Audio Musings

[Judge]

Seeing this article helped me to decide to take an interesting approach to incorporating both digital and analog records which were converted to MP3 files to be played on a flash drive through my new car's Bose audio system. Being able to have instant access to my entire music collection is cool, but my recordings are hopelessly divided in terms of their dynamic audio range. With vinyl records recorded to cassette tape, prerecorded cassette tapes, and of course CDs. A good ear can certainly detect the difference, but I found that with this particular audio system, the most "compressed" recordings converted to MP3 format were not only noticeable, but actually sounded lower in volume.

So what I'm experimenting with at the moment is to take a source originally transferred from a cassette tape (the rock group "Foreigner") and simply boost its gain by 3 using Audacity 2.0. While it won't actually change the inherent audio compression of a cassette tape, I'm wondering if by boosting the gain by "3" it may "fool my ear" somewhat with a more pronounced sound level closer to all the CDs I've ripped to MP3 format. At least enough so that it doesn't flat out sound lower in volume alone. Anyone understand what I'm getting at?

Of course I just made the alterations the other night and haven't had the chance to test them out yet. Just wondering if I should expect some degree of "clipping" for doing this. LOL..I guess I'll find out.

"Gain is one of the harder terms to define, mainly because its used in a lot more places than just the audio world. Quite simply it means an increase in some kind of value. So for example, you can have a power gain, voltage gain, or current gain; and they all increase those respective values. Typically when referring to gain, we refer to transmission gain, which is the increase in the power of the signal. This increase is almost always expressed in dB (decibels). This could be the increase in the raw signal from your guitar or microphone before it goes into any of the other electronic components. For the curious, here’s the equation to calculate gain:

Gain = 10 x log (Power out/Power in) expressed in dB."

http://www.offbeatband.com/2009/08/the-difference-between-gain-volume-level-and-loudness/

 

[dragoncat16]

Cassette tapes are worst in fidelity out of all of the types of media. I find that they fail to store all the high frequency aspects of the music. I don't know if that would affect what the music sounds like to people with normal hearing, but my ears are particularly sensitive to high frequencies and there is a very obvious difference in quality. There might be a way to fake the high frequency stuff, and maybe that can be achieved by adjusting the gain at the high end. When CDs first came out, I gradually replaced my entire cassette collection with CDs because the difference to me was like night and day. I wouldn't even think of ripping cassette tapes. Records, on the other hand, have quite good fidelity, as long as they aren't scratched.

 

[Judge]

I wouldn't even think of ripping cassette tapes. Records, on the other hand, have quite good fidelity, as long as they aren't scratched.

Depends on the deck as well as the cassette tape. With Noise Reduction systems on the high-end 80s/90s tape decks that I had like DBX (Teac) and Dolby HX (Nakamichi, Sony) I thought most of my cassette tapes sounded quite good with enhanced headroom, unlike the cheaper tape decks with only Dolby B or no noise reduction at all. Truth is that I wouldn't even consider listening to a cassette tape played on a deck without any sophisticated- and costly noise reduction.

Though of course both records and tapes are inherently more compressed than digital recordings. I always hated impure vinyl records given all the ticks, pops and hiss depending on the record and vinyl. In my experience I thought ripping my cassette tapes went quite well to MP3. Go figure.

Lucky for me I ripped all my analog recordings years ago as these days the few tape decks available all pretty much are garbage in comparison. But as for the good stuff, that's technology from a different era..."gone with the wind" now. Though if I can tweak my existing recordings a bit, that's cool too. I'm just glad that the majority of my music is digital as I gave up on vinyl and tape many years ago converting most of my collection to CD.

Still, it's a hoot to have them all on a single flash drive with no possibility of skipping as my previous car CD player was notorious for. Though in the house I still only play CDs and CDRs. With MP3s only for the car.

 

[Chance]

Depends on the deck as well as the cassette tape. With Noise Reduction systems on the high-end 80s/90s tape decks that I had like DBX (Teac) and Dolby HX (Nakamichi, Sony) I thought most of my cassette tapes sounded quite good with enhanced headroom, unlike the cheaper tape decks with only Dolby B or no noise reduction at all. Truth is that I wouldn't even consider listening to a cassette tape played on a deck without any sophisticated- and costly noise reduction.

Though of course both records and tapes are inherently more compressed than digital recordings. I always hated impure vinyl records given all the ticks, pops and hiss depending on the record and vinyl. In my experience I thought ripping my cassette tapes went quite well to MP3. Go figure.

Lucky for me I ripped all my analog recordings years ago as these days the few tape decks available all pretty much are garbage in comparison. But as for the good stuff, that's technology from a different era..."gone with the wind" now. Though if I can tweak my existing recordings a bit, that's cool too. I'm just glad that the majority of my music is digital as I gave up on vinyl and tape many years ago converting most of my collection to CD.

Still, it's a hoot to have them all on a single flash drive with no possibility of skipping as my previous car CD player was notorious for. Though in the house I still only play CDs and CDRs. With MP3s only for the car.

Thats cool that you still have all your old stuff... In my minimalist mindset I don't even own a cassette or a CD and I am trying to remember the last time I even bought a physical CD or DVD. Its been a long time.

I went all digital a long time back just for the simplicity. My phone has 1731 songs on it all tied to my iTunes account. The cars of today all either bluetooth, or have audio in jack, so simple very high quality no packing around zero extra stuff, is super easy once you take the leap... I think Spotify has lots of instant access stuff and free stuff and you can also make play lists and stuff... Just a thought and maybe a lot less trouble, with outstanding quality... : )