wasnt really sure where to put this but i thought the production lot would know best...sorry is this has been askd before....
I am hoping to remaster some old cassette tapes i have... some mixed by me.. some by others...there is loads of background hiss.... ive tried a few things so far but nothing really giving me the results i want...anyone have advice on cleaning up the sound? i'm using wavrepair and Audacity but will download whatever...any advice is welcome....cheers
Re-mastering old Mix tapes (Cassettes)
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There's alot of buzz around Waves Z-Noise, but I really can't see it being $600 good if you're not denoising all day long.
FWIW though, I've seen people do magic with Voxengo Redunoise ($99, but will give Z-noise a run for it's money any day). It might be well worth trying out and it beats giving any credit to the evil villans at Waves, that's for sure.
Also, simple noise gating to get the inbetween-sound hiss off along with some gentle EQing goes a long way.
FWIW though, I've seen people do magic with Voxengo Redunoise ($99, but will give Z-noise a run for it's money any day). It might be well worth trying out and it beats giving any credit to the evil villans at Waves, that's for sure.
Also, simple noise gating to get the inbetween-sound hiss off along with some gentle EQing goes a long way.
Regardless of what de-noise you use make sure you are using it properly. Don't use presets, that's not how de-noising works. And look out for de-noisers' built-in EQs cutting all the trebble trying to trick you into thinking its cleverly removed hiss - turn off the eqs i say.
You have to be able to play the plug-in a bit of clean noise (even if its just half a second at the start or end of the tape) to get a 'noise fingerprint' from. Each tape (in your case) should have its own unique noise fingerprint due to volume and gain knobs being at different settings, different brands of tape and recorders, dolby usage etc so each project should have its own noise fingerprint(s) but do save em to try out on tricky projects.
If its not working too well I try putting EQs or filters before the de-noise plug-in when I'm teaching it what the noise is like. That way i can say: concentrate on these frequencies. If i cut out all the bass and then play it the noise I'm saying: the bass is fine, don't fuck with it, don't fingerprint the low end, just remember all that top end noise, thats whats bothering me. Then of course i turn the eqs and filters off once i've got my fingerprint.
Also know that de-noise can only generally take the edge off the problem - this is true for hiss particuarly as its got so many frequencies in it, buzzes or hums are easier to remove - hiss, it basically never cures it completely. In fact the cure is worse than the disease - there are always horrible digital side effects imparted when you push it too hard. I would strongly suggest only using denoise on the quieter passages of your tape if hiss isn't really a problem during the loud bits. And be happy if you can reduce the hiss at all significantly.
Mostly make sure you're not adding any more noise than you need to when recording the tapes in. Record em in nice and loud, but comfortably clear of distorting.
If i was you I'd try the demo of the waves denoise i think its a 30 day trial so you'd have to get it all done in that time, and i think you need an ilok even to run the demo, i think. Then i supppose you could try the others out there, cheap ones probably suck.
Man that was way longer than i hoped, sorry if you knew all that already, hope it helped. Let me know if it doesn't make sense to you, or you get stuck.
You have to be able to play the plug-in a bit of clean noise (even if its just half a second at the start or end of the tape) to get a 'noise fingerprint' from. Each tape (in your case) should have its own unique noise fingerprint due to volume and gain knobs being at different settings, different brands of tape and recorders, dolby usage etc so each project should have its own noise fingerprint(s) but do save em to try out on tricky projects.
If its not working too well I try putting EQs or filters before the de-noise plug-in when I'm teaching it what the noise is like. That way i can say: concentrate on these frequencies. If i cut out all the bass and then play it the noise I'm saying: the bass is fine, don't fuck with it, don't fingerprint the low end, just remember all that top end noise, thats whats bothering me. Then of course i turn the eqs and filters off once i've got my fingerprint.
Also know that de-noise can only generally take the edge off the problem - this is true for hiss particuarly as its got so many frequencies in it, buzzes or hums are easier to remove - hiss, it basically never cures it completely. In fact the cure is worse than the disease - there are always horrible digital side effects imparted when you push it too hard. I would strongly suggest only using denoise on the quieter passages of your tape if hiss isn't really a problem during the loud bits. And be happy if you can reduce the hiss at all significantly.
Mostly make sure you're not adding any more noise than you need to when recording the tapes in. Record em in nice and loud, but comfortably clear of distorting.
If i was you I'd try the demo of the waves denoise i think its a 30 day trial so you'd have to get it all done in that time, and i think you need an ilok even to run the demo, i think. Then i supppose you could try the others out there, cheap ones probably suck.
Man that was way longer than i hoped, sorry if you knew all that already, hope it helped. Let me know if it doesn't make sense to you, or you get stuck.
totally agree with alan.
unless you are or know a decent mastering eng. &/or have access to proper tools in a proper room, you'll do more harm than good.
de-hiss & yr lowering the quality of the orig. EQ & yr tuneing the sound to those particular speakers/room.
Treat it like an archival process - just get the best quality, clean signal you can and let em go down flat - use 24bit recording if you can.
Hiss, wow & flutter are what makes tapes so good.
unless you are or know a decent mastering eng. &/or have access to proper tools in a proper room, you'll do more harm than good.
de-hiss & yr lowering the quality of the orig. EQ & yr tuneing the sound to those particular speakers/room.
Treat it like an archival process - just get the best quality, clean signal you can and let em go down flat - use 24bit recording if you can.
Hiss, wow & flutter are what makes tapes so good.
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