Sound restoration/editing

[jazzydaddy]

I have a friend on the East Coast (USA) that has a couple of cassette recordings he made of live Jazz sessions during the early 1980's that he has digitized but is unsatisfied with the results. The recordings were done in small clubs with a portable cassette recorder set up on a table. The individual who made the recordings was a friend of the artists and I believe he had their approval to make the recordings.

In any event the recordings have sentimental value to my friend and he would like to restore the sound as much as reasonably possible. He has identified the problems with one of the tapes to be "wow and flutter" while the other has some background hum and other extraneous noise that he would like to have eliminated. He has no interest in releasing the recordings commercially but customarily provides copies to any of the surviving artists. He is willing to pay a reasonable amount to have the work done. I am assuming he can provide both the original cassette tapes if needed as well as CD-Rs of the digitized files.

I would appreciate any recommendations of individuals that are capable of doing this sort of work. You can either post your suggestions here or send me a PM if you prefer.

Thank you, Don

[Dan Gould]

I am unaware of techniques for minimizing wow and flutter, and most attempts to reduce background hum will inevitably hurt the music.

Depending on the artists recorded, however, I might be willing to give it a shot - gratis.

[AllenLowe]

I do a fair amount of this kind of work; am now restoring a 36 CD set of blues. did all of my jazz set - wow and flutter cannot be handled easily; there may be something out there than can do it, but I am not aware of it - as for hum, it is tricky, but actually relatively easy to remove in most cases, depending how frequency-invasive it is. Digital parametric eq (which I use) can do amazing things by notching the hum at specific frequency - if your friend wants to send me a cassette, or, even better, a CDR sample, I can listen to it and let him know if it is worth pursuing. Most things can be improved hugely, but it does really vary depending on the original source. Most engineers, also, know next to nothing about EQ, about which, without wanting to, I have become quite expert. And EQ is, ultimately, the key to restoration, in my opinion -

[Teasing the Korean]

There is software or hardware that corrects wow and flutter, but apparently it has to be applied at the tape transferring stage - it doesn't work a digital copy of something recorded from a poor source. My info is from a couple of years ago - no idea if they have anything better now, or how expensive it is.

Edited March 31, 2009 by Teasing the Korean

[Jim Alfredson]

Wow and flutter could be caused by the mechanism of the cassette itself. Those little pads that hold the tape against the heads in the cassette disintegrate and thus you don't have enough pressure to hold the tape against the heads correctly.

Transferring the actual tape to a new cassette housing can solve the problem.

[jazzydaddy]

Thank you for the reply Allen. I have forwarded your information to my friend and directed him to your website so he may be in touch with you directly.

- Don

I do a fair amount of this kind of work; am now restoring a 36 CD set of blues. did all of my jazz set - wow and flutter cannot be handled easily; there may be something out there than can do it, but I am not aware of it - as for hum, it is tricky, but actually relatively easy to remove in most cases, depending how frequency-invasive it is. Digital parametric eq (which I use) can do amazing things by notching the hum at specific frequency - if your friend wants to send me a cassette, or, even better, a CDR sample, I can listen to it and let him know if it is worth pursuing. Most things can be improved hugely, but it does really vary depending on the original source. Most engineers, also, know next to nothing about EQ, about which, without wanting to, I have become quite expert. And EQ is, ultimately, the key to restoration, in my opinion -

[jazzydaddy]

Thanks for the advise Jim. This may solve the problem with one of the recordings. Certainly worth a try!

- Don

Wow and flutter could be caused by the mechanism of the cassette itself. Those little pads that hold the tape against the heads in the cassette disintegrate and thus you don't have enough pressure to hold the tape against the heads correctly.

Transferring the actual tape to a new cassette housing can solve the problem.

[Malraux]

Hello,

I use a software called DC7 (http://diamondcut.com/osc/product_info.php?products_id=64). This has preset filters with code written to deal with wow and flutter as well as clicks and crackles in LP's. I use this software in conjunction with an M Audio sound card and have had very good results in transferring tape to disc via a Nakamichi CR7 tape deck.

If you do not want to set up this protocol, send me a copy of the tape and I would be glad to remaster it for you free of charge.

Best regards - Malraux

[jazzydaddy]

Thanks very much for the tip and the offer Malraux. I'll pass the info. on to my friend.

- Don

Hello,

I use a software called DC7 (http://diamondcut.com/osc/product_info.php?products_id=64). This has preset filters with code written to deal with wow and flutter as well as clicks and crackles in LP's. I use this software in conjunction with an M Audio sound card and have had very good results in transferring tape to disc via a Nakamichi CR7 tape deck.

If you do not want to set up this protocol, send me a copy of the tape and I would be glad to remaster it for you free of charge.

Best regards - Malraux