Removing noise on a very old tape.

I'm trying to restore a tape with a speech on it for a friend, but it's recorded really really bad. The overall level is very low, and it has a lot of hiss.
It also sounds like they pointed the mic in the wrong direction, cause it has almost no high-end.
I've tried using Waves Restauration bundle and Bias Soundsoap, but I can still barely make out what the guy is saying.
It's a recording of his dad who passed away when he was young, so i'd love to do him this favour without spending a fortune.

Anybody got any tips for me?

ok, here's a suggestion. don't know if this will work. since you said that you've used Waves and Bias but can still barely make out what is being said but have you tried to increase the gain after you processed it? assuming you got the noise out and is just a matter of velocity.

run it through cooledit.

Use the hoise reduction effect on it several times.

There is also a "remove tape hiss" option.

Compress.

repeat as necessary.

Hmmm, Waves Restoration is usually on point... Thing is your never going to get to supreme clearity with out removing essiential frequences...

I had a similar problem, with a recording my friend gave me... One tip I can
give, I was using soundforge.. Copy the whole track, and mix it with the original... It's not going to double the volume, but it will help weak sounds to get through more... Then use waves to remove hiss, white noise, pink noise all that bad stuff...

If that doesn't help, try editing first, then doing the copy, then mix, might help... It might help to copy, then invert, then mix, might help with the sound, even though it will turn it into a more mono sounding track...

Also try subtractive equing on harsh frequencies after running the noise filters, might help more then increasing the freqs.. Maybe some slight compression, maybe not... It all depends...


In terms of getting higher vocals, try equing out everything accept vocal range, then copy and mix with the original, until its high enough.. Prolly want to run a hiss remover first, but try it a bunch of times, see what happens...

I say if you can give him an exact copy and then your best attempt
at the fix on a say two cds, and the original tape, it will be appreciated... Trust me. He'll hear the change in quality, and unless he is a perfectionist producer like us all, he will not hear problems that you may.. Producers and Listeners ears are different, just how it is...

You guys got this on lock. It's going to be a tough job to get a badly worn out tape to somehwat decent clarity, good luck. I KNOW how sentimental that is.

thanks for the tips guys.

i'm going to try to copy the track like you said cluster, that sounds like it might work. The problem is not so much the hiss, but the recording is just way to low.
I also messed with stereo imaging today, and it turns out that the voice is probably mono, but the hiss is in stereo. So when i narrowed the stereo field with Waves S1 stereo-imager some of the hiss got less.

good old WAVES!!

Penfold wrote:good old WAVES!!

No BS huh, it treats me well also.

off topic:

Did you check out that new eq modeling plugin they have? It's called Qclone, and it not only clones your hardware eq, it but you can also control it with the hardware's buttons. It's crazy.
I'm considering buying it, but i'm not sure my rack eq is better than software in the first place.

http://www.waves.com/content.asp?id=1583