Best Process to Convert these Files

[eveshi]

I have a couple hundred .swf files from this website.

http://www.leslieflint.com/recordingsnew.html

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.

[kozikowski]

How are you playing them now?
Koz

[Trebor]

Rather than record-what-U-hear from the computer speakers
you can download the swf file of 30min audio in less than 30 seconds ...

e.g. the audio on page ... http://www.leslieflint.com/madame230454p2.html

can be downloaded via ... http://www.leslieflint.com/swf/madame230454p2.swf

Then convert the swf file to MP3 ... http://audio.online-convert.com/convert-to-mp3

The audio on those particular SWF files is lousy: it only goes up to about 4KHz, (so is like a telephone),
and has plenty of compression artefacts ...

''when someone's queer'' 8KHz.wav

(181.38 KiB) Downloaded 139 times

BTW as the interviewee is a deceased spiritualist you can always contact them via a medium

[eveshi]

How are you playing them now?
Koz

GOM, VLC, aimp, foobar - but there is no ff/rw function much less incremental stepping.

[eveshi]

Rather than record-what-U-hear from the computer speakers
you can download the swf file of 30min audio in less than 30 seconds ...

e.g. the audio on page ... http://www.leslieflint.com/madame230454p2.html

can be downloaded via ... http://www.leslieflint.com/swf/madame230454p2.swf

Which is why I have over 200 of those swf files downloaded.

Then convert the swf file to MP3 ... http://audio.online-convert.com/convert-to-mp3

Thanks for that!

The audio on those SWF files is lousy: it only goes up to about 4KHz (like a phone) and has plenty of compression artefacts ...

''when someone's queer'' 8KHz.wav

Sorry that you missed the importance of these recordings.

BTW as the interviewee is a deceased spiritualist you can always contact them via a medium

To obtain noise-free, distortionless recordings?

Thanks for your help.

[eveshi]

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?

[Trebor]

... allow Audacity and similar programs to clean them up.

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).

Could anyone take a Leslie Flint .swf and put it thru it's paces?

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 ]

[eveshi]

Any reason to convert these to flac under the scenario I have laid out?

[steve]

Any reason to convert these to flac under the scenario I have laid out?

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).

[Trebor]

Any reason to convert these to flac under the scenario I have laid out?

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 ].