I have an old cassette spoken voice that I was asked put on CD. It has
a bad echo that is not room echo, but rather print through from one
tape layer to another. Are there computer editing tricks or software to
supress or at least reduce this?

wrote:
I have an old cassette spoken voice that I was asked put on CD. It has
a bad echo that is not room echo, but rather print through from one
tape layer to another. Are there computer editing tricks or software to
supress or at least reduce this?

No. You can try expansion (like a noise gate but not just on/off) but
you might find that it sounds less natural than leaving the
print-through. You can go through the recording and if you find long
periods of silence other than the print-through, you can just reduce
the volume from that seciton. But there's no automatic process for this
That's why you have to charge enough money for doing this job.

wrote:
I have an old cassette spoken voice that I was asked put on CD. It has
a bad echo that is not room echo, but rather print through from one
tape layer to another. Are there computer editing tricks or software to
supress or at least reduce this?

No, this is the result of the head alignment on the original machine not
being correct. You need a playback machine with adjustable head height
and azimuth. The head height _is_ a big deal in this case.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Don't know if this would work very satisfactorily, but there is one
thing you might try after you've transferred the program to your
DAW: reverse the signal - play it backwards - and apply the gate
that way, since the print-through occurs after the original signal
you may be able to remove some of it. Of course, there would
be some trial and error as to the proper setting of the gate. I'd
try a small section first and see what results you get. Could prove
interesting.

will wrote:
Don't know if this would work very satisfactorily, but there is one
thing you might try after you've transferred the program to your
DAW: reverse the signal - play it backwards - and apply the gate
that way, since the print-through occurs after the original signal
you may be able to remove some of it. Of course, there would
be some trial and error as to the proper setting of the gate. I'd
try a small section first and see what results you get. Could prove
interesting.

Maybe, except the OTHER side will also have similar leakage issues too.

Just to the transcription job properly in the first place and you won't
have to worry about cheesy fixes after the fact.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

wrote:

I have an old cassette spoken voice that I was asked put on CD. It has
a bad echo that is not room echo, but rather print through from one
tape layer to another. Are there computer editing tricks or software to
supress or at least reduce this?

On some specially modified tape recorders in the 1950s there was a way
of switching very low erase current to the erase head during playback,
to get rid of print-through.

The theory was that part of the mixture in the magnetic tape coating was
much easier to magnetise than the majority of the mix, this was the bit
that picked up print-through from adjacent layers. It was also the most
easily erased, so a low erase current would remove the print-through
without significantly affecting the wanted recording.

It sounds like a high-risk strategy and I don't know of any machines
that have been modified for it since the EMI BTR2. I assume it must
have really worked because the BBC claimed to have used it.

I have no idea whether it still applies to cassette tapes

--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

On 6 Mar 2006 11:20:53 -0800, wrote:

The low bias erase sounds interesting, but I don't think I'll be
building or modifying hardware to salvage this cassette. The earlier
comments about head alignment make no sense however. How would that
have anything to do with a tape layer getting magnetized by an adjacent
layer?

Scott is apparently thinking that this is caused by the playback
head picking up material recorded in the opposite direction, rather
than it being print-through.


One thing I forgot to mention is that the "echo" actually preceeds the
main audio.

So you're sure this is print-through of the same material as the
main signal, and not material recorded in the opposite direction?
I would adjust the head position anyway, just to see if it makes
any difference. It doesn't seem like it would for print-through, but I
don't know what else to try other than doing the dynamics thing in a
DAW, which is more of a last-ditch effort.

I don't think that changes any of the DAW techniques that
have been suggested (I'll play with the inversion idea), but just in
case it does, I wanted to accurately frame the problem.

Ben Bradley wrote:
On 6 Mar 2006 11:20:53 -0800, wrote:

The low bias erase sounds interesting, but I don't think I'll be
building or modifying hardware to salvage this cassette. The earlier
comments about head alignment make no sense however. How would that
have anything to do with a tape layer getting magnetized by an adjacent
layer?

Scott is apparently thinking that this is caused by the playback
head picking up material recorded in the opposite direction, rather
than it being print-through.

OR, from material that was erased and re-recorded over, with the re-recorded
track in a different position than the original one.


One thing I forgot to mention is that the "echo" actually preceeds the
main audio.

So you're sure this is print-through of the same material as the
main signal, and not material recorded in the opposite direction?

Print-through isn't as serious with cassettes as you might expect. I see
it now and then, but usually a couple passes of fast forwarding and rewinding
makes it go away. And it's never very loud. Worse with chrome tapes than
rust ones.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."