On Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:29:40 -0500, mcp6453 wrote:
Hello everybody. The last time I posted here has been a couple of
years ago. First I'd like to greet all RAP regulars (Hi Scott, hi Arny
and the others) here and I'm glad that you all are doing well. I'm
still fine , too.
Now, speaking of that old darn compact cassettes, I'd only say what
I'm doing while transferring them as well as reel-to-reel tapes:
I do a check by recording some bits at beginning, middle and the end
of the tape and in computer, sum it up to mono.
If there is a varied azimuth shift such at cassettes, I'm mostly
helpless as I don't have some tools by eg. Cedar and Cube-Tech
claiming that they can fix it. I'd like to know whether the resuls
were flawless without any artifacts etc.
Reel to reel tapes tend to have a more or less fixed azimuth angle
error and I do not need to adjust the azimuth screw anymore (Allen
Hex metric #8 I think, at Revox PR99 and B77 and I think at 1/4"
Studers). Instead I do this:
I downloaded a DirectX plug-in called "Sample Slide" from he
http://www.analogx.com/contents/down...e/Freeware.htm
This plug-in is capable of shifting all the track in both directions
with a 1-sample precision. Now in eg. Sound Forge, samples are shown
as dots when the envelope display is stretched to maximum. At mono
recordings, one picks the sharpest possible event, a click or similar.
Display count mode should be selected to show number of samples and
not time at the lower right information window. Now selecting the
difference between the peaks of such sharp event in left and right
track, one sees how much samples this difference is couting.
In the Sample Slide plugin, one disengages the Connect button, sets
the upper value to eg. 10 and lower value to 10 plus or minus number
of samples aready counted. After activating the plug-in, upper track
jumps 10 samples forward and lower track for number of samples stated.
If done properly, the whole recording should be sample accurate (in
the case the azimuth isn't changing over the time) and this should
give the same result as if the azimuth has previously been set
traditionally, by reproduce head screw.
Also,
By summing up monitors and inverting the right track, one can hear the
difference only and, upon setting both values in the Sample Slide
plugin to eg. 10, he can "wander" to and fro to achieve the best
cancellation. False positives are of course possible, so here a 2-3
samples headroom will do the best in most cases. Higher values would
be nesessary for only for recording being desperatedly out of track.
Of course, don't forger to invert the second track to its normal and
set the monitors back to stereo.
This is for mono. For stereo this second method is also applicable
with good results, but now you are watchinhg for best cancellation of
middle signals such bass, vocal etc. Similary to various "vocal
remover" tools fo karaoke.
I also pay attention to the correct pitch. Nobody warrants that an old
recording is recorded at exactly 50 or 60 Hz and with dubs, things get
worse. Usually, there is a residual 50/100 o6 60/120 Hz hum. This
should be sufficient for estimating the pitch as you can select a
silent ie. empty piece of recording and check it with a FFT analyser
(Sound Forge has it built-in). For the final check, again in Sound
Forge, you have a midi keyboard option, by which you can use your ears
and make a final check.
It is astonishing how things get better after correctingh the pitch.
Not only the piece can be accompanied without actually de-tuning your
instrument but (what is more important) the sound gets more open,
precise and natural. This is because by retuning the recording to the
normal pitch (assumed A440, but caveat, this is not always the case
especially with shellac records), you are bringing the harmonic
structure back to normal. Well no more honky Micky Mouse or Donald
Duck voices. Its of course not because singers or speakers were quite
young then (that is true allright) but by detuning, human voice
formants are messed up as well.
So, this is my opinion about the two issues , about the effect of
flutter and scrape flutter on harmonics I'd beter not discuss now...
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all,
Edi Zubovic, Crikvenica, Croatia
Since I'm off until the end of the year, I decided to finally archive a large
quantity of audio cassettes. Unfortunately, when I cranked up my cassette deck
for the first time in a while, it was toast. The logic is screwed up on the left
well such that the door will not open. The pressure roller on the right side is
coated and hard to clean.
There turned out to be a couple of cold solder joints in the power supply, which
I fixed, and that allowed me to get the right deck going, but I don't have any
confidence in the deck. It already ate one tape.
Are the new cassette decks ($300 range) any good? I hate to spend that much
money to buy a deck just to archive, but if I don't, I'm going to end up finding
tapes that I can't play.
Alternatively, does anyone here have a semi-pro deck in great shape to sell?