Restoring your old tapes / cleaning up the hiss sound
- Thread starter RandomGuy
- Start date
Cool Edit/Adobe Audition does this as well but in a slightly different way.
You use noise profiles instead, to do it you need to highlight the hiss/noise at the start before the music comes in.
It's important to press record before you start the tape so you have a part at the start of the recording with just tape noise & hiss.
Record your tape as normal then goto the effects menu & choose amplify & the centre wave option, once that's done zoom into the start where theres just tape noise & hiss & highlight it making sure no music is highlighted.
Now again goto effects & choose noise reduction/noise reduction & select get profile from selection. It will make a little graph so now press ok & you will notice the hiss has been removed. Now highlight all the music & go back to effects/noise reduction/noise reduction & the graph will still be there, press the preview button & you can hear the music with the profile applied, move the slider back if it sounds too washed out until you find the optimum sound (I tend to just use 100%).
Press ok & wait a few minutes depending on your cpu power, I have a super fast core2duo 6600 over clocked so it takes about 3 minutes to do a 90 minute tape but it may take 15-20 minutes + if you have an older cpu.
You can also normalize the volume like Firthsta suggests but I recommend just getting that part right when you record by keeping an eye on the levels whilst recording.
You use noise profiles instead, to do it you need to highlight the hiss/noise at the start before the music comes in.
It's important to press record before you start the tape so you have a part at the start of the recording with just tape noise & hiss.
Record your tape as normal then goto the effects menu & choose amplify & the centre wave option, once that's done zoom into the start where theres just tape noise & hiss & highlight it making sure no music is highlighted.
Now again goto effects & choose noise reduction/noise reduction & select get profile from selection. It will make a little graph so now press ok & you will notice the hiss has been removed. Now highlight all the music & go back to effects/noise reduction/noise reduction & the graph will still be there, press the preview button & you can hear the music with the profile applied, move the slider back if it sounds too washed out until you find the optimum sound (I tend to just use 100%).
Press ok & wait a few minutes depending on your cpu power, I have a super fast core2duo 6600 over clocked so it takes about 3 minutes to do a 90 minute tape but it may take 15-20 minutes + if you have an older cpu.
You can also normalize the volume like Firthsta suggests but I recommend just getting that part right when you record by keeping an eye on the levels whilst recording.
im a bit confused i have a couple of tapes to rip i know how to convert them but not sure which program is best to clean them up i cannot really afford sound forge its to expensive is there any others that are ok?
the only free one i know of is audacity... Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder
you wont be able to do the tutorial i have written with freeware, but as JAZ mentions above there is other ways to do it.
Rippin tapes...top tip 
Here's a good one,fellow DJ's would probably understand this more..right here goes:
Anyone out there got a cd deck wired up to their amp ,well check this ...
you may know then already that you can play your cd's thru your mixer as
tho you were playin the decks....its simple ..the leads that go from your cd player into your amp...unplug them from the amp & plug em into your mixer
(Channel 1,2,3 etc) whatever floats ya boat,make sure they go into the (line-in) fittings at the back) ok b4 you turn all your gear on make sure you switched the swich on ya mixer from (Phono -/- Line).
so now you switch on everything ,and usually you just play the cds thru your mixer.......
but hold on a minute,your sayin to yourself 'Why's this guy goin on about rippin cd's ?'
Oh did i say cd player oops sorry......... i ment tape deck ...
i explained it this way to make it a bit more easier to take in,just play your tapes thru your mixer ..into Nero or Soundforge ,as if you were doin a mix or somethin on ya decks ..
my head is pickled trying to understand what ive written,so let me know what you think ...
also dont forget...you can also eq the sound a bit while ripping via the mixer
i dont know if anyone has put up anything simlar to this but if so ,maybe they could word it better for me
Here's a good one,fellow DJ's would probably understand this more..right here goes:
Anyone out there got a cd deck wired up to their amp ,well check this ...
you may know then already that you can play your cd's thru your mixer as
tho you were playin the decks....its simple ..the leads that go from your cd player into your amp...unplug them from the amp & plug em into your mixer
(Channel 1,2,3 etc) whatever floats ya boat,make sure they go into the (line-in) fittings at the back) ok b4 you turn all your gear on make sure you switched the swich on ya mixer from (Phono -/- Line).
so now you switch on everything ,and usually you just play the cds thru your mixer.......
but hold on a minute,your sayin to yourself 'Why's this guy goin on about rippin cd's ?'
Oh did i say cd player oops sorry......... i ment tape deck ...
i explained it this way to make it a bit more easier to take in,just play your tapes thru your mixer ..into Nero or Soundforge ,as if you were doin a mix or somethin on ya decks ..
my head is pickled trying to understand what ive written,so let me know what you think ...
also dont forget...you can also eq the sound a bit while ripping via the mixer
i dont know if anyone has put up anything simlar to this but if so ,maybe they could word it better for me
also there's something else a few of you may know but not all...
Do you have Auto Reverse on your tapedeck?
well sometimes if you play your tapes this way < on side A
then,play the same side > that way on side A
the sound quality varies : choose the best sounding way & rip em like that :good eh
This of course might not work on all tape decks but its a great tip ..............i know ,i know im a fussy git
Do you have Auto Reverse on your tapedeck?
well sometimes if you play your tapes this way < on side A
then,play the same side > that way on side A
the sound quality varies : choose the best sounding way & rip em like that :good eh
This of course might not work on all tape decks but its a great tip ..............i know ,i know im a fussy git
Cracking piece of 1 touch software that anyone on PC who wants to record their vinyl or casettes and clean them up is 'magix audio cleaning lab'
it has a cracking set of algorithms for cleanups , and is all you will ever need to record / clean / save your old vinyls and tapes
it has a cracking set of algorithms for cleanups , and is all you will ever need to record / clean / save your old vinyls and tapes
I my opinion it's not really worth cleaning up the sound quality as a lot of noise reduction plugins remove unnecessary data in the music. If you remove the hiss you're likely to also be removing some of the frequencies and data in the tunes
When I encode old mixes I just splice sides A and B together so it's one file, normalise everything to 0db and leave it the fuck alone
I wanna hear it sound like it did in 91 when I first got the tape!
When I encode old mixes I just splice sides A and B together so it's one file, normalise everything to 0db and leave it the fuck alone
I wanna hear it sound like it did in 91 when I first got the tape!
each to their own then eh!
the idea is to remove as much hiss/noise as possible without removing any of the musical frequencies.
you can check this by listening to what its going to remove, rather than whats left, and sure enough - you will only hear hiss. or at least you should do, if you hear more then you are taking away too much.
i have made some vast improvements to some tapes that definitely sound better for it.
the idea is to remove as much hiss/noise as possible without removing any of the musical frequencies.
you can check this by listening to what its going to remove, rather than whats left, and sure enough - you will only hear hiss. or at least you should do, if you hear more then you are taking away too much.
i have made some vast improvements to some tapes that definitely sound better for it.
To add to the many before me... Thanks for this!
I can now set up as an Ebay trader and flog my old mix tapes as 'Digitally Remastered!'
Oh and thanks of course to Isohunt.....
I can now set up as an Ebay trader and flog my old mix tapes as 'Digitally Remastered!'
Oh and thanks of course to Isohunt.....
I personally think ozone 9 is the best program to use along side adobe audition you can add it as a plugin to adobe audition . Ozone 9 beats all the other programs hands down, I have tried most of them and I have got the best results from ozone 9 it was a trial version.
audacity is a great program for ripping tapes but it does lose some of the sound quality. It does not make a perfect recording. Am not sure if their is anything that will make a perfect recording of tapes no matter what I have tried their is a noticeable diffrent s . Its strange because you can make a perfect recordings of cds.
Like someone else said the re mastering software is expensive and ozone 9 is retailing at say £170 what is a lot of money for a bit of software that only slightly going to make it sound better and to make really bad recordings sound good , your probably needing a degree to use some of the more advanced software out their, unless your super intelligent you might be able to use it with no teaching.
audacity is a great program for ripping tapes but it does lose some of the sound quality. It does not make a perfect recording. Am not sure if their is anything that will make a perfect recording of tapes no matter what I have tried their is a noticeable diffrent s . Its strange because you can make a perfect recordings of cds.
Like someone else said the re mastering software is expensive and ozone 9 is retailing at say £170 what is a lot of money for a bit of software that only slightly going to make it sound better and to make really bad recordings sound good , your probably needing a degree to use some of the more advanced software out their, unless your super intelligent you might be able to use it with no teaching.
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I my opinion it's not really worth cleaning up the sound quality as a lot of noise reduction plugins remove unnecessary data in the music. If you remove the hiss you're likely to also be removing some of the frequencies and data in the tunes
When I encode old mixes I just splice sides A and B together so it's one file, normalise everything to 0db and leave it the fuck alone
I wanna hear it sound like it did in 91 when I first got the tape!
I agree with you it will take some of the sound quality from the original recording your better of leaving it in.
Remastering programs are developed to make things sound better and that's what they do and are worth using..
right click 'save link as'
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its a wmv video, I did upload it to youtube but it flagged a copyright claim straight away so deleted it off there before I got another strike
im unsure how to embed the video on here, so for now its a right click 'save link as'
