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Removing tape hiss

balddor

balddor

Member
I have a few cassettes from the late 70's that has tape hiss due from dubbing. No noise reduction was used. I like to transfer these to a CD-R Disc. What can I use to remove the hiss without affecting the background music or voices, if it is possible @ all.
 
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The high filter if available on your receiver/amp. Or you can try outboard processors. I use a KLH DNF-1201A & TNE-7000A for extreme moise reduction. Many frown on these signal processors, I deal with them.
 
Other than using noiseprint/FFT NR, I would just leave it alone. It is so easy to listen through tape hiss. I don't even hear it, unless I want to.
 
Besides using Waves X-Noise restoration plug-ins, I edit out the silence between the tracks and fade to digital black at the end of each song.
 
Tape hiss used to be what I really hated in cheap ferric tapes. I have done noise reduction on such digitized tapes using Cool Edit Pro's FFT NR. It works to a certain extent. Overdo NR and you get nasty flanger and breathing artifacts in the music.

I've also experimented briefly with Behringer's DeNoiser units. These are single ended noise gate filters and the first few tests were encouraging enough to keep the unit for future detailed testing and use.
 
Strawman said:
The high filter if available on your receiver/amp. Or you can try outboard processors. I use a KLH DNF-1201A & TNE-7000A for extreme moise reduction. Many frown on these signal processors, I deal with them.
Click to expand...

I also use both thses with perfwect results if you don't overdue them. The trick with these is using them for what they are designed. The TNE is for Vinyl and the DNE for tape but both are for before recording, not after.

I've used them both since they were new, not vintage and know they both work and do their jobs respectively. I don't know how they do it and I don't care, as long as they do. Actually My TNE is called the KLH/Berwin Research and the DNE is just KLH. I forgot to put one in my sig block. I don't use the 1201A anymore as I'm using the DBX-224 now. It works fairly well with tape hiss too and fits in my rack a bit better. The KLH, 1201A is being used with my Bedroom stereo with my SX-980 that I just got out from under my bed.

Ut..Oh, thats for another Thread...
 
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As stated above transfer to your computer then use noise filtering to reduce the hiss. You can try all the filtering you want until you are satisfied as long as you save a copy of the original.
 
I used a dbx unit (designed to edit out noise in playback situations, it did not actually remove the noise permanently) in the early 80's before CD's came along, and it worked quite well. After the arrival of CD's, I replaced most of my music collection with the new magical discs and sold the tape decks and dbx unit. Looking back, that was a BIG mistake!

As for the operating principles of the dbx unit, it was my understanding that the dbx unit would first expand the musical signal, then remove the unwanted frequencies, and finally, compress the remaining signal back to it's previous level. Some of the highs in the music would be lost, but not much, and most people could not tell the difference, except that the noise was gone. Only a good, experienced ear would notice the missing highs, and as I stated before, it was only a minor loss.
 
The dbx NR system is an encode/decode compander system. Works correctly only on dbx encoded tapes and discs. Doesn't play well unless you have the dbx decoder on your equipment. One reason why dbx wasn't a mass market item on decks like Dolby B was and why pre-recorded dbx tapes were rarities.
 
KentTeffeteller said:
The dbx NR system is an encode/decode compander system. Works correctly only on dbx encoded tapes and discs. Doesn't play well unless you have the dbx decoder on your equipment. One reason why dbx wasn't a mass market item on decks like Dolby B was and why pre-recorded dbx tapes were rarities.
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The unit I had was a stand alone unit, in other words you did not need pre-encoded tapes or records, as the unit did both the encoding and decoding to the inline signal, just before the signal reached the amplifier. I wish I could remember the model number, but it's been too many years ago. I do remember it was fairly expensive, but I sold 3 or 4 of those units during my time at FM Hi Fidelity, regardless of the price.
 
Way back there was the add on Philips DNL unit (Dynamic Noise Liniter) which was specifically for reduction of tape hiss. It sort of worked, I still have a unit somewhere.
 
DFAdams said:
The unit I had was a stand alone unit, in other words you did not need pre-encoded tapes or records, as the unit did both the encoding and decoding to the inline signal, just before the signal reached the amplifier. I wish I could remember the model number, but it's been too many years ago. I do remember it was fairly expensive, but I sold 3 or 4 of those units during my time at FM Hi Fidelity, regardless of the price.
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Are you perhaps referring to the dbx 128 (shown below)? I still have mine ( I purchased it in the late '70s). It had dbx tape noise reduction (for recordings made through the unit) and a dynamic range expander/compressor in a single unit.

dbx_128.jpg
 
howie123 said:
Are you perhaps referring to the dbx 128 (shown below)? I still have mine ( I purchased it in the late '70s). It had dbx tape noise reduction (for recordings made through the unit) and a dynamic range expander/compressor in a single unit.

dbx_128.jpg
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Perhaps it was the 128. I was thinking I could playback a tape or an LP without having to record it, but I may be mistaken, after all, it was 1980-81, and my memory has faded over the years! And I did record all of my LP's onto tape back then.
 
With adobe Audition you can take a sample of the hiss between songs and Audition will remove all the hiss through the whole recording. I've recorded some tape to computer dubs of Abbott and Costello with this process.
 
DFAdams said:
Perhaps it was the 128. I was thinking I could playback a tape or an LP without having to record it, but I may be mistaken, after all, it was 1980-81, and my memory has faded over the years! And I did record all of my LP's onto tape back then.
Click to expand...

I now use the 224 series II noise reduction and still record my vinyl to tape and the 224 seems to work nocelt. I did use the KLH 1201A but that moved into the bedroom stereo. Mine works great as long as I remember to set it correctly. Sometimes I do forget and then there are times I over do it too. Then I just start over again. But that's my fault for not paying attention.

CRS happens at my age!!
 
Adobe Audition has a very nice noise reduction algorithm. I've used it many
times with mostly good results. Just don't overdo it.
 
DFAdams said:
Perhaps it was the 128. I was thinking I could playback a tape or an LP without having to record it, but I may be mistaken, after all, it was 1980-81, and my memory has faded over the years! And I did record all of my LP's onto tape back then.
Click to expand...

Yes, you can play back a tape or LP (any source, for that matter) through the 128 and use the expansion/compression controls to either expand the dynamic range (great for LP's and tapes with limited dynamic range), or compress it (good for noisy environments or at low volume levels). The dbx tape noise reduction section was used for recording your own tapes using the dbx tape noise reduction system (it worked quite well), and tapes made using it had to be played back through the dbx unit. There was also a dbx disc function for playback of dbx encoded LP's.
 
hi guys.
Here in Europe is hard to find old Dbx units....but i saw some on ebay.com.(why is this???)....
So let's say that by cleaning the records i eliminate pops and ticks...and i want 1) just a cleaner signal when i record from vinyl to Reel 2 Reel...(cleaner with less hiss)..and 2) just a cleaner signal(with less hiss) when i record 2-4 tracks live, on the R2R.....

Both situations,will playback on the R2R recorder..not to my DAW(I know there some plugins that could do digitaly the job).....is there a one-end unit that could do that, or dbx 224 here in Europe would be the only way?(i don't like this encoder/decoder situation and the compression)....could the 3bx eliminate this or works only as a frequency expander...KLH 1201A?(one way unit or need to be plugged for playback as well??)-there is only one on ebay right now.
In conclusion:
Dbx224 , dbx-3bx or klh1201 for overall hiss(TAPE & VINYL) reduction and for a clean signal?

I am confused...i just want to hear and enjoy straight from the reel 2 reel(a mint condition REVOX 2-TRACK PR99 HS ,calibrated with good quality tapes RMG),the cleanest possible lp's or live recording's music

Thank you............
 
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You'll have to transfer these to your PC first.

If you dont have editing software - Audacity is free, cross-platform and has a good noise reduction feature.
 
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