Too much bass

Special Interest Groups Audio Processing
1

I have a cassette that I am trying to make as an Mp3 or WAV. It was originally recorded on a reel to reel and then dubbed onto a cassette. Now, many years later and for whatever reason it so much bass you can hardly understand it. Is there a way in Audacity to get a lot of the bass out? I am very new to Audacity and would appreciate anyone’s help with this. Thanks

2

You can apply the equalizer tool which will look something like this…

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/voiceEq.jpg

This is the curve for suppressing sounds in the 3000 range to make a voice sound better. The blue bar is a rubber band and you can pull it up and down.

I would pull the blue bar down starting at around 250. Put multiple click points in it so it looks like a gentle hillside and not a cliff. Move the action point around if you’re taking too much bass out or the sounds are lower or higher. Start one drooping at 200 or 150. Pull the tool really big so you can see what you’re doing.

Koz

3

Are you playing the tape on the same deck/portable that you originally dubbed onto? It is possible that the heads are out of alignment compared with the original recording. A proper service of the deck may help.

Better still - do you still have the original reel-to-reel tapes? If so then you could try to borrow or hire a R2R deck for the digitization.

WC