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Mark D. Zacharias[_3_] Mark D. Zacharias[_3_] is offline
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Default Wow and flutter on cassette tape + loss of high frequency


"Phillip" wrote in message
...
Hi there. I'm wondering whether there is any work around at all,
software or otherwise, to repair the sound of a cassette tape, that
was recorded on a tape deck a while ago and had this bad sound since
the beginning (to the fault of the deck's head or something else)...
the tape is actually in good condition itself. Anyways, the sound of
the music on the cassette is what I guess is "wow and flutter" - as
well as some loss of high frequency. I don't think I have that deck
anymore what was used to record that tape...I just remember that the
head of that deck was quite dirty...
Sometimes, at a beginning of a song, possibly after another pause in
recording, the sound is very rich and "normal" for about 3 to 4
seconds, then drifts off into a more muffled sound with wow and
flutter.
I've read a bit about azimuth adjustment, but I think that's only to
increase the high frequency on a cassette recorded on another deck,
nothing to do with wow and flutter??

Is there anything that I can do, either with a deck or software (very
willing to try that out) to gain high frequency OR reduce the wow and
flutter? I've been restoring cassettes and records to mp3 for quite a
few years now.

Thanks!


I've read your post twice and still cannot tell if the tape is recorded that
way or if your current player is at fault.

When you say,

"Sometimes, at a beginning of a song, possibly after another pause in
recording, the sound is very rich and "normal" for about 3 to 4 seconds,
then drifts off into a more muffled sound with wow and flutter."

Do you mean that the same passage may sometimes play OK past the point where
the sound would muffle? If so, I would say it was not the recording deck
skewing the tape while it was recording, rather that your playback deck is
the problem.

On the other hand if you mean a pause and restart by the recording machine,
then yes, the recorder was skewing the tape, the recording is bad, not much
can be done. This is not an alignment problemon the playback deck, but a
slight tweak to the alignment might reduce the effect, though there might
well be a tradeoff in high frequency response. How bad depends on how well
the two decks matched up in the first place.

A knowledgeable tech or technically inclined amateur might be able to tweak
it in real time while copying; this would take a bit of practice and a
couple tries. You could use headphones while making the adjustments.


Mark Z.