Help with sound quality

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deege
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Deege

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I have some recordings that were recorded onto my computer from a VHS tape, and the tape was probably a copy of a copy of a copy and so on...cuz its a bootleg...and the sound volume kind of fades in and out a little bit...and I am wondering if there is any sort of tool that can fix that?
Thanks!
Deege
 
I'm thinking some noise reduction, then a compressor. That would be how I would start.

Good luck.
 
Just to expand a wee bit, zoom in and highlight a small section (1 or 2 seconds) with only backgroung noise playing, run NOISE REDUCTION and from within that GET PROFILE FROM SELECTION. Then close NOISE REDUCTION (don't press OK) and highlight the whole wave by using SELECT ALL or pressing CTRL and A. Then go back to NOISE REDUCTION and hit OK.


After that leave it highlighted and run DYNAMICS PROCESSING, hit PREVIEW, mess around with the compression settings until it sounds like the volume isn't wavering (as much) and hit OK.


pAp
 
PapillonIrl said:
Just to expand a wee bit, zoom in and highlight a small section (1 or 2 seconds) with only backgroung noise playing, run NOISE REDUCTION and from within that GET PROFILE FROM SELECTION. Then close NOISE REDUCTION (don't press OK) and highlight the whole wave by using SELECT ALL or pressing CTRL and A. Then go back to NOISE REDUCTION and hit OK.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that little tutorial, Pap. I must admit I have been fumbling around with CEP's noise reduction settings for a while and couldnt get things quite right. Would this work on a noisy mic?

Meaning...could you record some silence...then after recording a track go back and use that silence portion with the room noise, etc to get the profile...then run it on the track?

Sorry for butting in on your question, Deege.
 
You could do that no problem. Especially if the room noise was fairly consistant. Problems only start arising when the noise you are trying to eliminate starts getting bigger in comparision to the sounds you want to keep (ie vocals).


I guess it starts trying to remove frequencies common to both the noise and the vocal, and leaves the vocal with some weird sounding 'artifacts'.


I use it alot on noisy miced guitar amps, when you get that background hum from a single-coil guitar. Our ears aren't as sensitive as to what an overdriven guitar 'should' sound like, as they are to how a human voice should sound.


Having said that, if the noise is very small compared to the track level, Cool Edit does a good job.

pAp.
 
PapillonIrl said:

I use it alot on noisy miced guitar amps, when you get that background hum from a single-coil guitar. Our ears aren't as sensitive as to what an overdriven guitar 'should' sound like, as they are to how a human voice should sound.
Click to expand...

Thanks PaP. That is exactly what I was after...noisy amps. And since that hum is pretty consistent when guitars are muted, etc then I suppose it really should work. I am going to play around with it. Good tip.
 
Well, this doesnt have any background noise at all...the sound is REALLY good, the volume is just "wavy"...
 
Then just some dynamics processing should so the trick (or a compressor, it's your choice...lol)
 
Okay, DS, since you're here - do you know how to operate the CEP dynamics processing function? Why two attack and two release settings?
 
Look guy's using compression could only make things worse here. This songs probly already been compressed and mastered. Its just that its on VHS tape and has VOLUME variations. Compressing it wont help all that much and might make it worse.
I suggest you load up the song in multitrack view and set the volume envelope to say 60% from one end to the other. Then zoom in vertically on the track and LOOK for where the wave dipps in volume and correct this with the VOLUME envelope. That way you wont kill the dynamics.
Too many people try to fix volume problems with compression. WRONG.
Ok so once you've adjusted the volume using the volume envelope in multitrack, mixdown the track to get it in edit mode. Then have a good listen and you'll probly notice there's not much top end. Old tape recordings often suffer volume fluctuations and loose top end sound. So use a little bit of EQ to fix it. Then last of all to get the overall volume up without clipping the sound use the hard limiter. Set the max amplitude to say -0.2db and adjust the "boost input by" whatever to get it a bit louder.
But dont use the compressor.
 
Well actually Scott,

A compressor, when used correctly, can act just the same as a hard limiter. So the use of a compressor is not always WRONG! I would not go around making such generalized statements like that. If used improperly yes, I agree it can make things worse. But it is not just WRONG to use it as you state.

If your going to use a hard limiter as the final phase anyway, then why not do the EQ first, then use the limiter? Same same as I see it! And, you can save OH so much time if the volume differences aren't really very abrupt from doing zooming to use the envelopes.

I say it's just one man's way or anothers! But don't say one is wrong. I am right, and you are right. It's just a matter of what fits the situation.
 
Yes I know a compressor is similar to a limiter but why use a compressor as a limiter when you could just use..... well.....a limiter. Remember we are trying to fix a file thats probly already got compression in there. Do you want to fix the volume problem or do you want to compress the mix AGAIN. I guess if he gets the volume envelope right he wont need either. I only mentioned the use of the limiter IF the end result is clipping, and IF he wants to get the overall volume up. Its very hard to get a compressor to just take 0.2db of the top without compressing it a bit. But you can do this easily with a limiter. I'll put it a different way, we just want to LIMIT the top of the volume, not compress the dynamics out of the track.

Quote:
"If your going to use a hard limiter as the final phase anyway, then why not do the EQ first, then use the limiter?

Um, sorry Im sure I said "LAST OF ALL" use the hard limiter.

Quote:
"a hard limiter will sound like shit... simple as that..."

Yeh, tell that to Bob Ludwig. (then run)
Or please explain?

Peace dudes.........just trying to help
I only ever suggest things that i've done successfuly myself.

I guess it would not be wrong to use a compressor......if you dont have a limiter. And I dont think that when I said not to use a compressor IN THIS SPACIFIC CASE was generalising at all.
 
Yeah tell em scott... This is music. Nothing is WRONG.
 
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