Cassette to PC -Sound Forge - PC - MAGIX Community Forums Archive

Subject:Cassette to PC Posted by: MRM Date:9/15/2003 6:32:44 PM How do i transfer my cassette lectures to my PC? And then get rid of Hiss in the back and make the sound more clear?
Subject:RE: Cassette to PC Reply by: vanblah Date:9/15/2003 6:49:30 PM If you are the professor then get your GA to do it. But seriously, connect your tape recorder to the line in of your sound card. You may need some kind of adapter to do this. Most likely they line in of your sound card is 1/8th inch mini plug ... so you need to go from whatever the recorder (or tape player) is to 1/8th inch. Hit record in Sound Forge and play on the tape device. Once you are done recording you can experiment with different EQ settings etc. to get rid of hiss and "bring out the best" in your lectures. There's no real recipe for this ... it all depends on what you start with. You can purchase the Noise Reduction plug ins and they may or may not make it any easier. Doug
Subject:RE: Cassette to PC Reply by: RiRo Date:9/16/2003 9:54:52 AM I do lots of this, not classroom lectures, but legacy preaching tapes of sermons preached decades ago. The only thing I would change from vanblah's suggestion... Noise Reduction 2 is the ONLY way to go for getting rid of the noise. Tape hiss and the sounds that transform noise into words reside in the same frequency range. You can kill the hiss with EQ, but the tape will sound muddy and in many cases will be totally illegible. When a tape is really noisy and the highs are weak as well, I use RCG audio's high frequency stimulator to peak the highs then NR2 to tackle the hiss. A tip for NR2, use type three reduction, and 9db noise reduction. Run it in several passes, selecting the noise sample manually to get the best results. The reason for running the stimulator first is that it will take the driven, or non static highs higher, which will leave some for when you get rid of the noise. If you do NR first on a really bad tape, there may not be enough highs left to work with. If you take your time, you can get some really surprisingly good results. I have taken tapes that were really bad to start with, and with lots of work have made them better than the quality of some of the stuff that is being recorded today on less than great equipment and tapes. RiRo
Subject:RE: Cassette to PC Reply by: PixelStuff Date:10/6/2003 5:06:57 PM I don't suppse anyone woud know where to get this High Frequency Stimulator would they? I can't find any info or link to it on their web site. JBJones
Subject:RE: Cassette to PC Reply by: rraud Date:10/6/2003 7:13:50 PM I 've been using the rgc HF/stim for quite a while and it works great.... when used sparingly, more is not better! beware of overusing. This was a little hard to find, since it's no longer lisited on their website. http://www.rgcaudio.com/downloads/freeware/ look for "hfstim10.exe" , if that's not it, I'm sure one of us could e-mail the small installation file to you. Would anyone have or know where to find the RGC low-Freq. stimulator
Subject:What settings of HF Stim for cleaning up tape with NR? Reply by: electronick Date:12/13/2004 7:39:06 AM Hi RiRo Just a question, what settings did you use on the HF Stimulator? Also, did you use it before each pass of the NR set to 9dB reduction, or only once before doing all the passes of NR back to back? I have a really challenging tape to tame and any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Erik.

Subject:Cassette to PC

Posted by: MRM

Date:9/15/2003 6:32:44 PM

How do i transfer my cassette lectures to my PC? And then get rid of Hiss in the back and make the sound more clear?

Subject:RE: Cassette to PC

Reply by: vanblah

Date:9/15/2003 6:49:30 PM

If you are the professor then get your GA to do it.

But seriously, connect your tape recorder to the line in of your sound card. You may need some kind of adapter to do this. Most likely they line in of your sound card is 1/8th inch mini plug ... so you need to go from whatever the recorder (or tape player) is to 1/8th inch.

Hit record in Sound Forge and play on the tape device. Once you are done recording you can experiment with different EQ settings etc. to get rid of hiss and "bring out the best" in your lectures. There's no real recipe for this ... it all depends on what you start with. You can purchase the Noise Reduction plug ins and they may or may not make it any easier.

Doug

Subject:RE: Cassette to PC

Reply by: RiRo

Date:9/16/2003 9:54:52 AM

I do lots of this, not classroom lectures, but legacy preaching tapes of sermons preached decades ago. The only thing I would change from vanblah's suggestion... Noise Reduction 2 is the ONLY way to go for getting rid of the noise. Tape hiss and the sounds that transform noise into words reside in the same frequency range. You can kill the hiss with EQ, but the tape will sound muddy and in many cases will be totally illegible.

When a tape is really noisy and the highs are weak as well, I use RCG audio's high frequency stimulator to peak the highs then NR2 to tackle the hiss. A tip for NR2, use type three reduction, and 9db noise reduction. Run it in several passes, selecting the noise sample manually to get the best results.

The reason for running the stimulator first is that it will take the driven, or non static highs higher, which will leave some for when you get rid of the noise. If you do NR first on a really bad tape, there may not be enough highs left to work with.

If you take your time, you can get some really surprisingly good results. I have taken tapes that were really bad to start with, and with lots of work have made them better than the quality of some of the stuff that is being recorded today on less than great equipment and tapes.

RiRo

Subject:RE: Cassette to PC

Reply by: PixelStuff

Date:10/6/2003 5:06:57 PM

I don't suppse anyone woud know where to get this High Frequency Stimulator would they? I can't find any info or link to it on their web site.

JBJones

Subject:RE: Cassette to PC

Reply by: rraud

Date:10/6/2003 7:13:50 PM

I 've been using the rgc HF/stim for quite a while and it works great.... when used sparingly, more is not better! beware of overusing.

This was a little hard to find, since it's no longer lisited on their website.

http://www.rgcaudio.com/downloads/freeware/
look for "hfstim10.exe" ,
if that's not it, I'm sure one of us could e-mail the small installation file to you.

Would anyone have or know where to find the RGC low-Freq. stimulator

Subject:What settings of HF Stim for cleaning up tape with NR?

Reply by: electronick

Date:12/13/2004 7:39:06 AM

Hi RiRo
Just a question, what settings did you use on the HF Stimulator?
Also, did you use it before each pass of the NR set to 9dB reduction, or only once before doing all the passes of NR back to back?
I have a really challenging tape to tame and any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Erik.