Comments on: My Voice is Trapped on Cassette Tapes! http://voicecouncil.com/my-voice-is-trapped-on-cassette-tapes/ Practical insight for today's emerging vocalists Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:30:00 +0000 hourly 1 By: ujiya http://voicecouncil.com/my-voice-is-trapped-on-cassette-tapes/#comment-242 ujiya Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:05:43 +0000 http://voicecouncil.com/?p=1333#comment-242 Betty Jane,<br><br>I just did a similar project. My late band of 13 years, Sonic Erotica, has decided to regroup. The problem was back then we used tapes vs. CDs and I had a ton to go through, just to remember what we did. I have a nice SOny Tape Deck that I've used maybe 4-5 times. Sooo, I dusted it off, cleaned the tape heads with alcohol, and got to work. Some of them were a lil' warbled and all of them of course retained hiss. <br><br>The hardest part of the process was listening to everything in real time. Keep that in mind! This lil' project will take you a lot longer than you might want it to because however you decide to record it, it'll hafta' be in real time...just like when converting VHS to DVD. <br><br>The beauty of it is that you get to sit and listen to everything...like it or not. A blast through the past is always fun!!! <br><br>I bought RCA to 1/4" Adapers to pop on one end of a RCA cable. The 1/4" ends go into your sound card. If you have a good sound card, use 2 channels that have preamps so you can juice the mix up a bit. I use ProTools and Sonar and both DAWs have good restoration tools. If you're happy just capturing the audio then it's easy, however using common restoration tools is cheap and easy. Finally, after restoration, you can use basic Mastering plug ins to beef up the end result!!!<br><br>Good luck!<br><br>Brian Betty Jane,

I just did a similar project. My late band of 13 years, Sonic Erotica, has decided to regroup. The problem was back then we used tapes vs. CDs and I had a ton to go through, just to remember what we did. I have a nice SOny Tape Deck that I've used maybe 4-5 times. Sooo, I dusted it off, cleaned the tape heads with alcohol, and got to work. Some of them were a lil' warbled and all of them of course retained hiss.

The hardest part of the process was listening to everything in real time. Keep that in mind! This lil' project will take you a lot longer than you might want it to because however you decide to record it, it'll hafta' be in real time…just like when converting VHS to DVD.

The beauty of it is that you get to sit and listen to everything…like it or not. A blast through the past is always fun!!!

I bought RCA to 1/4″ Adapers to pop on one end of a RCA cable. The 1/4″ ends go into your sound card. If you have a good sound card, use 2 channels that have preamps so you can juice the mix up a bit. I use ProTools and Sonar and both DAWs have good restoration tools. If you're happy just capturing the audio then it's easy, however using common restoration tools is cheap and easy. Finally, after restoration, you can use basic Mastering plug ins to beef up the end result!!!

Good luck!

Brian

]]> By: Mark Holman http://voicecouncil.com/my-voice-is-trapped-on-cassette-tapes/#comment-92 Mark Holman Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:48:57 +0000 http://voicecouncil.com/?p=1333#comment-92 Thanks for the information - very helpful for us trapped between the tape and the disk, . . . Thanks for the information – very helpful for us trapped between the tape and the disk, . . .

]]> By: auramac http://voicecouncil.com/my-voice-is-trapped-on-cassette-tapes/#comment-45 auramac Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:08:48 +0000 http://voicecouncil.com/?p=1333#comment-45 I have old cassette tapes going back to the 70's.. as long as they're 60's or 90's and not 120 minute tapes, most of them are in surprisingly good condition still with no bleedthrough. I play and record onto a digital recorder (Edirol, Marantz), then transfer to my computer via USB, where I tweak them with programs like Amadeus Pro or Sound Studio on my Mac. There are many other methods and programs, but it's amazing what you can do. I have old cassette tapes going back to the 70's.. as long as they're 60's or 90's and not 120 minute tapes, most of them are in surprisingly good condition still with no bleedthrough. I play and record onto a digital recorder (Edirol, Marantz), then transfer to my computer via USB, where I tweak them with programs like Amadeus Pro or Sound Studio on my Mac. There are many other methods and programs, but it's amazing what you can do.

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