Cassette Transfer plugin?

[winky dinglehoffer]

My brother wants me to transfer some old demos & stuff off of cassette. I seem to recall reading years ago about some plugin or something that was specifically focused on cleaning up cassette transfers. I want to say there was a review in TapeOp, but I could be wrong.
Anyhow, I'm wondering if such a thing exists, if it actually works well, or whether I'd do just as well using whatever cheap Izotope stuff I already have.

[digitaldrummer]

I've just used the Izotope "Rx Elements" (which I got free with my Pro Tools license/Avid account). and maybe some of the Waves de-noise plugins.

seems like maybe Larry was talking about using the standalone version of Rx instead of using it as a plugin? I haven't tried that myself. not sure if it something the "elements' version can do.

[Nick Sevilla]

You should try with whatcha got first. Get a nice clean as possible signal from the cassette unit, through a Stereo DI.

Get the signal out of the cassette player as clean as possible, sometimes loudest level is not best. I found around 3/4 level off the cassette player seems best. I use a small handheld unit with a 1/8" to 1/4 TS adapter to a green Radial Stereo DI, to my console for more gain control and possibly filtering out of rumble if it is present.

After that I decide if I need Waves noise reduction or not.

Cheers

[logancircle]

1 vote for doing as little cleaning as possible on one version and then a squished and scrubbed version to share with others. I always go back to listening to the former. But maybe that’s not normal

[winky dinglehoffer]

I'm going in clean for sure--I have a couple of cassette decks to choose from--Tascam 122 & a Marantz PMD351. For the initial transfer the Marantz won because it has pitch control, so I can speed up or slow down the tape as needed--and in this case it was needed. Running through a Peavey -10/+4 converter so I can get a balanced in for my converter.

IIRC, the plugin (or whatever) I read about claimed to be able to listen to the bias tone and make adjustments to deal with minor variations in tape speed. I'm inclined to think that was all marketing BS, but I don't even know what the product was called or who made it.

[vvv]

FWIW, not much, OK, I may hafta pay you to listen again, but these are cassette transfers I did of stuff recorded (in order, and newer to older) at Idful, my apartment, and Solid Sound.

https://vlayman.bandcamp.com/album/scum ... -cover-e-p
https://vlayman.bandcamp.com/album/amanita
https://vlayman.bandcamp.com/album/grind-2-e-p-s

In my defense, having long hair, jug wine, and ambition (misplaced) caused alla the racket.

[winky dinglehoffer]

FWIW, not much, OK, I may hafta pay you to listen again,

I listened to one of your cassette transfers a while back and enjoyed it--I'll check out the other two soon.

[digitaldrummer]

IIRC, the plugin (or whatever) I read about claimed to be able to listen to the bias tone and make adjustments to deal with minor variations in tape speed.

there was a company called "Bias" that had a product called "SoundSoap" - is that what you are thinking of? SoundSoap is now part of Antares (the Autotune people) but I haven't used the plugin since it was from Bias years ago... it did a good job then but I think RX seems to be the one most recommend these days. Waves has a couple new ones - NS1 and W43 (as well as the older X-noise and such) but I've only tried the older plugins (which also do works for some things). Sonnox also has one.

Most all of these you can download a trial, so once you have one of the transfers and identify what you are trying to remove - try some and see which works the best for you.

[logancircle]

Seems like the tape deck you’re using to play the cassette would affect the noise level. Do you have a nice one? Does Dolby NR suck?

[winky dinglehoffer]

Seems like the tape deck you’re using to play the cassette would affect the noise level. Do you have a nice one? Does Dolby NR suck?

The decks I have are decent. The Tascam 122 is probably a bit more worn (and older), the Marantz is newer and seems less used, although probably not of the same initial quality as the Tascam. So far, noise reduction has stayed off (I've got B, C, and HX between the two decks--and I could run an external NR system on the Tascam if I were questing for dbx or some such.) The Tascam sounds slightly duller than the Marantz, but maybe is a little more stable speed-wise? I've done a lot of back & forth to decide which deck to use--which may change as I move on to other tapes.