results.
There is hope :)
/salute
Trick
Troy
Tricksta <tr...@lvcm.com> wrote in message news:3eb2fe3d$1...@127.0.0.1...