How to Improve Sound Quality from Previously Recorded Casette Tapes

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djkoz

Well-known member
I need help improving sound quality from cassette tapes.

Before she died 25 years ago my wife recorded several children’s books on cassette tapes for our then very young kids. As a result of moving the tapes were misplaced for a while but have recently been found. I want to transfer the tapes to DVDs which I have done, but the sound quality is poor.

The original tapes were recorded using a small desktop cassette player/recorder with a built-in microphone. Today I recorded the audio from those tapes via the RCA output jacks on the back of a cassette player which were fed into the stereo line input jack on the back of my computer.

However, the quality of the sound is poor. In addition to the motor hum of the original cassette recorder the sound is also a bit muffled. So, my questions:


  1. Is there a better way to transfer the audio from the cassette tapes to the computer? (I first tried feeding the sound from the cassette player into the RCA jacks on my DVX100A and from there using the firewire port to connect the DVX to my computer. However, I could not get the audio to even register on the DVX level meter)


  1. Does Sony Vegas (v Pro 8) have any built-in filters that I can use to eliminate the hum and improve the clarity? (I’ve used Vegas a bit but I am not familiar with more than just the basics of working with sound.)

Thanks for your suggestions.

Dan
 
Izotope RX would do wonders removing the his and motor hum without sacrificing the high end. Then some EQ and compression to fatten up the sound.
 
Thank you for this suggestion. A quick search on the web indicated that Izotope sells for around $300+ Unfortunately, this will be a one-time need and I can't justify spending that much at this time. Their trial version also does not allow for the saving of files.

I appreciate the suggestion.

Dan
 
Keep in mind that given how it was recorded, there's only so much you can do, especially without spending some money. Some of the distortion you're describing most likely IS the recording, and using a different method to transfer it from tape won't change that.

You might try someone who does it professionally to do a transfer for you.
 
There are 4 children's books and they are short, so I am estimating about 20-30 minutes total.

Dan
 
Dan, if you want to send me a short clip of one I will see what IzotopeRX can do with it. I'm not an audio professional but I'll give it a shot.
 
Thank you. That is a very generous offer.

I created a 20 second AVI clip but its 5.4 MB zipped and for some reason the attach feature if this site would not include it.

I could save it in a WAV format if that is preferred. I could also upload it to an old photo website I haven't used but still maintain and you could download the zip file from there.

What do you suggest?

Thanks,

Dan
 
djkoz said:
Thank you. That is a very generous offer.

I created a 20 second AVI clip but its 5.4 MB zipped and for some reason the attach feature if this site would not include it.

I could save it in a WAV format if that is preferred. I could also upload it to an old photo website I haven't used but still maintain and you could download the zip file from there.

What do you suggest?

Thanks,

Dan
Click to expand...


A wave file is best.
 
I created a 15 second wav file clip from one of the books. I still could not get the file to upload via DVXUser.com, so I uploaded a zip file version to the following link:
http://www.photoattractions.com/test izotope audio.zip It’s only about 1.3 MB

I played around with various options in Izotope some changes made it worse and some made it a just bit better. But I really do not know much about sound so what I am doing is just hit or miss.

If you don’t mind looking at the file to see if anything could be done, I would appreciate it. If you can make some improvements perhaps you would share the settings you used. Even though I can’t save the file using only the test version of Izotope, I realized that I can use another program to capture the “What you hear” sound off the sound card (not the speakers) while Izotope is playing the modified file. I may lose a bit of quality in the process but this is not a professional endeavor.

Thanks,

Dan
 
Dan, I ran your clip through IzotopeRX. It still needs some EQ work. How can I get it to you? You can PM me your email address and I will send it to you - it's less than a meg.
 
I sent you a private message, or at least I think I did. It may not have gone out properly.

If you did not get it please let me know.

Thanks,

Dan
 
Hello Dan. I just found this post on a google search and i have no answers... only a question for I have a similar need. below is a letter i'm sending to whomever. any suggestions? (also i'm sorry about your loss, even this many years ago.)
Hello. I have an important but poor quality recording on cassette tape. It’s an interview recorded around 1980. I want to convert it to CD but is there also any chance of improving the sound quality? It was my first in a series of interviews over which I learned by trial and error how to better record (e.g., use a microphone and a good one!); unfortunately the first interview was the most significant.
Following the interview we did have someone improve the clarity recording enough to transcribe all but a few words. However I would like to make it more “listen-able,” at least for me, before putting it on CD (and would think nothing could be done after once converted?) Is there any hope? I’m looking for an expert, someone who is very good at things like this, preferably in the SF Bay Area but expertise is more important than location. Any suggestions/referrals? (or perhaps you could forward this to some audio-oriented folks that might know such an expert. ) I would appreciate any leads and I THANK YOU, if but for taking the time read this.
Best wishes, C.Stroebe mail@stroebe.com
 
I did find a program on the web that removed background noise, It sampled a section of the tape during which there was no talking and then used that audio pattern to remove the offending frequencies. Unfortunately, that was done on my old computer. I no longer have the program (it was a trial version) and I don't recall the name.

However, a quick search on Google for "audio remove noise" turns up a lot of links that should be helpful.

Good luck,

Dan
 
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