hi -i’m new here, i’m doing a retrospective of my career in music and i have a load of old rehearsal cassettes etc from years ago, I managed to get hold of an old Yamaha KX-530 cassette player that’s hardly been used it’s bringing some old sounds back to life…I have a couple of Zoom’s H2, H2n and H4, that i use these days for rehearsals and note-booking ideas etc…a couple of days ago I connected the Zoom H2 to the headphone socket via jack to jack cable and after a little tickling got some really good transfers…Now i’ve only ever used Audacity on my laptop with music already in digital format, and some of my old tapes are good enough to have some overdubs if i get rid of some of the hiss etc and tidy them up a bit…should i stick to transferring them via Zoom H2 first and then work on them digitally or is there a better way of doing it…I have a couple of tapes that have stretched, and i know Audacity has a pitch correcter but I’ve never used it -or i haven’t used it yet…I just want to know if I should stick to transferring the cassettes to digital via Zoom h2 first and then use audacity to sort all the other issues out - that’s all - thanks SteveB2000
You need a line level input so if you have a laptop with only mic-in and headphone output, the Zoom is a good way to digitize.
The line input on a regular soundcard will also work but it probably won’t give you better quality than the Zoom.
I connected the Zoom H2 to the headphone socket via jack to jack cable and after a little tickling got some really good transfers…
The RCA line-outputs outputs on the tape deck might be better than the headphone output. (But a headphone signal will work with a line input.)
I have a couple of tapes that have stretched, and i know Audacity has a pitch correcter but I’ve never used it -or i haven’t used it yet…
The Change Speed effect adjusts speed & pitch together just like changing tape speed but a “stretched” tape may not have constant speed and it may be impossible to fix.
…many thanks for your response, confirmation of what i’m doing and you’ve given me that -thanks also for the tip regarding the stretched tape, i’m sure that the tech for that will arrive one day, but i’m nearly 70 so maybe not in my lifetime lol - thanks again for your help…best SteveB2000
Hi
By using the Zoom H2n you are introducing a needless step into the chain - as good as the H2n is (I’ve owned one). I would either go line-in to your PC (RCA phono to 3.5mm Jack) or RCA phono to USB. I got a pretty good idea that you know how to prepare the cassette deck and balance the outputs and inputs - which apparently is called gain staging now.
One last thing. Turn OFF the Dolby on the cassette deck. Using Audacity’s built-in noise reduction in post production is just as effective. Record a couple of seconds of tape without any audio. This clip will be a reference file for Audacity’s noise reduction.
Hope this helps
I think that rather depends on the PC.
The “sound card” in my laptop is rubbish, whereas the AD/DA converters in the H2 are pretty good (the H2n and H4 may be even better). Recording into my H2 gives significantly better quality than using mp PC’s built-in audio device.
Turn OFF the Dolby on the cassette deck. Using Audacity’s built-in noise reduction in post production is just as effective.
Dolby does volume compression, not just noise suppression. If you like the sound listening to the headphone connection on the cassette machine, then go with those settings. The tape and the Dolby version (B/C) should match. Do you have “B” tapes? If you do, the B Dolby setting on the tape machine may do you a world of good. Dolby C tapes are unlistenable without the decoder.
Dolby A is a studio system.
You can certainly use gentle Audacity Noise Reduction in addition to all the regular settings.
Audacity doesn’t support Dolby.
Koz
ISSAACC,
Dolby noise reduction is “closed loop” or “complementary”. There’s encoding (during recording) and decoding (during playback). It reduces tape hiss without otherwise changing the sound.
Some people used to turn Dolby-B off during playback which boosts the highs for a 'brighter" sound but that’s not how it’s intended and the tape hiss doesn’t get reduced. Or, a lot of cheaper players didn’t support Dolby and in that case you didn’t have a choice.
Audacity’s noise reduction is single-ended or “open loop” and it can have artifacts (side effects), especially when the noise is bad. The best solution is probably to use both (if you have a player that supports Dolby), but only if there are no audible artifacts or if the artifacts are preferable to the noise.
…I’ve seen some unofficial software Dolby Noise Reduction decoders but since Dolby NR is non-linear the levels are supposed to be calibrated and that requires a special Dolby calibration tape (to calibrate/correlate the analog & digital levels).