Do you know of any decent guides for getting started please? I’ve got a load of cassettes from the 90s that I want to fix, and trying to do it manually is slooooowww 😩
What exactly are you trying to do with them? I’d say let me know what you’re currently doing and what you’re trying to achieve. Very happy to help! I actually just finished a pretty huge digitizing project with VHS, DV, and 8mm cassette so this is all very fresh currently lol
I’m mostly just trying to clean them up. They’re old tapes, so they’ve started to degrade. They have that wavy sort of sound, as if they’re playing back at an uneven speed. They’ve also got random noise in places, so instead of being able to record a sample of noise and remove it from the whole track, I’ve got to do it manually for sections of the recording.
Apart from the wavy sound it’s all straightforward enough, just time consuming
Yeah those are pretty complicated issues. Is it all spoken word? I have a few ideas that might be useful and, more importantly, sweeping/not manual lol. And don’t worry about the delay in the reply!
If you’re comfortable, you could send me a 60s sample that you feel is somewhat representative and I can try one or two things and then show you what I did. There are some pretty amazing automated, straightforward tools that can do a lot in certain situations. Depending on the specifics we may be able to pull off some serious improvements for you.
These are all music. My father was given a lot of demo tapes when he ran a pub, and I’ve ended up with them. I thought it would be a nice project to digitise and restore them, then send a copy to the bands. I won’t be able to send a clip for the next day or two though.
I’m really glad you explained this to me because there are kind of two conversations we need to have. This is also so cool!
I’m going to do the best I can to help you record all of this, so I’m going to focus on capturing them exactly as they are on the tape because that is going to give you the best chance of success.
I have several friends in the preservation space. I think the best move is to get the best, clean recordings we can get and then kick them their way. Obviously they might be interested in the original media, but it’s good to have both and I’m not entirely sure you want to part with them! I’m going to tell them about this situation and see who perks up, I have a feeling there are one or two of them who would be interested in helping you out as a kindness and because they want to explore these lol. But of course I can’t promise anything and if you are not interested in sharing the recordings I know these folks would still be so happy to help you preserve them for yourself and would give good advice.
Do you have an email or something I can reach you at? Happy to give you mine as well, ifthat’s preferred. I have a secondary email I use as a screener for my primary so I’m not worried about some rando causing me problems
I’m mostly just trying to clean them up. They’re old tapes, so they’ve started to degrade. They have that wavy sort of sound, as if they’re playing back at an uneven speed. They’ve also got random noise in places, so instead of being able to record a sample of noise and remove it from the whole track, I’ve got to do it manually for sections of the recording.
Apart from the wavy sound it’s all straightforward enough, just time consuming
Do you know of any decent guides for getting started please? I’ve got a load of cassettes from the 90s that I want to fix, and trying to do it manually is slooooowww 😩
What exactly are you trying to do with them? I’d say let me know what you’re currently doing and what you’re trying to achieve. Very happy to help! I actually just finished a pretty huge digitizing project with VHS, DV, and 8mm cassette so this is all very fresh currently lol
Sorry, I missed your reply.
I’m mostly just trying to clean them up. They’re old tapes, so they’ve started to degrade. They have that wavy sort of sound, as if they’re playing back at an uneven speed. They’ve also got random noise in places, so instead of being able to record a sample of noise and remove it from the whole track, I’ve got to do it manually for sections of the recording.
Apart from the wavy sound it’s all straightforward enough, just time consuming
Yeah those are pretty complicated issues. Is it all spoken word? I have a few ideas that might be useful and, more importantly, sweeping/not manual lol. And don’t worry about the delay in the reply!
If you’re comfortable, you could send me a 60s sample that you feel is somewhat representative and I can try one or two things and then show you what I did. There are some pretty amazing automated, straightforward tools that can do a lot in certain situations. Depending on the specifics we may be able to pull off some serious improvements for you.
Thank you :)
These are all music. My father was given a lot of demo tapes when he ran a pub, and I’ve ended up with them. I thought it would be a nice project to digitise and restore them, then send a copy to the bands. I won’t be able to send a clip for the next day or two though.
Whoah that is amazing.
I’m really glad you explained this to me because there are kind of two conversations we need to have. This is also so cool!
I’m going to do the best I can to help you record all of this, so I’m going to focus on capturing them exactly as they are on the tape because that is going to give you the best chance of success.
I have several friends in the preservation space. I think the best move is to get the best, clean recordings we can get and then kick them their way. Obviously they might be interested in the original media, but it’s good to have both and I’m not entirely sure you want to part with them! I’m going to tell them about this situation and see who perks up, I have a feeling there are one or two of them who would be interested in helping you out as a kindness and because they want to explore these lol. But of course I can’t promise anything and if you are not interested in sharing the recordings I know these folks would still be so happy to help you preserve them for yourself and would give good advice.
Do you have an email or something I can reach you at? Happy to give you mine as well, ifthat’s preferred. I have a secondary email I use as a screener for my primary so I’m not worried about some rando causing me problems
Sorry, I missed your reply.
I’m mostly just trying to clean them up. They’re old tapes, so they’ve started to degrade. They have that wavy sort of sound, as if they’re playing back at an uneven speed. They’ve also got random noise in places, so instead of being able to record a sample of noise and remove it from the whole track, I’ve got to do it manually for sections of the recording.
Apart from the wavy sound it’s all straightforward enough, just time consuming