Software for Digitizing Cassettes?

Recording Techniques, People Skills, Gear, Recording Spaces, Computers, and DIY

Moderators: drumsound, tomb

Post Reply
User avatar
Snarl 12/8
cryogenically thawing
Posts: 3510
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 5:01 pm
Location: Right Cheer
Contact:

Software for Digitizing Cassettes?

Post by Snarl 12/8 » Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:52 pm

Hey,

I bought a tape deck yesterday for the purpose of importing some cassettes that I have left over from the 90's into computerland. I was going to use my Lexicon Omega for the interface and rip them into Audacity, but I'm not looking forward to it.

I was wondering if there was something out there that would make importing tapes and slicing them into files more fun, easier and/or quicker. The main thing that's going to be a drag in audacity is cleaning them up if they need a little eq, hiss reduction, whatever. Audacity's plugins are weird and hard to audition. But also, the exporting the tunes as individual wav's and mp3's is going to be slow going too. What would you use, and why? I'm on PC. I'd say my top budget is $1-200 for just the software.

Soon, I'm going to want to do this with my old 1/4" 8-track masters, so, something that could accommodate more than just 2 tracks would be interesting. For that project I'm going to need an 8-channel input interface, so for that I'd pay more money for hardware/software if it could do both jobs, obviously. How much does it cost these days to get 8 channels of Protools going? I'm willing (hoping?) to buy used hardware.

Thanks,

ck
Carl Keil

Almost forgot: Please steal my drum tracks. and more.

ericzang
studio intern
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:33 am
Location: Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Contact:

Post by ericzang » Tue Jan 20, 2015 6:51 am

I've been doing this in Reaper and the workflow is good.

I make a split for each song and name the new "item" with the song name.

When I render I choose "selected media items" option (with all songs selected). It has autonaming wildcards. I use " $regionnumber $region " Without defining any regions, it considers each song a region and renders/exports it with name I gave it, and automatically adds the correct sequential number to it. I export to a folder named for the album and set it to render as mp3. Done!

Plugins, level adjustments, etc. No problem. Its a DAW.

User avatar
Snarl 12/8
cryogenically thawing
Posts: 3510
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 5:01 pm
Location: Right Cheer
Contact:

Post by Snarl 12/8 » Tue Jan 20, 2015 10:58 pm

Reaper also has the advantage that I've used it before. Although it's been a few years.

Do you just use the built in plugins?
What are good plugins for cleaning up decades old cassette recordings?
I usually get by with just EQ, but I wouldn't mind sprinkling a little pixie dust on these if it's easy and not a zillion dollars.
Is Reaper still $50?
Carl Keil

Almost forgot: Please steal my drum tracks. and more.

ericzang
studio intern
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:33 am
Location: Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Contact:

Post by ericzang » Wed Jan 21, 2015 1:57 am

Reaper is $60 now. v5 release is getting close.
The included plugs give generally good results, and I read that Reafir has a noise reduction mode, but I think others such as Izotope RX, Acon http://acondigital.com/products/restoration-suite/
or Sound Forge may give better results. Other than that, sometimes I use a typical eq or Left/Right level control utility.

User avatar
tjcasey1
takin' a dinner break
Posts: 164
Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2005 4:10 am
Location: Boston
Contact:

Post by tjcasey1 » Sat Jan 31, 2015 6:13 am

Sounds like you need a DAW, any DAW. You'll find it useful for all kinds of things over the years, including recording killer songs.

User avatar
Nick Sevilla
on a wing and a prayer
Posts: 5555
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:34 pm
Location: Lake Arrowhead California USA
Contact:

Post by Nick Sevilla » Tue Feb 10, 2015 10:34 pm

Pro Tools Free is coming out next month. :)
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 43 guests