Quality of recorded sound

[Terry@nz]

I am trying to transfer some of my taped library to CD. First step is to play it through the computer sound card and digitise it.

I expected the quality of a recorded WAV file to be much to same as the original music, but it is considerably less.

Am I expecting too much?

Terry

[JoJo Gunn]

Terry, what bitrate are you using? Have you tried 44100-16khz? That's the CD standard, which a burner will ultimately use, or convert a lower bitrate file to. (And what programs are you using?).

Those files will be considerably larger, which you'll notice if you have been using lower bitrates. You might try to conserve hard drive space but since you're ultimately going to burn to a CD might as well do the input at the best quality rate to begin with. The final conversion/burn can't restore what's not there. So don't use MP3's. And if you're using Dolby B or C and converting to an MP3, that's a double whammy right there.

[Terry@nz]

Thanks for the response, JoJo.

I'm using Blaze Audio Wave Creator (seems slightly better than others I've tried, and more knobs to adjust) at 44KHz, 16 Bit Stereo.

I agree with your policy of using the best possible quality first. I've plenty of disk space to use, and they will be going to CDs afterwards.

The main problem seems to be lack of treble. Boosting this with the equalize function partly compensates. But in the process it seems more distorted.

Terry

[smurfy]

hey Terry.
Try to keep the incoming source as pure as you can, no equalisation or noise reduction at tape deck source, none at the PC end either, you can modify to remove hiss & pop etc later.

Also (sounds silly but I've done it before) make sure your input is going to the line in jack of the soundcard, not the mic jack.

[JoJo Gunn]

Terry, at the moment I'm not sure what's affecting the highs. I agree with Smurfy. Don't equalize anything. And don't use "normalization" settings either.

Smurfy, I don't want to take away from what you're saying, because it's good advice. But for my ears if you're using Dolby C you need to have it on during playback. It's compressed way too much for standard playback. Dolby B, however, I prefer it turned off.

[Terry@nz]

Thanks both of you. I checked Line Input (just the sort of thing I might do) but it was OK. My Tape deck is a plain-vanilla type with no equalisation or anything except Dolby B. Leaves it up to the Mixer.

Tried turning off Dolby B, and it is just about right. Can't understand that though. Dolby introduces deliberate frequency distortion so that it can't undo it on playback and gain noise reduction in the process. Why should it sound right if it is left 'distorted'?

Don't try to understand, just do it???

Terry

[JoJo Gunn]

Dolby B emphasizes the highs only, unlike C or S which works more across the whole spectrum. Now you're hearing them with Dolby off. Dolby is supposed to reduce hiss yet retain the highs, but it never really worked all that great, even to my once younger ears. I pretty much like C, though.

If it sounds okay, if there's not sibilance to it, (where it sounds like you're tuned off to one side of a radio station, and words with S are extremely emphasized), then try a test burn and see what you think. If there IS any sibilance, then there's a problem somewhere.