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Richard Crowley Richard Crowley is offline
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Default Wow and flutter on cassette tape + loss of high frequency

"Phillip" wrote ...
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" -


Seems unlikely that a "head problem" would cause wow and
flutter. If you are not sure what it is, post a sample online
somewhere and let us hear it.

as well as some loss of high frequency.


Maybe a "head problem" but just as likely a tracking problem.

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...


Dirty heads would affect playback more than recording.

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,


Do you mean when it was recorded or upon playback today?
Does it always happen in the same place regardless of where
you start and stop today? If it is a playback artifact today,
then you may have a chance at recovery. But if it was recorded
onto the tape, then it is what it is.

Can you "diddle" the tape path (like with a cotton swab or
something) during playback to make a differential diagnosis?

then drifts off into a more muffled sound with wow and
flutter.


Are you saying that these brief episodes of clarity are free
of wow and flutter? That seems pretty unusual.

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,


Part of it may be azimuth, but more likely tracking.

nothing to do with wow and flutter??


Probably nothing to do with wow or flutter. Unless it is "scrape
flutter"

Is there anything that I can do, either with a deck or software (very
willing to try that out) to gain high frequency


Fixing the HF loss problem will almost certainly be a mechanical
fix when you play back the cassette on your machine today. This
is not the kind of thing that is typically fixable with software.

OR reduce the wow and flutter?


If it really is wow and/or flutter, we have heard of a technique
that uses background hum to gague the instantaneous error
and apply correction (software based). Dunno if this is
commonly available, though?