The issue is that the original recordings were made in the 50s-70s on reel-to-reel and occasionally a cassette recorder. If you listen to a few, you will note they suffer from nearly inaudible to pretty damn good considering the time, place and conditions (dark seance). My mission is to take the .swf files, to clean them up, and to convert them to files which can be used to perform transcriptions. Transcriptions = my poor typing skills, headphones and a step pedal to forward and reverse the files.
I believe but don’t know if it is true that the files will have to be inmp3 form to be able to fwd-rev them. Obviously, this means that their may be a downgrade in quality of the files and this is defeating the purpose. As you can see, I am lost and clueless at the same time.
All suggestions welcomed.
P.S. The .swf files are go-pause-stop only (i.e. they cannot be advanced in increments) unless, again, I am missing something.
Honestly, I appreciate all responses but am I on the right track? I need to take the .swf files to a format that will allow Audacity and similar programs to clean them up.
Could anyone take a Leslie Flint .swf and put it thru it’s paces?
The computery noises (compression artifacts) cannot be cleaned up by Audacity or any other software I’ve seen.
The phone-like frequency-response cannot be improved either, the frequencies above about 4KHz have been cut-off : no cure for amputation.
The mains-hum could be removed, but note the mains frequency on the extract I posted above is 48Hz, should be 50Hz, (may be due to the tape running slow).
If you have a swf file you could upload it to the site I mentioned, [I use that site myself without problems, but do so at your own risk]
At that online converter page you can choose to rip the audio from the SWF as a MP3 or WAV which you then download to your computer and can play / edit on Audacity. [Given how technically poor the recordings are, mp3 at 128Kbps would be sufficient , and about 1/10th the file-size of the WAV ]
To avoid unnecessary loss of sound quality you need to use a “lossless” encoding format such as WAV or FLAC.
WAV files are the most widely supported format (just about every media player supports 16 bit WAV).
FLAC files are about half the size as WAV files (but the same sound quality).
If file size/disk space is an issue then FLAC could be a good option (though these days you can get huge hard disks and big USB memory sticks for not much money).
For compatibility with other programs, 16 bit WAV is your best option (this is the default export format in Audacity).
If you’re using an on-line converter, like the one I linked to, the size of the audio file produced is relevant : the WAV/FLAC/MP3 produced by the converter website will pass across t’internet . A WAV will take about 10 times longer to download , and use 10x more bandwidth, than an almost equivalent MP3
FLAC is about half the size of an equivalent WAV and lossless, (as Steve suggested select 16bit, 8bit is poor, 24/32bit overkill). MP3 is about 1/10th the size of WAV and using 128Kbps @22050Hz I doubt anyone will be tell the difference from the technically lousy original.
[ BTW you do know this channeling stuff is total-fiction : it sounds like a ventriloquist act . Would an un-educated haich-dropping street-urchin use the phrase “an individual” ? , no they’d either say “a person” or use “someone” twice on the same sentence ].
Good thoughts. I need to pick a transcription program since what I hope to accomplish is the writing to text the audio recordings. It will be a balance between the transcription software and the clarity (which is limited by the source) in selecting one.
Since the files will be primarily for my purposes, hard drive space is not an issue.
Since there are over 200 audio files, I think I will be best served if I can find a [freeware lol] program that can convert the batch. If not, I could be till Christmas uploading one at a time or offline processing one at a time.
I had found one that as a trial converted half the file from swf–>mp3 but they want a few $$$ for the real thing.
BTW you do know this > channeling > stuff is total-fiction : it sounds like a ventriloquist act . Would an un-educated haich-dropping street-urchin use the phrase > "> an individual> " > ? , no they’d either say "> a person> " or use "> someone> " twice on the same sentence .
You, sir, need to get a real education regarding the differences between an Independent Direct Voice physical medium and someone who changes their voice and tells you it is Jesus.
You could try SUPER by erightsoft http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
There are lots of adverts and you have to jump through hoops on multiple pages to download it, but it is free and it can probably batch convert your SWF files to WAV or MP3.
SUPER is a little funky. It worked fine for about 25 files then timed-out, took a snooze or something. After the reboot, it’s OK again but I am limiting the bacth processing to ~20-25 files then shutdown, reopen, wash, rinse, repeat.
Still beats doing swf to mp3 conversions online or one-by-one!
SUPER has turned out to be more than a “little” funky. It’s performance is all over the place. Sometimes it won’t convert a single file at a time, others it will take a batch of them and convert them fine. More times than not, it sits there and does nothing.
I have dropped a line off to support, maybe they have an earlier version this is not so buggy.
I directed them to the Leslie Flint recordings so I can assume that those .swf files are compressed. Are all .swf compressed by the nature of the file?
