Hiss on old records

It's all about the equipment

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straycat
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#31 Post by straycat » Tue Jun 24, 2008 12:30 am

SoundInMotionDJ wrote: I think that "muffled" is about the right description. The hiss is certainly gone, but so is all the high frequency content. I think that a compromise that keeps some of the hiss might have been a better choice.
Mmmm. Yeah - I'll definitely keep playing with it, and will try that - if I can improve on those results, I'll post another sample.

I somehow don't think I picked a very good starting point though - the Mosaic tracks have generally had a lot of loving work done on them by some real experts, so I'd be daft to think I could make the song sound better - but my aim is for a reduced hiss version that sounds good in a dance environment, and I think that's definitely an achievable goal.

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trev
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#32 Post by trev » Tue Jun 24, 2008 4:33 am

I think you're right about that. The hiss has gone, but so has a lot of the music - I think somewhere in between would be the best compromise for a dance.

The Mosaic guys indeed do a top job, but they are interested in preserving as much music as possible, and a dance crowd is not often as understanding as a jazz enthusiast.

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Cyrano de Maniac
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#33 Post by Cyrano de Maniac » Tue Jun 24, 2008 9:08 am

I think you're correct to aim for a middle-ground on this hiss.

I find in many sound environments that crowd noise, air conditioning equipment, and other such factors will drown out or at least make non-obvious a certain amount of noise from a recording. Yes, it'll still be there if you listen for it, but the dancer in the heat of battle likely won't notice.

So, depending on the playback environment and the qualities of this noise you are trying to reduce, you may want different levels and types of noise reduction. The key would be reducing the noise to the level where, to the casual listener in the dance environment, the noise is a non-issue, balancing that with preserving music fidelity.

So don't use a set of headphones to listen to the results of the noise reduction -- use a live dance environment if at all possible, otherwise just use your best guess.

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Haydn
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#34 Post by Haydn » Tue Jun 24, 2008 11:33 am

Cyrano de Maniac wrote:I find in many sound environments that crowd noise, air conditioning equipment, and other such factors will drown out or at least make non-obvious a certain amount of noise from a recording. Yes, it'll still be there if you listen for it, but the dancer in the heat of battle likely won't notice.
I've noticed this too.The busier and noisier the dance floor, the less noticeable recording noise is.

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remysun
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#35 Post by remysun » Tue Jun 24, 2008 12:25 pm

Haydn wrote:
Cyrano de Maniac wrote: I've noticed this too.The busier and noisier the dance floor, the less noticeable recording noise is.
True. Sound is logarithmic, so like earthquakes, there has to be a lot more of it to start to make a difference when it's not already quiet. I'd just worry about the signal to noise ratio on the original recording, and when it becomes worth the trouble, that's what I'd go with.

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