Software for old band VHS conversion to PC

LazerBeakShiek

LazerBeakShiek

Rad Racing Team
What software do people use for converting VHS tapes of old band performances?

What can be done about the sound quality?

I made a quick clip to demonstrate the poor sound quality.

1989..
 
I mostly use the capture tool in Vegas Pro 18. Sometimes I use Media Express that came with my Blackmagic Design Intensity Shuttle USB capture device.

Unless something about the capture process was substantially degrading the audio, there's not a whole lot you can do to improve that. You could raise the level a fair bit, and do some eq.
 
I do most of my video capture for things like that on a Magnavox DVD/DVR unit that captures to an internal hard drive, then burns to DVD. From the DVD, I can rip back to a computer if I need to. I can also use my Hauppage HD DVR to capture the video to the computer, then I can edit either with my Cyberlink PowerDirector or DaVinci Resolve.

The audio track can be edited just like any other audio. As BSG said, some basic EQ is probably going to be your best bet for doctoring up the sound.
 
VHS and beta tapes often have large amounts of flutter, made worse when copied and this often gives that sound which is very difficult to treat. I’ve often wondered if we hear it as ‘bad sound’ but can’t quite find the words to explain it? I guess it’s one of the last examples of thin tracks, low tape speed and agc. I think it’s made worse by music videos with bass that messes up auto gain. Using an expander to increase dynamic range before tweaking might be useful. Something like spectral layers might be able to extract some stems from it you could treat separately.
 
A linear mono track could have flutter, but an AFM stereo track should be pretty stable barring tracking errors, which would probably be fairly obvious.
 
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