Processing some old tapes...?

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 5:21 am

I have a couple of demo tapes I did back in my Atari Falcon days (I might even have the music on DAT, but I no longer have a DAT player).

Theres a couple of tunes there that I'd like to record into Scope and tidy up a bit before the recording degrades any further.

Any thoughts on what chain I could use to do this? I was thinking of using the expander to drop the hiss down level a bit and perhaps the graphic EQ to tweak the frequency balance. Then maybe some final dynamics oomph by using the optimaster.

Any ideas gratefully received!

Royston

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 6:33 am

I'd suggest to record everything as is at the highest level without clipping, at the highest bitrate and apply any processing afterwards. This is not going to change effectiveness of processing, but you don't risk to be condemned to keep any processing done when recording.

Then you backup your files and you can study solutions and judge with your ears.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 6:46 am

alfonso wrote:
I'd suggest to record everything as is at the highest level without clipping, at the highest bitrate and apply any processing afterwards.

Ar...that's how I'm going to do it. Probably record it as a track in Cubase then apply some processing to that.

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 7:57 am

Make different files of the different tracks, much easier to handle and faster to process.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:02 am

I should perform some clarifications!

They are just normal two-track casette tapes like:

Royston

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:29 am

Hi Royston
I put it down on cubase, edit the start/end times then process just as you say. Only, go easy on the optimaster otherwise you just get reverb back. Rather I try just to use the STW mastering comp at the end. (Or both)!!
I also put it through PSY Q to great effect.
Bye

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:49 am

Cheers Ricardo.

I think the track(s) were made quite some time ago, when my "philosophy" of adding Reverb went, "Well, everything should sound as though it's in the same room/space, surely?".

So, I used to just chuck the entire 2-track stereo mix at the reverb unit!

Post by **hubird** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:55 am

great

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 5:34 pm

if the old reverb isn't a means of style you can reduce it significantly with the Transient Designer - it's stunning.
I agree with Ricardo on the STW mastering comp. A great tool for spicing up some faint mix, but also capable to (almost) turn folk rock into punk

Hopefully you still have the original recorder, otherwise playing back the tapes could be surprising.

cheers, Tom

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 8:19 am

more or less what I do with my "wednesday-tapes": recording 24/44', level about -5 dB, normalize, noiseprint/remove hiss and the "raw material" is ready for whatever optimaster/psyQ etc. Normalize/hiss done with Audition. Help possible, no big thing for me.

ReD_MuZe · Post by **ReD_MuZe** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 8:53 am

i realy recommend trying Waves X-noise

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 9:12 am

yes, it's best at hiss reduction, just the price... And cannot remove backward noises (the solo is so hot somebody let fall down his beer bottle etc.) like Audition or Cedar can do.

Post by **garyb** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 5:30 pm

osiris?

Herr Voigt · Post by **Herr Voigt** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 7:50 pm

Osiris can be great, if you tweak carefully. So many options ...
Vinyl or tape, both can be airy-crispy after processing. And decrackler/denoiser/declicker are really good and don't destroy the music.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 6:36 am

astroman wrote:
Hopefully you still have the original recorder, otherwise playing back the tapes could be surprising.

Indeed I do!

My Walkman Professional is still going (fairly) strong. The rewind and fast-forward decided to call it a day recently, but the play & record still works OK. Must have had that for at least 15 years now I reckon. I've got some surprisingly good results from my experiments so far; I didn't need to bother with any noise reduction in the end as the recording's still remarkably quiet (I don't have any specific noise/hiss-reduction tools anyway).

After recording it as hot as possible, it went through the Graphical EQ, Optimaster and PsyQ before dithering down to 16 bits and rendering to MP3 with LAME.

Pretty good for a crusty old tape that's been lying around for over ten years now!

Royston