tape transferring

[zeek]

Originally Posted by showtaper

I thought we were talking quality here......

Storage is cheap. I'm slowly transferring several thousand analog masters
(audio and video) and am sampling at several rates and depths......

If you have good software, why would you do this?

Not only do you have to transfer multiple times, you also have to edit multiple times and if your transferring straight to 16/44.1, you would be forced to edit in 16 which is potentially way worse than dithering and src would ever pose. Depending on your post processing, you may be doing more harm than good.

Why not just spend the money and get r8brain pro and izotope ozone mbit + ? I edit the 24's, then do the sample rate conversion and dither down an whala, it's done. If done right with the above, it's almost totally transparent. I can see where your coming from, but I think, depending on what exactly your doing in post processing, your logic may be a little flawed. If your seeding raws, your way makes perfect sense though.

[showtaper]

Since I'm archiving, there is NO processing involved. Most of my recordings
don't require any. Good mics + good location + good recorder = good recording.

Downsampling will never be as good as a direct capture at the desired rate.

I have multiple computers, I do most of my captures in one pass.

I don't seed my masters, I've seen enough damage from the well intentioned
"professional re-masterers" out there.......

[zeek]

If no processing, I won't disagree with you, capturing in the end bit and sample rates is great. With some folks that remaster not doing good work, I'll also agree with you.

r8brain pro(or even free) and mbit plus dither, I still say your hard pressed to hear a difference caused by the software the you wouldn't hear due to the change in sr and bit depth alone though. Technology has come a long way in the last few years.

[Limulus]

what about creating and uploading a "good" sample file in here? a sample which has good dynamics, soft and loud parts etc.
we could run tests on our own equipments by recording that on cassette and re-capturing it with different equipment for comparing the quality to the original "share-sample" in a topic here?
would like to see such a project, we would need some discussion in how to do that (sample) exactly and stuff...

[GRC]

Originally Posted by showtaper

Storage is cheap. I'm slowly transferring several thousand analog masters
(audio and video) and am sampling at several rates and depths......

Well, I'm glad you're in a position to spend on storage without a second thought, but not everyone is necessarily in that position......

[showtaper]

If you're in a position to spend money on a computer, the internet, a taping
rig, etc, a few bucks for a couple of large hard drives shouldn't be a huge hit.

Cut out the Starbuck's for a couple of weeks and you're there........

[GRC]

Starbucks? What's that?

[showtaper]

I hear tell it's an expensive coffee shop.....

Never been in one, that's why I can afford all those extra TB hard drives.......

[mojofilter02]

I've enjoyed reading this thread. I'm glad that the experienced recordists are teaching people how to adjust azimuth and why. It's been my pet peeve for years.

I popped in here to say that if you're using Adobe Audition 3, it now has an automatic phase correction function, and it will fix azimuth problems on digital recordings of tape transfers. I don't know how they made it work, but it's freakin' fantastic. I may be working 'way into my retirement to fix recordings I have that are currently out-of-phase due to azimuth miscalibration before transfer. The first time I fixed up a mono recording that was out-of-phase, the program had paid for itself. Man, I love technology!

[PG1Tapes]

I did this recently with a tape. Granted, the tape had a few flaws on it, but overall I thought it turned out good. I'll post if you'd like. I have a Sony Stereo with a cassette player on it. I popped in the cassette, turned the volume to 10, and plugged direct into my sound card. Make sure that the gain boost on your computer is all the way down. Record and the lowest audible level, you can make it louder later. Next, I recorded into Audacity 1.3 BETA and exported as 16-Bit PCM. Pretty simple.

[Audioarchivist]

WTF??? Do you use the headphone out for that mess? You're supposed to turn it to eleven, dude!
"It goes to 11!"

There's your Spinal Tap quote of the day.

Aren't your transfers audibly clipped and distorted? Turning any analog device to 10 will fry the analog signal. Analog clipping sucks, too, man!

Get a deck with a line-out. Record to line-in on soundcard. Levels should be medium to high but of course not clipping, and needing to boost levels later sucks. Record at higher sample rate and bitrate if you're going to need to do any messing around in the computer. Master transfers done at 16 bit are "acceptable" of course but so much better quality to record say, 24 bit 96 khz, and to do any editing and "mastering" at that rate then downsample and dither for the CD-ready 16/44.1 market.

[PG1Tapes]

It's not clipped. However, the tape I used was an extremely quiet recording, which probably explains it.

[Five]

the decks I've used the volume control on the tape deck doesn't affect anything. the output is just one fixed level.

so to gain stage the operation wiggle the volumes around in windows mixer (that little speaker in the bottom-right of windows) and wiggle the volume around in yer wav recorder until you find the best sound. [[EARS people! ]. some soundcards have their own volume controls separate from the windows mixer (eg E-MU stuff, M-Audio etc etc) just find it. only audacity has an 'input record volume' setting that I can recall right now, so this one fader is crucial.

standard practice is to set it where the peaks are not far from the top but 100% for sure not touching. this is an analog practice it is worthwhile to also compare some lower-level captures for sound quality... sometimes its a lot less harsh for some reason I can't figure out!!

boosting in post always harms the sound a little bit. moreso in 16bit than 24bit but most traded tapes have the levels set as I described above. distortion is worse, of course.

ps don't overplay the tape if you can help it, it wears off the highs!

[PG1Tapes]

Originally Posted by Five

don't overplay the tape if you can help it, it wears off the highs!

I'm pretty sure the tape I transferred to digital had the hell played out of it. I just know, as it's been with my family for around 20+ years...

[Five]

not optimal for sound quality, but a sure sign that this recording needs to be preserved for some more listening! :

nothing much to be done about it now, anyways