newbie question about tape hiss

[Schehera]

I have recorded into SoundForge from a tape.
What is the best way to filter out the tape hiss ?
Thanks in advance

[AlChuck]

With CoolEdit 2000, there's a Noise Reduction function that comew with it. Alas, with Sound Forge, this is not an includeed faeture so you need a DirectX plug-in to do this. (At least, this is how it was up through version 5.0; I have not upgraded to 6.0 yetand so I'm not aware if this was added as a part of the standard package). You might also be able to do it in some manual way using EQ; maybe a Sound Forge expert out there can help.

Basically the process is to "teach" it the noise's signature by isolating a small bit of tape hiss when nothing else is going on (that is, what would have been dead silent passages if there were no hiss). Then it processes the entire audio file by essentially subtracting this signature from the whole file.

Depending on how "pure" (that is, constant, not changing much over time) the noise content is, this method can work wonders, or you can end up with a flat, muffled sounding result.

[SPINSTERWUN]

Originally posted by Schehera
.....What is the best way to filter out the tape hiss ?
Thanks in advance

There should be a Noise Reduction plug-in, in SF 6.0.

UR welcome in advance.

spin

[AlChuck]

Spin, I looked at the Sonic Foundry website, and as far as I can tell Sound Forge 6.0 has no noise reduction plug-in.

They still sell it separately, for around $300.

I'm sure it must be far more sophisticated than the one in CoolEdit 2000 (the whole program costs only $69). Syntrillium also offers a $49 plug-in called Audio Cleanup which has hiss removal, click and pop removal, and a "clip restoration" tool that supposedly "can actually fixed digitally clipped samples and restore the original audio with little or no sonic degradation."

[Schehera]

I was recording from my tape deck with Dolby NR already on - and it was giving me a hiss.
So I tried it w/o and used the NR in SF and it worked ok.
I have crappy montors so it's hard to tell anyways.
Thanks for the input

[SPINSTERWUN]

Originally posted by AlChuck
.....and a "clip restoration" tool that supposedly "can actually fixed digitally clipped samples and restore the original audio with little or no sonic degradation."

I've used that feature before, and I can attest that it works.

spin

[AlChuck]

It had better work, for $300...

[SPINSTERWUN]

Originally posted by AlChuck
It had better work, for $300...

LMAO

[Schehera]

I'll try "clip restoration" tool next

I wanna get my $300 dollars worth