Getting rid of tape hiss using Audacity

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by gazatthebop, Jan 3, 2014.

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  1. gazatthebop

    gazatthebop Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    manchester
    I have many concerts taped on cassette which i am planning to transfer to cdr, some from the 1970's have a lot of hiss. I would like to remove some of it, not necessarily eliminate it but significantly reduce it.

    I use a Aiwa AD-F 810 cassette deck to a Sony cd recorder, then rip the cdrw to audacity to seperate the tracks and burn to cdr disc using realplayer.

    One option to reduce the hiss is to use Dolby, i.e, set the casette deck to Dolby C where a tape has been recorded with Dolby B.
    Another option is to use the equaliser in audacity to reduce the hiss.

    One i am most interested in is the Audacity Noise Removal. I assume this was designed to remove tape hiss?
    It has four settings
    1. Noise Reduction (dB) 1-48
    2. Sensitivity (dB) -20--+20
    3 Frequency Smoothing Hz 0-1000
    4. Attack/decay time 0--10

    I have tried several random settings with this but have found as well as removing hiss it is removing some of the music. Can anyone recommend a setting that will remove hiss but very little music, is that possible?

    I am aware there are other programmes but Audacity is the one i have and intend to use for this.
    thanks in advance!
     
  2. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    Use only the correct Dolby the tapes were encoded with. No other. Noise reduction is best used minimally. Reducing it is possible, eliminating it will take music with it. Your cassettes are what they are.
     
  3. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore

    Audacity isn't the greatest solution for noise removal. You know what they say: you get what you pay for.
     
    Vidiot and HAmmer like this.
  4. davmar77

    davmar77 I'd rather be drummin'...

    Location:
    clifton park,ny
    One option to reduce the hiss is to use Dolby, i.e, set the casette deck to Dolby C where a tape has been recorded with Dolby B.

    what's the advantage using c over b when the recordings were made with b?
     
  5. slane

    slane Forum Resident

    Location:
    Merrie England
    Are you taking a sample of the hiss before you try the different settings? You have to do that first for it to work.
     
  6. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    The problem is that there's is a lot of music in the range where cassettes are subject to hiss—get rid of the hiss, get rid of the music. Having used the noise reduction setting [sample just the noise] of Audacity I would recommend not using it. I would play back the tapes with the same noise reduction, otherwise there would be audible pumping. I would selectively filter the hiss via eq depending on the volume setting of the music.
     
  7. gazatthebop

    gazatthebop Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    manchester
    Yes i am taking the hiss from just before the music starts

    It reduces the hiss but also "muddies" the sound too
     
  8. davmar77

    davmar77 I'd rather be drummin'...

    Location:
    clifton park,ny
    surely not what i'd want. i was never a dolby fan anyway. i think i used it 10 times if that. i actually have an outboard dolby unit that i got along with a teac 2000 reel unit and a ton of reels that were encoded from a friend who no longer wanted it all.
     
  9. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    If there's a way to make the dubs directly to the computer you would have the option of recording in 24 bit. Eq changes made in 24 bit are not subject to the same distortion as 16 bit files. I would bypass the step of the CDR and record in 24 bit to Audacity. There's nothing going on with cassette tapes over 15k, no point in using higher sampling rates. But greater bit depth is useful if you're attempting to make eq changes with cassette tapes,
     
  10. gazatthebop

    gazatthebop Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    manchester
    I have been sampling the hiss removed and yes there is too much music being removed with it, i just wondered if i had the settings wrong. I assume its best to amplify the music as loud as possible in audacity without clipping before doing the eq to lessen the hiss?
     
  11. davmar77

    davmar77 I'd rather be drummin'...

    Location:
    clifton park,ny
    i'd rather have some hiss than lose music. unless you are talking many generations, how bad can it be? otherwise you end up with it sounding like a pillow over the speakers.
     
  12. gazatthebop

    gazatthebop Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    manchester

    I can record to a portable tascam dr07 II in 24 bit rather than cdr, then transfer the file to the computer to eq. A good alternative?. I do not know/have the software to go direct from cassette to computer
     
  13. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Yes, that's how I do needledrops, I''ve got a DR-05. If you are going to change the file by changing volume or adjusting eq or using noise reduction tools, you are better off working in 24 bits.
     
  14. gazatthebop

    gazatthebop Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    manchester
    on some of the tapes the hiss is bad, too bad to listen to the tape, not many are like that but there are a few. I have some soundboard tapes that have been recorded too low rather than having gone through generations, also some recorded by journalists for review purposes, they tended to use cheap non branded cassettes
     
  15. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    No, you want to make the file 24 bit, make the changes and then 'normalize'. And you want to try different settings until you reach the best compromise between signal and noise.
     
  16. gazatthebop

    gazatthebop Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    manchester
    what sample rate 44.1?
     
  17. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Yeah, there's nothing going on in the top octave of the kinds of tapes you describe.
     
  18. gazatthebop

    gazatthebop Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    manchester
    Most of the cassettes are high quality TDK SA-X and Maxell XL II-S (if you know your audio cassettes!!)
     
  19. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    I do, I used to mass duplicate concert tapes [DAT sourced] in real time. TDK SA-X. No top octave, stops around 10k. If you want the top octave you'll need metal tape and a SOTA cassette deck.
     
  20. gazatthebop

    gazatthebop Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    manchester
    so 44.1 is fine with SA-X?
     
  21. gazatthebop

    gazatthebop Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    manchester
    only got one metal tape think its an MA-X(G) (metal shell) gee those were expensive!!!!
     
  22. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    44.1k is fine with LPs, much less cassettes. Others will disagree, but I've experimented with 96k, hear no improvement but the file gets really big. If I heard an improvement I would record in 96k. But I don't. YMMV. But I don't think so from the description of the sorts of tapes that are giving you grief.
     
  23. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Yes! I got a lot at close to $10 a pop. But if you were willing to hit the tape real hard, you could skip NR altogether.
     
  24. gazatthebop

    gazatthebop Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    manchester
    I have had most of these cassettes 20-35 years, always stored away from sunlight at room temp. Will they have deteriorated much sound wise? Some of the cheaper ones snap at the end of the leader tape which i can repair easily. I just wonder how much longer i can wait to transfer them before they deteriorate
     
  25. gazatthebop

    gazatthebop Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    manchester

    what do you mean "hit the tape"?
     
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