Trying to "Re-Start" an old project.

Good evening.

Name is Mike, in El Paso TX. I’m a retired Army veteran, served in combat. I am also a ham operator, and good in electronics. Software is my weak point.

System.

HP Envy Desktop.
Intel I-7-7700 CPU at 3.6 GHz.
8 cores.
16 GB ram

Windows-10 Home edition.
Running 64 bit.

Audacity 2.3.3, fresh download and install.

Connections. Cassette player, home-made stereo cable connecting the stereo headphone output jack of the cassette player into the LINE INPUT (NOT MICROPHONE INPUT) on the rear of the computer.

Where I am at.

Nearly 30 years ago, on Christmas Day in 1990 I was cooling my heels in KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) waiting for Gulf War-I to kick off. I had a small ham radio station on the air, and that day I made a 3-hour long recording on Cassette Tapes, of a short-wave broadcast from a station named “The Voice Of Peace” from Baghdad. They played a lot of period music (mid-late 80s) and about every 10 to 15 minutes there was a “propaganda bulletin” about how we were all going to die a horrible death in the Iraqi Desert. I have years ago turned over all my uniforms and combat trinkets and souvenirs to a museum. All I kept was the gold KLM medal the Kuwaiti Govt presented me, and the audio cassettes of this radio station.

There is no real “problem”, but a few things I’d like to master quickly. I have attempted a couple of short recordings to attempt to learn the software before trying to record the whole 3 hours. In addition, this is an older cassette player (not on batteries thankfully) and I am fearful of damaging the tapes. I’d like to get them recorded ASAP before anything happens. So far everything seems OK. But “shit happens”.

These tapes mean a lot to me. As you might imagine, hearing these recordings after 30 years is stirring up memories, and I’m not able to fully concentrate sometimes. Here is what I am seeing, and what I’d like to compensate for before making an official run at the full 3 hours.

#1. While recording, is there any way to hear the play back? If there is, I have not discovered it by accident or in the FAQ. I would like to listen to it, and mark the time of particular segments if possible.

#2. The LEFT channel is 2 to 3 dB lower in volume than the right channel. I have not yet discovered how to individually compensate the channel gain for this.

#3. Because this was an “Over-The-Air” shortwave broadcast recorded on my ham radio receiver, it contains noise. The actual recording was done with a cable from receiver to recorder, so the noise is only the noise on the radio frequency.

Here is the catch. What I am seeing is that infrequent and short duration (µ-seconds) high amplitude pops in the recording seem to be driving the total audio level lower. The pops record to 100%, but the actual desired audio seems lower. Its there a way to compensate for this in either recording OR editing, say by increasing the recorded level 1 dB at a time until the recovered audio is good and clear, and the noise pops are clipped? Or perhaps a way to CLIP the spikes, much like trimming the taller blades of grass with a mower.

I know it sounds like I have a clue here. If I do, it is minimally! If I succeed in this, I imagine it may have some historic value. I hope to post it to my You-Tube channel where all can hear it. Thanks in advance for any help anyone may be able to throw my way. I appreciate it.

Mike.

Do you have a test tape you can mess with without touching the historical ones? It may take us a couple of passes to straighten everything out.

Can you make one?

Step one might be making sure all the sound processing and tools in the Windows machine are turned off. Windows comes out of the shrink wrap all set for business conferencing and communications. All the tools are running: Noise Reduction, Auto Level Set, Echo Cancellation, Processing etc. etc.

Turn all that off.

I’m not a Windows elf. Google or Right click the speaker icon lower right and drill down to the Windows recording settings. Get rid of Windows Enhancements.

If you use Skype, Zoom or any of those, you need to turn all that off, too. Make sure all the apps are shut down and then clean start: Shift+Shutdown > OK. Wait a bit. Start. Do Not let anything else start when the machine comes up. If you can keep it off the internet, so much the better.

Connect your player.

Audacity > Edit > Settings >Recording > [X] Playthrough. That should run the playback service at the same time and let you hear what’s going on. Note, it may be out of step with the bouncing sound meters. That’s normal.

Play the test tape. Click in the recording meters > Start Monitoring. Both Record and Play meters should bounce with the music and you should hear without actually making a recording.

Let us know if you get stuck and where.

Koz
WB4WGE
World’s Greatest Engineer

***** I have exactly one other tape in the house. Tape-3 is a mixture of December 1990 BBC news and tapings of HF-MARS message traffic. Unclassified of course. While I would rather not hurt this one, of the three it is the least valuable to me.**

Step one might be making sure all the sound processing and tools in the Windows machine are turned off. Windows comes out of the shrink wrap all set for business conferencing and communications. All the tools are running: Noise Reduction, Auto Level Set, Echo Cancellation, Processing etc. etc.

Turn all that off.

***** Done. Everything for MIC and LINE IN, and SPEAKER OUT has all been normalized.**

I’m not a Windows elf. Google or Right click the speaker icon lower right and drill down to the Windows recording settings. Get rid of Windows Enhancements.

If you use Skype, Zoom or any of those, you need to turn all that off, too. Make sure all the apps are shut down and then clean start: > Shift+Shutdown > OK. > Wait a bit. > Start> . Do Not let anything else start when the machine comes up. If you can keep it off the internet, so much the better.

***** I don’t do that stuff. You’re a ham I see. What did Marconi invent the stuff for? . We don’t need no stinkin skype!**

Connect your player.

Audacity > Edit > Settings >Recording > Playthrough. That should run the playback service at the same time and let you hear what’s going on. Note, it may be out of step with the bouncing sound meters. That’s normal.

BINGO!!! I should have spotted this one when I was going through the options. My present career is running the SE corner of the Western Power Grid. When we start a new trainee, we tell him it is like drinking from a fire hose!

Play the test tape. Click in the recording meters > Start Monitoring. Both Record and Play meters should bounce with the music and you should hear without actually making a recording.

***** THAT WORKS. The meters are still out of balance, and I haven’t found a way to increase the low channel.**

Let us know if you get stuck and where.

QUESTION. The HF radio was MONO. I suspect the recording is also MONO. Just thinking, but if I record on Audacity in Moni, how will it play back on a stereo computer system? I can test this… just needs a few minutes. YES! Recording in MONO not only plays back in stereo, but there is only one meter, so nothing needs balance, and the stereo output on the computer actually sounds enhanced over trying to record and play back in stereo. HUGE STEPS! THANK YOU.

Koz
WB4WGE
World’s Greatest Engineer

Damn!!! Can I edit HTML or not? . I guess maybe I do know a little…

KB4WGE de KD5KC TU es 73 BK.

I was a technician. Barely 5WPM.

I bet I had a bigger transmitter than you did. WJLA Channel 7. 174-180MHz 35KW. Two 30KW transmitters muxed together. I have a picture of that thing here somewhere.

One other note. File > Export the work as perfect quality WAV (Microsoft) 16-bit. That’s the same uncompressed format as Audio CD. If you export it from a mono timeline, you will get a mono WAV which will play to both left and right.

That’s your Capture Master and you can make that into anything else. If you go straight for the MP3, you can’t ever change it without causing compression damage and distortion.

Koz

AMATEUR! Our peak summer load is approaching 2 GW. On a cold winter night it might only be 600 MW. Hell, I have 110 MW of solar in my balancing area! . Course, it is all 60 HZ except for out tie-line to the eastern grid. That is an 82 kV 205 MW bi-directional DC converter. We have a non-comforming load, a steel mill that swings on and off at 44 MW.

Thanks for the help. I was getting tired so after I verified I could do this, I shut down for the night.

Good data about saving it as a .WAV. I’ll do that and archive it as the master. Dam, this brings back some memories I thought I had left behind. The best worst time of my life, harsh duty with great men.

This is my You-Tube channel. This is where I’ll upload it when it is done.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2qM1u4OymRFRtQ_e6ycaDA/videos

Thanks ever so much. I’m about 4 hours away from putting this behind me.

Mike.

Howdy again. Hoping to get an answer on this. I had been working on the project listed in the previous messages above, then “LIFE” got in the way, and I had to step away again. But we’re back to as normal as possible. For now.

So here is what I am running into. I guess when this program was recorded, the speed was off someplace, perhaps low batteries or a bad power source. In any case, it is clear at the4th side of the cassette tapes, the speed is noticeably too fast.

Mr Kozikowski has been very helpful in getting me this far… We are “Almost There!”.

In the top menu, under EFFECTS there is a choice for CHANGE SPEED. I have searched the on-line help, it gives me some data and a pop-up window view, but I could not get Audacity to do this. I think the problem I am experiencing is that I don’t know how to implement the change speed command. Does it activate while recording? Is it used after recording? I guess I’m just not smart enough or experienced enough to figure it out.

I really want to get this project done. On Christmas Day this year, it will be 30 years ago I recorded this. It really is time to share it with the world, before I’m gone it it goes away with me. I am very grateful for the help that got me this far, and thanks in advance for the further nudge in the proper direction.

Mike.

Like ALL of Audacity’s effects, it is used after recording.
Select the audio that you want to process, then launch the effect, set the parameters, and apply.
The Change Speed effect in the manual: Change Speed and Pitch - Audacity Manual