Converting old VHS home video to digital - Audio Warble

Question

Hi guys, I'm working on converting some old home videos to digital videos. Everything has a sort of warble to it. See included video for reference.

Is there any way to fix this audio, or is it just stuck like this?

It sound this bad even playing it back on the camera itself. I think it was a recording issue. My dad says he had some sort of slow motion recording setting turned on which may have effected the way the audio was recorded - perhaps there was a jitter in the recording mechanism. Not sure if that matters at all.

Edit: Here is a photo of the audio wave form:

You can see that there is this consistent wobble throughout. I guess the way to fix the sound is to level out that wobble - is there a way for Audition to find the average of a wave form? Does that question make sense?

Message was edited by: Andrea Esselman

SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Answer

What you have here is a bad case of what's called 'flutter'. If it was slower, it would be called 'wow'. The effect is the same in both cases - the speed shifts up and down, which is why the 'wobbles' appear to move vertically in the spectral view. There is software that can get rid of this completely, but it's highly specialised and expensive. What I mean by expensive is €3,790.00 to purchase, so it's unlikely that you'll want to spring for that for home movies. Fortunately you can rent it for five days for €199.00.

There is some other software that claims to be able to do this, but the one I'm recommending is the only one that I know will work, if you see what I mean.

Celemony | Capstan

But also I should mention what actually causes this, as it may just be an issue you can resolve locally. This is invariably caused by transport errors, and they could have occurred either in the original camcorder, or in the machine that you are now playing the tapes on. Often it's caused by poor contact between the capstan and pinch roller (these move the tape at a constant speed) but it can also be caused by anything impeding the tape path - dirty tape guides, sticking clutches, etc. So it may well be worth getting the machine you are playing these tapes on serviced and thoroughly cleaned - that should cost less than five days' rental of Capstan, and is worth serious consideration.

It would be easier to figure out what the source of this might be if you could give us exact details of how this was recorded and how you're playing it now. Some formats of video recording were notorious for having these sorts of problems when played in other machines - VHS-C being a prime offender...

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