Hiss removal in cassette to CD transfer

olgoat52 · Nov 21, 2010

All. I am having some old cassettes digitized onto CDs and I have the option of having them apply "hiss removal" during the transfer. I don't know what process they use but I was concerned that the expected poor quality of the resultant transfer would be even worse.

I was probably going to be editing these transfers digitially and have not used audacity or Kristal before.

Do these products offer the ability to remove hiss or am I better off just letting them do it during the transfer.

I no longer own a decent cassette transport and that is why I am farming it out.

Doug W · Nov 21, 2010

Is it possible for them to send you a sample with hiss removal before they complete the project or is the profit margin too small for that? I have had some success using hiss removal and some not so successful attempts. Sometimes the process can add some strange artifacts to the resulting file.

Last time I transferred cassette to digital at home, I used eq to get rid of most of the hiss which worked pretty well. I do still have a decent 4 track cassette recorder at home that is working so I had plenty of time for experimenting.

chiefnoda · Nov 21, 2010

Hi olgoat52

From my limited experience, there is no "perfect" removal/ If it were applied too strongly, your tone would be bad or yu may even get strange artifacts. I think you are the only person wh can decide what the best balance, and in that regard, I would ask them to transfer the tape to an audio file format (WAV, AIFF, SDII etc; not MP3 or any compressed format) without any alteration (no EQ, no dynamic enhancements, no compression). Ask for the best quality duplication of the original without any change.

Then, you can use audio software to get the best soudning file to your taste. Once a file has been messed up (by too much effects), there is no way to undo them.

That is, if you can spend the time and effort to edit each file. Editing takes time and boring! Still I feel better to have the option in my hands.

Audacity can do this

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Noise_Removal

Cheers
Chief

olgoat52 · Nov 22, 2010

chiefnoda said:
Hi olgoat52

From my limited experience, there is no "perfect" removal/ If it were applied too strongly, your tone would be bad or yu may even get strange artifacts. I think you are the only person wh can decide what the best balance, and in that regard, I would ask them to transfer the tape to an audio file format (WAV, AIFF, SDII etc; not MP3 or any compressed format) without any alteration (no EQ, no dynamic enhancements, no compression). Ask for the best quality duplication of the original without any change.

Then, you can use audio software to get the best soudning file to your taste. Once a file has been messed up (by too much effects), there is no way to undo them.

That is, if you can spend the time and effort to edit each file. Editing takes time and boring! Still I feel better to have the option in my hands.

Audacity can do this

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Noise_Removal

Cheers
Chief

I was thinking along those lines as well. Get the best detail and try to handle the hiss on my own or leave it alone if it sacrifices too much. I can always have them do the transfer again, if I can't work it out myself.

Manalishi · Nov 22, 2010

I have used a program from the net for years called
'Vinyl DePopper'. It removes hiss very well, as I have
copied a lot of my old cassette tapes to mp3 format.
Not sure if it's free or 'try then buy' but if so,the free
trial period is lengthy!

knadles · Nov 22, 2010

The problem with tape hiss is that it's white noise. Essentially, that means it's random and covers a wide frequency range--making it impossible to remove outright. Any attempts to do so will definitely affect the original signal. Whether you can live with that effect is up to you, so it's a good idea to do as Doug W suggested and ask them for a sample transfer in advance.

If you want archival sound quality, ask for the transfer without "hiss removal." Assuming this is the last transfer from your original cassettes, the digital files they give you will be your new "originals." Anything done wrong or poorly in this transfer will be part of the sound forever.

-Pete

olgoat52 · Nov 22, 2010

knadles said:
The problem with tape hiss is that it's white noise. Essentially, that means it's random and covers a wide frequency range--making it impossible to remove outright. Any attempts to do so will definitely affect the original signal. Whether you can live with that effect is up to you, so it's a good idea to do as Doug W suggested and ask them for a sample transfer in advance.

If you want archival sound quality, ask for the transfer without "hiss removal." Assuming this is the last transfer from your original cassettes, the digital files they give you will be your new "originals." Anything done wrong or poorly in this transfer will be part of the sound forever.

-Pete

ok. The cassettes are the original recordings about 38 years ago.

Hiss removal in cassette to CD transfer

olgoat52

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