[MPA] Noise reduction (was Re: Audio Interface Advice?)

[Jay Shaffer]

This delves into the art of recording. You've got to ask your self if 
the artifacting is worth the noise reduction. It's the same with EQ is 
losing the hiss worth cutting all the highs? Also with cassettes, many 
were recorded with Gawdawful Dolby C that makes them almost 
un-restorable to any semblance of quality.
On the stuff that I transfer from cassette I just use Spin Doctor and 
say "Hey, it's from cassette" Thankfully most of my stuff was archived 
on VHS Hi-Fi or DAT.
My tuppence worth.
--
Jay Shaffer
Mac Audio Guy
mag at macaudioguy.com
http://macaudioguy.com/

On Feb 1, 2004, at 1:24 PM, Joe Castleman wrote:

> on January 23, Jay Shaffer wrote:
>
>> Let me recommend Audacity as a sound editor for restoring your old
>> 78RPMs it has a noise sampling and reduction effect ala Ray Gun and
>> it's free.
>
> I have a few cassettes that I recorded to my hard drive.  I was hoping
> to clean up the tape hiss and gave Audacity a try.  It cleaned up the
> hiss all right, but the softer passages (e.g., fade-outs, audience
> noises) were distorted - I'm guessing it affected everything that was 
> at
> lower volume than the hiss itself.
>
> The Audacity web site basically says there's no way to get around this
> completely, and I just have to take my lumps.  I tried it with my old
> copy of CD Spin Doctor, as well as a demo of Ionizer, and neither of
> those worked well, either.
>
> Anyone have a strategy for dealing with low-level sounds when 
> attempting
> noise reduction?
>
> Thanx in advance,
>
> --Joe C.
>