Restoring audio from cassette transfer

Bonnelli · Post by **Bonnelli** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 6:41 pm

Hi all,

I'm working on a project that involves cleaning up mp3s of Cantonese instructional dialogue. The original source was cassette tape, so there is steady hiss in the background. I have Logic Pro 8 and have treated the files first by applying the denoiser plugin to get rid of the hiss, then the Channel EQ to try and restore some of the clarity that was lost by emphasizing 150Hz-300Hz, 600Hz-1200Hz and 2400Hz-9600Hz (as loose guidelines). I'm having some success, but wanted to write and ask for advice in terms of the process I'm using, and to see if anyone knows of good articles/threads that specifically discuss restoring dialogue from noisy sources. Maybe there is a much better plugin for noise reduction that is not too expensive? Any advice you might have is much appreciated!

Thanks,

-I

kslight · Post by **kslight** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 6:53 pm

I have had reasonable success with Waves Z Noise and WNR. I think you can download a demo of Izotope's noise reducer, and many people like Sound Soap?

suppositron · Post by **suppositron** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 8:28 am

I just downloaded soundsoap yesterday to clean up some transfers I did of a bunch of random recordings made on a hand held tape recorder. It worked pretty damn well. The tape was so noisy (might have something to do with the fact that the tascam it was played back on is in really rough shape) that I could hear some minor artifacts from the processing- but all in all it sounds way better.

Bonnelli · Post by **Bonnelli** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 9:22 am

Thanks for the replies so far... I'm going to try out Izotope rx and Soundsoap 2 in trial versions. I think either one will do a better job than the Logic Denoiser plugin, which doesn't have a "learn" function.

-I

Bonnelli · Post by **Bonnelli** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:28 am

I just got the Soundsoap 2 trial version and it did a great job of cleaning up the hiss without leaving the voice sounding over-processed. Might purchase the standalone SE version... it's a big price difference just to have it work as a plugin.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:39 am

Keep in mind that noise reduction software performs best when you do multiple passes of light reduction, rather than trying to get all the noise out in one heavy-handed swipe.

suppositron · Post by **suppositron** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 11:20 am

dwlb wrote:Keep in mind that noise reduction software performs best when you do multiple passes of light reduction, rather than trying to get all the noise out in one heavy-handed swipe.

I didn't think to try that. Thanks.

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Restoring audio from cassette transfer

Restoring audio from cassette transfer

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