Cassette Audio Conversion

[johnb21357033]

I'm relatively new to audition, audio editing, and thus I'm at what currently appears to be an impossible task by today's technology.

My grandfather passed away in 2012 and within the past few years my uncle brought forth some cassette audio jam sessions of he and my grandfather playing.

I am not sure if the cassette deck was tied into the amps they were using or if it was stand-alone. Nor am I certain of any settings setup during the recording. He asked me if I would be able to either make the vocals louder and/or diminish the guitars so that the vocals could be better distinguished.

I've been tinkering with various settings in Audition to try and see if I can't figure it out. Watched some tutorials and tinkered some more.

At various points in the audio the guitars over power the vocals significantly and I do not believe they were using a mic... I could be wrong.

I was able to convert the cassette to mp3 via a converter I picked up. I have about, I think 45 minutes, of varying vocals to play with which all have various levels of guitar audio as well as noise.

I know that if I could pull this off it would mean a great deal to my family and probably lead to needing to convert the rest of the tapes.

Essentially, any guidance anyone could provide would be most appreciated but to get the discussion started...

Is it possible by today's Audition (or other audio software) to split audio cassette audio into multiple tracks?

Is it possible to bring back vocal audio which is so over powered that it sounds like the filters are on to remove audio (like how some songs you can still here it even if the filter is applied)?

Listening to the tracks, on a scale of 100... (0 being absolute silence and 100 being most prominent), I would put the guitars at 100%, static at about 5%, and the vocals ranging from about 15-20% at best.

I feel like I already know the answer, so I completely understand if recovery may not be possible but I'm hoping someone of much more experience may be able to provide some suggestions.

Thank you for reading and any possible input you may have!

[Bob Howes · Accepted solution]

First the bad news.   Once you have mixed tracks, you can't move back to a bunch of individual tracks.  If the recordings were done in stereo with the vocals dead centre and everything else panned right or left, Audition's Centre Channel Extractor might be able to help separate out the vocal--but with standard cassettes I don't fancy your odds.  

However, a few things to do.

First, re-convert your tracks to wave files, not MP3.  By going directly to MP3 you've lowered the quality, and every step of processing then saving will add more MP3 problems.   You shouldn't need a converter.  Ideally you'd plug your cassette player into an external USB interface (even something small and cheap like a Behringer UCA202 would do.  At a pinch, you could plug into the audio card on your computer but this would be another source of quality loss.

Then, once you have your cassette as a wave, you can start playing with various Audition effects.  At the most basic, you can play with EQ (Effects/Filter and EQ)--if you're not an expert I'd start with the 30 band graphic.  Just raise the various frequency controls and see which, if any, emphasise the voice a bit.  You'll likely be playing in the 200-400 Hz range but just play and listen.

A second thing to try is compression.   That's on the Effects/Amplitude and compression menu.  Both the Tube Modelled Compressor and Multi Band Compressor have presets designed to bring out the voice a bit from the background music.  Note that the presets are a starting point and it's worth making a pot of coffee and spending some time tweaking the various controls to see what change it makes to the sound.

Finally (though this should have been first) if your recording has a typical cassette hiss, it might be be worth using the Effects/Noise Reduction/Noise Reduction Process on your tracks BEFORE you start playing with EQ and compression.   There are various tutorials out there that explain how to do noise reduction in several 'light" passes rather than all at once.

Good luck!

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Quite. Bob's absolutely correct about starting with wav files, not MP3, but it's also worth mentioning the cassette deck you play the originals on. At this stage in the overall life of cassettes, things are starting to degenerate - for all of them. Even when they were in far more common use, it was necessary to make sure that the deck you played your cassettes on was carefully adjusted to suit the cassettes you were playing, especially if they were recorded on another machine. Adjusting the azimuth on the playback head can make a huge difference to the amount of treble you get back, for instance  - that's the little screw on the side of the playback head which alters how perpendicular the head is to the tape; very rarely is this set absolutely correctly, so you need to align it so that the error is the same as the error on the record machine. It's generally pretty obvious what difference this makes if you turn it slightly whilst the tape is playing, but if in doubt and it's a stereo cassette, then play it in mono, adding both tracks together - the cancellations become even more obvious then.

Also you need to make sure that the EQ on the deck is set correctly for the tape type. If the original recordings used Dolby B, then the chances of getting this to track are about zero - generally if you can't get this absolutely correct, it's best to switch it off, as you'll get a general treble lift, which often improves the sound anyway. Also, before you play the cassettes,spool them from one end to the other and back again. This frees up the pancakes inside them and makes them less likely to stick, and reduces the chance of print-through effects. And check the state of the little felt pad in the back of the cassette; if this falls off, you'll need a dual-capstan machine to play them on successfully, or a little surgery and some glue...

Getting the best out of old cassettes can be quite trying, but you might be surprised at how much of an improvement just a few simple steps can make.

[johnb21357033]

I just wanted to reach back out and say thank you for taking the time to offer some tips @Bob Howes and SteveG(AudioMasters)​. In the process of moving now but once unpacked I'll be sure to give the tips a go!

Thanks again!​