R2R to Computer
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jleon92f
Addicted Member
guiller
Toscaninichus Australis
I´ve been doing this for quite some time. I connect the output of my Revox R2R directly to the soundcard of my PC using a simple RCA to miniplug cable. The sofware I use for recording is the wonderful freeware Audacity ( http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ ). I burn the CD-Rs using the superb free software gcdmaster (frontend for cdrdao :http://cdrdao.sourceforge.net/gcdmaster/index.html ). A very useful feature of this program is that it allows one to insert track marks inside the same file, without having to split it into pieces. Although I use it under Linux there are versions for Windows. The results with any reasonable sound card (I´ve got an old SoundBlaster Live) are magnificent amd my main concern is to get the best possible analog source.
All the best
All the best
pilotprose
Active Member
If they are very precious and you want to remove/restore them to a much higher quality, there is a restoration program called DC6, there is now a DC7 out, that makes recording and a clean up of unwanted hum, hiss and other unwanted noise. Do a Google on it. Tracer Technologies carries and promotes the product. I use it on both tapes and LPs and record them as wave files for playback from either the computer or via a CD. Sound much better than the commerical CD version of the same media. Watch the product, you can catch it on sale, I did and got a pre amp with it for half the normal price. This will allow you to come directly out of your turntable and rigt into the sound card of your computer. Check it out. I hope this helps you in making your decision.
JohnG
Active Member
Here's their website and some demos: http://www.enhancedaudio.com/reservoir.htm
Very interesting, I'm dying to see what the voices sound like on my old family tapes.
...but in a weird sort of way, I kinda like the warmth and comfort of the hissing and popping examples :hdphones
well maybe not quite so much of it).
ha1156w
Active Member
BY ALL MEANS AVOID using the internal motherboard sound chip!!! They are well known to be unbalanced, noisy, and irresistible to interference. They were designed to just make controlled noise and check off a box on the list of features. Accuracy is not one of their fortes and MB manufacturers (*cough*Dell*cough*) just put the cheapest chip that will do the job in their boards. Most of them are Crystal, ESS, and other bottom-buck circuits. They have cheezy analog sections and often "just enough" to accomplish the job. Creative Sound Blaster? Don't bother. That company has been all marketing since the early 90's. Their performance is outright lousy, provided you can get stability from the drivers in the first place.
Best bang for the buck? An M-Audio Delta series PCI card. Some models use RCA inputs as opposed to 1/8" inputs. I use a Transit, external USB attached D/A and A/D converter. They can be had for about $100 and are widely reputed to be the best out there outside the pro audio arena. Do your reels justice. An internal sound function might be good for cassette, but a R2R can do much much more.
Best bang for the buck? An M-Audio Delta series PCI card. Some models use RCA inputs as opposed to 1/8" inputs. I use a Transit, external USB attached D/A and A/D converter. They can be had for about $100 and are widely reputed to be the best out there outside the pro audio arena. Do your reels justice. An internal sound function might be good for cassette, but a R2R can do much much more.
guiller
Toscaninichus Australis
Hi,
I´ve been using a SoundBlaster Live PCI card with excellent results (I mean, my trasnscriptions from commercial recordings from R2R tapes and cassettes are almost always clearer and with overall better sound than most official CDs released by the recording company). I never used any Windows drivers, because I use Linux as the operating system. In my opinion, more expensive sound cards don´t make any audible difference (I tried several, including expensive ones like a good Turtle Beach model). However, what does make an important difference is the analog source, that is, the quality of the R2R recorder. After trying a few, I got excellent results with a Revox A-77 (I now added a B-77). Moreover, my policy is of minimal intervention, i.e., I never use any software to reduce noise or tape hiss (again, I try to do this at the source and was my main motivation for buying the B-77).
All the best
michaelnorth
New Member
Agreed with ha1156w -- motherboard chips and generic internal cards don't sound good. If this project is at all important, step up the foodchain. You can get a M-Audio Delta cheap on eBay and end up with much better results now instead of wishing you'd done so later. The "weakest link" concept applies--how well the analog tape signal is read and converted to bits makes all the difference. Of course, you have to have a decent monitoring gear to really know what's going on. If you just have a few tapes to digitize, you might be better off sending them to a service: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/index.htm
Mystic Pixel
Member
Yeah, if you're bothering to restore r2r stuff, spend the money on a decent sound card. At the radio station I work at, we had a Digidesign digi-001 laying around, so I put it to good use with a copy of Adobe Audition, and hooked up an otari MX-5050 - it's neat to look at the imports and see the 19kHz pilot indicating it was originally recorded off the air stream 
LarryYaremko
Member
I use it, and it is excellent--especially at removing virtually ALL tape hiss!
There is a "Continuous Noise Filter" feature, where you let it sample about 1/2 second of quiet tape (as in before or after a music passage). The software identifies the fingerprint of the background noise, and it then cleans it up from the passage.
I used it on several audiocassette motivational programs from Sybervision and Nightingale-Conant, and the resulting audio sounded as though it were recorded digitally. It was dead quiet--and there was no effect on the high frequency parts of the audio.
There is a $60.00 version called DC Millennium that has the Continuous Noise Filter, and it can be downloaded for a 10-day free trial. For cleaning up tape hiss, that is all one needs. No need to buy the $200.00 full-featured version.
Dolby and DBX never sounded that good!
