KVR Audio

Lunatique · Post by **Lunatique** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 9:35 am

This is from the discussion in the Remastering Old Cassette Tape thread:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... highlight=

Ok, I've prepared two clips. Let's see if you guys can dazzle me with your mastering skills. I'm really curious as to just how much better someone else can pull this off than what I've attempted so far.

Both clips are about 5.7 MB each.

Clip #1 - This one contains 34 seconds of percussion and orchestral strings. It's shrill and unpleasant, and also lacking clarity and definition. Tape hiss moderate.
http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality ... 0clip).wav

Clip #2 - This one contains 32 seconds of synthesizers, drums, and female vocals. High frequencies are gone (can't even hear the high-hats), and tape hiss slight worse than clip #1.
http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality ... 0clip).wav

I guess you don't have to upload your results as .wav. High resolution of VBR or constant rate mp3s should do just fine.

Have a go at it!

Jbravo · Post by **Jbravo** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 11:59 am

are you able to post a short noiseprint of these?

Lunatique · Post by **Lunatique** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 12:40 pm

Short noiseprint? You mean just a few seconds instead of 30 seconds? I'm not familiar with that term.

C00kie · Post by **C00kie** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 1:06 pm

Optimal restauration is not possible without a piece of the pure tape noise itself. The best noise removal algorythms (like in CoolEditPro / Adobe Audition) work optimal if they know what the "pure" noise to be removed sounds like. If you have trimmed all silence before & after the track, then we don't have that.

Lunatique · Post by **Lunatique** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 1:20 pm

Gotcha. Here are the white noise samples for each (about 3 seconds):

White noise for clip #1: http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality ... noise).wav

White noise for clip #2: http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality ... noise).wav

rpc9943 · Post by **rpc9943** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 2:11 pm

ok i really sux but heres what I did really really fast before I go to work:

www.caveproductions.net/mp3/tape/fix1.mp3

www.caveproductions.net/mp3/tape/fix2.mp3

sorry if what i did sux, it sounds okay to me at the moment

RonC

UltraJv · Post by **UltraJv** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 2:19 pm

From what Ive heard, those original clips arnt so bad. Ive seen asian movies with worse sound

It sounds like creased tape but not much will change that except maybe ironing - yes seriously

stian · Post by **stian** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 2:21 pm

Those were hard ones - here are my tries:

http://www.acondigital.com/audio/Kujaku.mp3

and

http://www.acondigital.com/audio/Shinsei.mp3

I mainly used Acoustica for the job (high frequency synthesis, equalizer, noise reduction). There was an azimuth error of about 8 samples on the second clip, so I realigned the channels in time.

Jbravo · Post by **Jbravo** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 2:49 pm

UltraJv wrote:From what Ive heard, those original clips arnt so bad. Ive seen asian movies with worse sound

yes that's so true! They often have that screechy distorted quality - I expect they add it now just for authenticity

here's my attempt at the shinsei clip - I did it on my headphones so the overall eq may be a bit off

http://komosa.brinkster.net/shinfix.mp3

Lunatique · Post by **Lunatique** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 3:04 pm

stian - Wow! Your remaster is so much better than what I did. Can you give some more detail on your approach? I wonder if anyone can top what you did. If not, I'm going to use yours as a reference point for the remainder of the project. I've got around 90 cassettes to do. . ..

RonC - Although yours is well maximized, I think the overall sound is still too shrill and unpleasant.

jbravo- I can't download your link. I think the problem is on my end(being in China).

Lunatique · Post by **Lunatique** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 3:08 pm

damn double post.

birrbits · Post by **birrbits** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 3:16 pm

Ok here's a quick go with Adobe Audition

http://nova.fast-servers.net/~birrman/K ... x_birr.mp3

http://nova.fast-servers.net/~birrman/S ... x_birr.mp3

dynamics processing / noise reduction / eq

Jbravo · Post by **Jbravo** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 3:20 pm

Lunatique wrote:jbravo- I can't download your link. I think the problem is on my end(being in China).

that's a shame

- keep trying, or else I can email the clip (about 700kb)

Landphil · Post by **Landphil** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 3:28 pm

This looks like fun!

I'll have a try when I'm off work.

(about 8 hours to go

)

dramsenik · Post by **dramsenik** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 3:36 pm

Here's another try:

http://www.oskarlegroupe.ch/dramsenik/Kujaku.mp3

well done stian

Remastering/restoration showdown!