rob aylestone
Moderator
The mac is fine - if it will work with the interface. Macs usually do, even if old!
Transferring Multitrack Reels Into Computer?
- Thread starter bmg
- Start date
TalismanRich
Well-known member
C'mon Dave,
Don't you realize that you immediately lose all of the intangible aspects of music once it is digitized? At least 90% of the soul, emotion and pathos disappears..... unless you use at least a 384kHz sample rate at 32 bit float!
And what pray does Joe Pub' play that on?C'mon Dave,
Don't you realize that you immediately lose all of the intangible aspects of music once it is digitized? At least 90% of the soul, emotion and pathos disappears..... unless you use at least a 384kHz sample rate at 32 bit float!
Dave.
TalismanRich
Well-known member
This is a start.......
TalismanRich
Well-known member
They should sound fine. There will be some tape hiss, but there are plugins that you can use to reduce it, if it's bothersome. If it was good enough for the 70s, it's ok for today.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
Back in 2017/18, I worked out a way to transfer all my 8 track portastudio recordings to my DAW and most of them were fine, but on a few {I did over 100}, hiss was an issue. I had a Dynafex noise reduction unit {which I've since sold} that I bought 2nd-hand back in 1994 and I used to put the offending track through it. It did the job. Hiss need not get in the way. There was only one track I transferred that had such bad hiss that I had to re-record it. And that was an individual track, not a song.
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
Well, I'm now in the middle of transferring a batch of stereo cassettes. I'm using the rear panel line inputs on my 6i6 (first generation). It's a perfect match at the Lo Gain position. Signals are peaking around -16 dBFS. It's probably going to be fine with just about anything else with RCA output. When I do 4-track, I can just match the levels of the front panel combo inputs to the fixed level rear inputs.
Well of course it was not good enough and that was why Dolby and DBX were invented. As soon as someone made a viable 16bit digital recorder the classical guys pounced on them.
Dave.
rob aylestone
Moderator
Yes - I remember buying the Sony F1 audio unit that linked to the portable betamax. Damn nice system. Then watching the error counter on the Panasonic DAT machines hoping it wouldn't suddenly jump up and mute. That was also when I realised that out of 48,000 samples every second, you could lose the odd 800 and not even notice!
NEVER so grand! My defining 'digital' moment was using an early JVC hi fi VHS machine. This had superb 50mm LED meters and a limiter instead of the later AVC and you could switch it off. Son was doing songs on a Teac A3440 but of course noise built up. He could bounce stuff over to the JVC with no discernable loss.
I also had/still have a Philips digital cassette recorder, equivalent to about 18 bits. Several MD recorders which were not nearly as pad as some purists have painted them.
Dave.
rob aylestone
Moderator
I don't remember hiss being a problem, as the quality of all the stuff I bought was OK? I don't remember any of my CD purchases being horrible?
TalismanRich
Well-known member
Once you transfer the individual channels over to your DAW, you can try using a noise reduction plugin. Just sample the tape hiss, and then the plugin will try to remove it from the track. Some are better than others, and you can make it more or less aggressive. Just try it, and if it causes audible artifacts, back off and drop the level of reduction, or try a different plugin.
Some of them work really well for this.
Some of them work really well for this.
spantini
COO of me, inc.
I recently posted a 25-minute audio clip by NPR which touches on some of this. One mention was of the earliest CDs having had original studio recordings transferred to them.. period. Just copying the material from original medium to CD. No "mastering". No "noise removal". This process being confirmed by a major producer (I believe it was Phil Spector) Phil Ramone.
Later on, these transfers were actually remastered but since many of the original engineers were not available their newly remastered products may have been slightly different in some ways.
Vinyl Sounds Better Than CDs, Or Not
Later on, these transfers were actually remastered but since many of the original engineers were not available their newly remastered products may have been slightly different in some ways.
Vinyl Sounds Better Than CDs, Or Not
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TalismanRich
Well-known member
People didn't have nearly these concerns when things were pressed onto vinyl, because the inherent noise floor of a record was usually worse than the master tape. Unfortunately, tape hiss is a remnant of the original process. It was the best we had, so we lived with it. Those Decca recordings were ANCIENT! You're talking about recordings that were made in the 40s and 50s. There was no such thing as DBX or Dolby noise reduction. Even if you consider that those CDs were released in the early 90s, the computer technology available at the time didn't come close to what's available today for post processing.
It's no different than taking a old video program stored on VHS at 240 line resolution and then dumping it to a DVD or BluRay. It won't automatically make the picture sharper, or less noisy. It will look just like an old VHS tape.
Using the noise reduction techniques available today is akin to colorizing old black and white movies! You're actually getting something that wasn't even there in the original source material.
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
As I understand it, some of the early CDs were produced straight from the LP masters, complete with RIAA equalization. Of course they weren't getting played back with the appropriate inverse eq.
