Subject:best way to record speech from cassette

Posted by: DaDoRonRon

Date:10/16/2002 1:32:57 PM

Hi: I have about five hours of interviews on cassette that I'd like to record to my hard drive as WAV files, edit with Sound Forge Studio 6 (or Cool Edit; which is better for this purpose?), then burn to CD. The tapes were recorded in mono. Should I use a mono-to-stereo cable (cassette output to sound card line in), or a mono-to-mono cable, in which case playback would be only on one channel unless I can tweak the recording with Studio 6 so both channels play back equally? Which way requires the least disk space? I'm planning to leave the files in WAV form on CD so they can be heard on any CD player.

Thanks from Ron

Subject:RE: best way to record speech from cassette

Reply by: djaltitude

Date:10/16/2002 1:44:53 PM

Most voices are recorded in mono fashion already... Since your tape is in Mono, unless your are using some effects for panning " left to right " I would keep it mono. Save it as a wave then burn it to cd. Since you are working with tape.... try the Steinberg Denoiser to eliminate the background noise/ tape his....

Subject:RE: best way to record speech from cassette

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:10/16/2002 1:49:49 PM

Partially your choice of channels may depend on the cassette deck you use to play the tapes. If the cassette deck is stereo then you'll get output on both the left & right channels. You can use a stereo to stereo cable to connect it to the sound card. But in the long run it doesn't really matter. I would record into a mono WAV file to save space. Any CD burning software will convert this signal to stereo on the CD as it burns.

Since they're interviews rather than music, you can save space by using a slower sample rate. 22,050Hz would probably be more than plenty. You can even try 11,025Hz to see what it sounds like. Once again the burning software will automatically convert the track to 44,100Hz as it burns the disc. Stick with 16 bit though as 8 bit may give you an excessively noisy or distorted recording especially if you're planning on doing any processing such as EQ or volume adjustments.

Subject:RE: best way to record speech from cassette

Reply by: DaDoRonRon

Date:10/16/2002 1:49:57 PM

Hi dj: But will it play back from both speakers if recorded in mono? I did a trial record in mono and it only played back through the left speaker. Ron

Subject:RE: best way to record speech from cassette

Reply by: rraud

Date:10/16/2002 1:59:52 PM

Yes it will play back on both speakers.

You can use a mono-stereo adapter but there maybe no need depending on your configuration. In any case, in your SF record window (Ctrl+R) click new and select "Mono" 16 bit. You could get away with recording at a lower sample rate such as 22.5k, or even lower to save space, however to go to CD you would have to up-convert to 44.1, so there's no sense in that.

The Noise reduction plug-in can also reduce tape hiss. Some EQ & Wavehammering can also even things out.

After you burn the CD, you can archive it as Sound Forge Perfect Audio file.(.pca file.) A lossless file compression format that saves mucho disc space. However one will need SF to re-open it.

Subject:RE: best way to record speech from cassette

Reply by: DaDoRonRon

Date:10/16/2002 2:20:16 PM

Thanks to everybody who has answered so far. Very helpful. Great forum! Ron

Subject:RE: best way to record speech from cassette

Reply by: Engineer

Date:10/17/2002 5:58:59 PM

When dubbing from cassette (mono) into sound forge you will get a better sound if you take only a single left or right lead from the cassette. and set up sf as a mono input. if you mix the cassette out or mix the signal after recording you might get a phase shift in sf.