Restoring old Cassette recordings

[ajaxlepinski]

I started getting into digital recording in 2013.
Over the past few years, I transferred some cassettes, made from 8 track analog recording at my old studio.
One of my favorite bands, that I had the pleasure of working with, was called, Black Car Nation.
Their cassette, from 1996, has a ton of clipping distortion from a loud floor tom that went unnoticed and the cassette had a few dropouts and lots of noise.
Finally had a chance to try out Izotope RX 7 and while I'm happy with the results, I need to do a bit more tweaking before I work on the remaining four, Black Car Nation's songs.
The restored version still has a drop, near the middle, that needs fixing.

In case your wondering, Venus In Furs was a book written by an Austrian nobleman, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and was published in 1870.
The word, "masochist" comes from his name.

BEFORE (straight from cassette to digital, no tweaking):
https://soundcloud.com/ajax-lepinski/ve ... KZFtKigNYN


AFTER (RX 7 and adding Plug N Mix's Monster Boost plugin on the master channel during the bounce to 16/44.1):
https://soundcloud.com/ajax-lepinski/ve ... Q2so6Q6GlM

[itchyfingers]

I still have my tape collection. I play them in my old stereo in the garage when I do workouts on the trainer. Some are so warbly, I'm not sure its worth the effort to convert them to digital!

[ajaxlepinski]

Guess it all depends on the recordings... not worth digitizing and restoring old Toto cassettes!

I originally purchased RX7 to transfer a vinyl album to digital....
In the early 1990's, my band dropped off the reel to reel, master tapes at the pressing plant. We received our shipment of vinyl, but the plant shut down before we were able to pickup our master tapes.
I digitized the vinyl but, I needed RX7 to get rid of the vinyl noise.

[Tortuga]

Wow! What a difference between those tracks!

I just ordered a new interface that'll have enough inputs to directly pull tracks from my old bands' 4-track recordings from the late 80s. My "mix" job back then was horrible - hoping to surprise the guys with a fresh take on the recordings in the next few weeks.

[ajaxlepinski]

Wow! What a difference between those tracks!

I just ordered a new interface that'll have enough inputs to directly pull tracks from my old bands' 4-track recordings from the late 80s. My "mix" job back then was horrible - hoping to surprise the guys with a fresh take on the recordings in the next few weeks.

Dude... if you don't have Ozone, get Plug N Mix's, Monster Boost plugin for $49.00. It makes old, muddy recordings sound fantastic and it's a lot easier to use than Ozone.
Here's the link: https://www.plugandmix.com/products/p894-Monster-Boost/

Every once in a while, they offer their $250 VIP Bundle of 50 plugins (that includes Monster Boost) for $49.00.

[Tortuga]

Thanks for the tip - will check it out!

[Emperor Guillotine]

This is interesting. I never knew that iZotope's RX could do this level of audio repair (as far as audio coming from old, analog formats). With everything being digital nowadays, this definitely opens up some possibilities. Means it's time for me to dive down this rabbit hole as someone who works with mangled analog audio, tape loops, etc.

[Tortuga]

Wow! What a difference between those tracks!

I just ordered a new interface that'll have enough inputs to directly pull tracks from my old bands' 4-track recordings from the late 80s. My "mix" job back then was horrible - hoping to surprise the guys with a fresh take on the recordings in the next few weeks.

Dude... if you don't have Ozone, get Plug N Mix's, Monster Boost plugin for $49.00. It makes old, muddy recordings sound fantastic and it's a lot easier to use than Ozone.
Here's the link: https://www.plugandmix.com/products/p894-Monster-Boost/

Every once in a while, they offer their $250 VIP Bundle of 50 plugins (that includes Monster Boost) for $49.00.

I got a free download of Ozone Elements last year - is that what you're talking about?

Be prepared for a lot of questions.... my new interface is supposed to arrive today

[ajaxlepinski]

This is interesting. I never knew that iZotope's RX could do this level of audio repair (as far as audio coming from old, analog formats). With everything being digital nowadays, this definitely opens up some possibilities. Means it's time for me to dive down this rabbit hole as someone who works with mangled analog audio, tape loops, etc.

This vid goes over almost all of the RX7 modules...
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkt9WHqEdao[/youtube]

[ajaxlepinski]

Wow! What a difference between those tracks!

I just ordered a new interface that'll have enough inputs to directly pull tracks from my old bands' 4-track recordings from the late 80s. My "mix" job back then was horrible - hoping to surprise the guys with a fresh take on the recordings in the next few weeks.

Dude... if you don't have Ozone, get Plug N Mix's, Monster Boost plugin for $49.00. It makes old, muddy recordings sound fantastic and it's a lot easier to use than Ozone.
Here's the link: https://www.plugandmix.com/products/p894-Monster-Boost/

Every once in a while, they offer their $250 VIP Bundle of 50 plugins (that includes Monster Boost) for $49.00.

I got a free download of Ozone Elements last year - is that what you're talking about?

Be prepared for a lot of questions.... my new interface is supposed to arrive today

Ozone Standard has a harmonic exciter that does the same thing as Plug N Mix Monster Boost, Aphex Aural Exciter and BBE Sonix Maximizer.
Not sure it Ozone Elements has it.
Upgrading to Ozone Standard is will worth the $$$$

[Emperor Guillotine]

Not sure it Ozone Elements has it.
Upgrading to Ozone Standard is will worth the $$$$

Ozone 9 Elements does have the Maximizer, but it is limited in functionality.

Honestly, Elements is so limited that it really does next to nothing for cleaning up audio because the controls and options that an engineer would need aren't presented until you crossgrade to at least the Standard version.

My advice here is to get Ozone 9 Elements for free from Sweetwater or Plugin Boutique. (One of those two websites was offering free licenses for the software. Not sure if you had to make a purchase first though.) After you get Ozone 9 Elements for free, take advantage of iZotope's current sale that they are doing (and their dealers are matching the sale prices too) where you can get the crossgrade to Ozone 9 Standard for $99. Then take advantage of the sale again and crossgrade to Advanced for $99. At the end of the day, you'll walk away with the $500 industry-standard audio mastering software for just $200. Can't beat that.

[Tortuga]

What if I'm not an "engineer", though... I'm just a hack looking to dust off some old recordings and make them "good" - not looking to put them up on iTunes for sale or anything