how to improve old cassette recordings?

paresh

Member
Hi - I'm doing some work again for a friend, uploading old cassette recordings of a band to digital. I'm not getting very far improving the sound since the balance & quality (which is variable) are all locked in. He wants more verb & more top & bottom but everything I do of course affects all the instruments + vox. Any suggestions for situations like this? Thanks!
 
Hi paresh,

Can you post one of the recordings? Obviously your hands are tied and there's only so good it's going to be, but it'd be easier to shoot ideas around having heard something.

If your friends expectations are reasonable then I'm sure you can put a little bit of a sheen on his recordings.
If they're not, however, you might need to recalibrate them for him. ;)

Just thinking, this is one of the few times I might considering flicking through the 'mastering' presets of some bundle just to see if something happens to work.
 
Yes thanks I do use mostly presets...I'm just an amatur. Here's a sample.
 

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Oh wow, you have your work cut out for you!
The amount of hiss on that is the biggest problem, for sure.

Has the method of digitising made that worse, or is that just how the tapes are?
If you're stuck with that I'd be playing with some noise reduction plugins first, although I don't have much experience with those.
Do you have any?
 
I use Sonar/Cakewalk plugs mostly . I don't see any NR plugs by that name. I don't usually need it. Maybe noise gates or compression?
I hope I didn't increase noise uploading...I don't think so.
 
Hmm, ok. Let's go back to the source.

Do you know what sort of machine was used to record the cassettes, and can you tell us what you've used for digitising?
Full chain, please. The cassette player, audio interface, input type, gain settings and anything in between.

Does the cassette player you used have a headphone output? How loud is the hiss just listening back through those?

I'm not sure how much you want to put into this, but it might be possible to capture the source better....it might not.

I downloaded a tape restoration plugin demo and tested it out. There's not a whole lot left after running it!! :eek:
 

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  • NRtest.mp3
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First step is to clean and demag the playback deck, second is to align the head to the recording. If the head alignment doesn't match the recording there's a loss of HF you can't recover later.
 
Thanks for the input. I can see this is already getting over my head, and yr right- I'm not sure how much more I want to put into this.

I don't know how the original was recorded. I used an old (but decent quality) Sony cassette deck into my Focusrite Scarlett interface and Sonar. Yes the verb was added later...I should have posted the unprocessed original. He wanted more verb, so against my better judgement I did it. I can tell right now it wd help to take it out entirely.
 
Thanks for the input. I can see this is already getting over my head, and yr right- I'm not sure how much more I want to put into this.

I don't know how the original was recorded. I used an old (but decent quality) Sony cassette deck into my Focusrite Scarlett interface and Sonar. Yes the verb was added later...I should have posted the unprocessed original. He wanted more verb, so against my better judgement I did it. I can tell right now it wd help to take it out entirely.

What ins and outs were used? Headphone, line, mic?
 
Oh. :(

I can't really think of anything else to offer then, beyond the cleaning and calibration advice above.
If you do experiment with any NR plugins, be sure to run them before any other effects or processes that you might be adding.
 
Thanks for the input. I can see this is already getting over my head, and yr right- I'm not sure how much more I want to put into this.

I don't know how the original was recorded. I used an old (but decent quality) Sony cassette deck into my Focusrite Scarlett interface and Sonar. Yes the verb was added later...I should have posted the unprocessed original. He wanted more verb, so against my better judgement I did it. I can tell right now it wd help to take it out entirely.


That's fine. You gotta' use the reverbs to see how they sound. Usually, reverb is just enough that you can't hear it. You can also, only reverb a frequency bandwidth - giving you some dry and some soaked
 
Thanks - I appreciate all yr advice! I don't want to waste yr time when I realize I'm only half committed myself.
 
I have and use (quite often now) this Waves plugin:

Automatic Noise Suppression Plugin – NS1 | Waves

It removes hiss, background noise (like a noise gate would), and other unwanted but persistent low level sounds. It's quick and dirty with only one slider but works rather well despite being so simple.

They have a more advanced noise reduction plugin, but I'm not sure how much better it performs or if it would be necessary/better for your needs. At $25 (Sale) it's a good deal.

I also use an old noise reduction plugin with Soundforge, which I've had for ages. It allows me to take a snapshot of the noise (during a quiet passage) and then apply the reduction using that snapshot as it's algorithmic model. I couldn't tell you how it works exactly but it definitely works. But the NS1 works about as well and is much easier to use.
 
You know...if the fidelity of all of the other tracks is similar to this one, I don't think you're going to make much progress. This goes along the lines of the old saying, junk in/junk out.

No offense to them, but it kind of sounds like the microphone they recorded with fell down behind a speaker column and they didn't notice until after the session.

No telling what kind of recorder they were using, when they did the original. The record heads could have been dirty and the azmuth could have been way out of whack. I like the info you have already been given to adjust the azmuth of the tape heads to match the tape. That will get you the best high frequencies possible.

BEFORE you adjust the azmuth of your tape heads to match this tape, be sure you have a way to put them back where they were.

And make sure you degauss the heads on your deck, to keep from adding more hiss than is already there. Doing these things might bring more fidelity out of the tracks, if you're lucky. Good luck!
 
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