Multitrack Cassette Tape Transfer to DP - Need Help/Advice

[Shooshie]

I think this link should help:

http://www.elvenminstrel.com/music/tuni ... ends.shtml

Doing the math, I think that comes to 15.625 cents, which is approximately the difference between a major third at Pythagorean tuning and the same third at Equal Tempered tuning. (a little more, perhaps)

Shooshie

[Babz]

Wow thanks, Shooshie! This chart looks very helpful. I guess I'll do the tuning in Audacity, because it has this Change Speed option.

I am discarding everything but the one lead vocal track.

You guys are such super geeks! Thanks so much.

Here I go, fingers crossed...

Babz

[mikehalloran]

I was speaking to Jay McKnight of MRL, possibly the expert on analog tape these days. He's an old friend and is playing viola in the opera I'm doing.
http://home.comcast.net/~mrltapes/

His comments were that high frequencies will always need tweaking as cassettes are notorious for losing highs as they age. He then said, "You know, this is all obsolete technology. I should have been out of business years ago." MRL makes reference tapes for calibrating tape machines and people keep placing orders for them.

[Babz]

OK, so I tuned it up using Audacity, which has a Change Speed option. As far as I can tell it can only be adjusted by "percentage" not cents, so I put in -0.0015625% and that seemed to put it right in tune.

I must say, this has been a major adventure, learning or relearning the wild and wooly world of tape, and really noticing the audible differences between analog and digital.

Pretty startling, the major the drift with tape, and life would have been so much easier if I had an actual tape machine around.

But it actually worked really well for an Artificial Double Tracking effect! I was able to double certain sections of the lead vocal. However, each individual phrase has to be placed one-by-one and adjusted tick-by-tick to find the right spot. Major tedium.

This project has been way too much work, but finally starting to see the end of the tunnel!

Babz

[stubbsonic]

For others checking this thread..

I had forgotten to mention a step with Audacity is that I may open a pitch change plug in and enter the desired pitch difference that I want, it will show the percentage in another field. I then hit cancel and use that percentage in the speed plugin.

Glad you got it working.

[Shooshie]

...high frequencies will always need tweaking as cassettes are notorious for losing highs as they age.

Steenkin' Earth. It's nothing but a big tape degausser.

[mikehalloran]

...high frequencies will always need tweaking as cassettes are notorious for losing highs as they age.

Steenkin' Earth. It's nothing but a big tape degausser.

I'll tell that to Jay when I see him tonight.

It's an interesting group of Savoyards who get together in San Jose. Besides myself and Jay in the orchestra, Michael Good, inventor of Music XML is in the cast.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgood
I learned yesterday that a Weo Moerner, a company member from the '70s and '80s just shared the Nobel prize in chemistry.
https://biox.stanford.edu/highlight/bio ... -chemistry

[Babz]

OK, here it is, if anyone is curious to hear the end result of this adventure.

https://soundcloud.com/babz_nyc/im-want ... aster-2014

Best,
Babz

[Shooshie]

Babz, I enjoyed the 80s/samba feel. Nice track. It's kind of fun to go back and digitize our earlier stuff. I like hearing how we constructed our songs in different periods and styles. Thanks for posting it!

Shooshie