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[Osho]

Hi,

Has anyone here ever moved cassette tape collection to MC12 media library. I have tons of old cassettes with great music that is simply not available on CDs right now. What is the recommended way to do this?

thanks,
Osho

[ThomasB]

Yes, I'm working on this since several years as I have a relatively big analog music collection. Not only tapes but also a lot of vinyl stuff.

The way of doing this depends mainly on your taste and how much effort and time you're willing to spend.

The simple way is to connect your tape deck directly to your sound card and record the tracks with MC12. That's it more or less.

If you want to do it more professional then you have to invest a little bit.

Here is the way I'm doing it:

I am using a software package originally developed by Sonicfoundry called Sound Forge for recording and restauration of analog audio sources. I'm still on version 6 plus their vinyl restauration plug-in version 2. Sony took over the distribution of this product; it's much cheaper now compared to the original price from Sonicfoundry. I think they are now on version 8. I don't know if it's still that good. Most probably not. I've searched a lot but I didn't find a better product for audio restauration. It's very professional with real-time control of all audio effects with standard plug-in interfaces for third party plug-ins. 
The actual recording is done with an audio card from M-Audio (Audiophile 2496). There are other products around in comparable quality but M-Audio delivers the best quality for such reasonable price (below USD 100,-).
For cassette tapes I'm using a rather high end tape deck from Kenwood. I am not using Dolby or other noise suppression systems on the tape deck. It's far better and more accurate to eliminate the noise with the software afterwards. 
The result can be amazing if you get used to all the tricks of audio restauration. I've compared my results with some available CD's which claims to be "24-bit digitally remastered from the original tapes". I can tell you that you can reach comparable results even from cassette tapes and old vinyl records if the sound quality of the source material isn't too bad.

Greetings from Austria, Thomas 

[hit_ny]

The result can be amazing if you get used to all the tricks of audio restauration. I've compared my results with some available CD's which claims to be "24-bit digitally remastered from the original tapes". I can tell you that you can reach comparable results even from cassette tapes and old vinyl records if the sound quality of the source material isn't too bad.

That would be amazing if it was true, getting comparable quality from cassete tape (possibly quite old) as with the 24-bit masters !!!

All depends how well (or not) it was originally mastered i guess

...golden ear territory for me.

[modelmaker]

I've been using Magix AudioCleaningLab for 4years with great results: http://site.magix.net/english-us/home/music/audio-cleaning-lab-10-e-version/ I bought the original CD-Rom version ($50), but it is now available as a downloadable version for $30.

While you won't be able to make analog cassettes and LPs sound exactly like "24-bit digitally remastered" sources, you can get close enough to fool the ear in most listening situations, (and the cassettes can definitely be made to sound better than they do now). You won't be able to do much about drop-outs other than to edit them out. All effects are applied in real time to the wav file.

You can add a fade in and out to each cassette track to minimize the instant hiss at the beginning and end of the cassette tracks. If your cassettes were recorded with Dolby noise reduction, then you should play them back with Dolby turned on for the most accurate reproduction (not the way ThomasB described), you can always adjust the sound with the built-in 12 band equalizer. Be conservative with the filters as they can introduce undesirable effects if pushed too far.

One last tip, Aclab wants you to use their Frauenhofer mp3 format and they only give you a limited amount of free conversions after which you have to buy an upgrade, I just export the wav file(s) and use MC's Lame converter (it's better anyway) to make mp3s.

I have converted a couple of thousand LPs and around 300 cassettes (all made on top of the line JVC and Nakamichi (the Dragon) tape decks). BTW, if your tapes have been sitting for a long time, I recomend that you fast forward through the tape and back before playing them as they tend to tighten up over time and this can affect playback.

Good Luck and feel free to ask questions here, or pm me.

[MadJewDisaster]

Well , there is two schools here .

The one exposed by modelmaker -ThomasB

The one exposed by myself
If i do not put Lps on my computer , it means i play them and means i do get some click and stoum from time to time .
With tapes , it means i get this 'closed' sound

So i put LPs as they are , with few clicks and stoums - No cleaning editing, nothing , just editing a bit the noise  at the start of each side and between songs.
WAV editor can be a BIG pita .
So i convert wav to FLAC with DBPower who allows you to trim x seconds at the start/end of a track.
All my Lps are mint , not sure i will do the same if worn Lps........

Concerning cassettes . more or less same way- And cassettes rip to flac always sound better than the real thing , amazingly .

I used a lot the MJ and MC Recorder .
Setting the volume was a bit more tricky than with other progs , but with a much better sound at the end. When record level set , result was much better than all other prog i tested .

They had a artist/album quiery via YADB - If you use it for cassettes , keep in mind than many times the order of songs was different on cassette than Lp or Cd -- to get two sides of more or less same lenght.

In fact this setting volume recording is a pita and i'am dreaming of a prog with an option for automatic setting - You know like a cassette desk - or manual or just press on two buttons.

Maybe you can do it with TotalRecorder - I must try.

[NickM]

I have not done this for cassettes, nor even LP's, but I did re-master some old 78's.  I used AC Lab version 10 from Music Labs to do the hiss, crackle, scratch clean up.  A huge amount of work to do the sound clean up as each record requried different, and very subjective, types of editing.  Still, my mother was pleased to hear her teenage record collection again on her iPod...

[Osho]

Thanks a lot everyone for the feedback..

This definitely seems like an art that I would like to get into..  next free weekend.. here I come .

Osho

[ThomasB]

That would be amazing if it was true, getting comparable quality from cassete tape (possibly quite old) as with the 24-bit masters !!!
All depends how well (or not) it was originally mastered i guess

Well, believe it or not, Sound Forge 6.0 is also a 24-bit mastering tool and if you have a good quality source tape you're able to get rid of the basic tape noise and increase the dynamics (likewise the good old dbx-expanders). It will sound almost perfect. Don't forget that the old tape decks have been able to record sound betw. apprx. 50 to 13.000 Hz which is below and above the frequency what analog instruments are able to produce and there is nothing missing as it's analog recorded. Sound is still and will be forever analog. So at least in theory (if somebody is able to hear the difference) a good analog source converted to 24-bit digital sound is better than every standard Audio-CD which is only 16-bit.
However, sound is also a matter of taste and personal preferences; i.e. if something is sounding good for you it may sound bad for somebody else.     

rgds, Thomas

[ThomasB]

If your cassettes were recorded with Dolby noise reduction, then you should play them back with Dolby turned on for the most accurate reproduction (not the way ThomasB described), you can always adjust the sound with the built-in 12 band equalizer. Be conservative with the filters as they can introduce undesirable effects if pushed too far.

That may be true for the Magix product. I started also with their "Cleaning Lab" but I wouldn't really recommend it. Although it's able to reduce unwanted noise it's likewise reducing the sound quality. With Sound Forge 6.0 the final result (at least for my taste) is definitive better if the tape material is converted without Dolby N/R on and the noisereduction is done afterwards.
On the other hand the price of Cleaning Lab is very reasonable and to start with it's better than nothing. As mentioned by "modelmaker" here, the risk of "over-restauration" is relatively high. Sometimes it's better to leave some noise.
SonicFoundry's Sound Forge is a professional product and was originally priced at over USD 1.000.- including their famous noise reduction plug-in. So the difference is obvious.
However, as I already stated here, it's mainly a matter of personal taste and available resources. 

rgds, Thomas