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- To which analog gain would 0 dBFS be mapped?by atoav
- i don’t think any dynamic range manipulation is being done, beyond the slight variations as a consequence of the other processing.
generally 0dBVU is mapped to -18dBFS with VU style RMS metering being used on the digital side as well. but that isn’t some kind of physical translation, it’s rather arbitrary and more a convention.
by pitchlatte - Would be interested to see something like this to simulate VHS effectsby isiahl
- That might be of interest: https://ntsc.rs/
- I’m wondering besides the hiss and wow/flutter, what is the frequency range of cassette tape? Is there an “eq” to tape where certain frequencies are rendered more strongly than others? And how does it compare with records?by JSR_FDED
- I’m not sure of the correctness, but I see the author adjusting eq in the source, this is from the “BASF LH Extra C90” preset:
> highpass=f=50,lowpass=f=13000
> equalizer=f=500:width_type=q:width=0.8:g=-1.2,equalizer=f=6000:width_type=q:width=0.7:g=-4
by spencerap - Looking at the first example [1] looks like there is high pass, low pass, and two more “cuts”
[1] https://github.com/AARomanov1985/Audio-Cassette-Simulation/b...
by ssttoo - Back in the day, the plastic that wrapped blank tapes was printed with details about the tape inside, including a frequency response chart.
Of course it differed by brand.
It's also worth considering that a lot of tapes were recorded with Dolby B noise reduction, which boosted high frequencies on the recorded tape, to increase the signal to noise ratio. (You had to use Dolby B at the playback end, too, or it would sound too bright.)
- I read that audio engineers actually use specialized and very expensive ripoff hardware in their signal processing chain to replicate the effect of the electromagnetics (hysteresis?) of tape systems on the audio.
To me, this seems like wasted effort. Any such filter can be implemented using DSP.
- Most commercial DAWs come with such algorithms already. (eg Logic Pro has "ChromaGlow" which can emulate tape, tubes, etc. https://support.apple.com/guide/logicpro/chromaglow-controls...)
There's also a thriving 3rd party plugin market for similar effects.
by heddhunter - What is "wow"?by _def
- It's a kind of pitch instability: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow_(recording)by sctb
- Basically, on analog media, playback speed isn't perfect. There's constant speedups and slowdowns. This creates a "waa waa" or "wow wow" effect that's noticeable when playing a constant pure tone.by gwbas1c
- Half of wow and flutter. The tape speed wasn't perfectly constant, so the pitch wobbled.
Wow was slow speed variations (under 4Hz). Flutter was quicker warbles.
Both were caused mechanically. The rubber wheel - pinch roller - that moved the tape might not be perfectly circular, the motor that pulled the reels might be uneven, and the tape case sometimes pressed on the tape reels causing variable friction.
Analog media really were a bit crap. I get the creative distortion idea, but even so - ewww. I'm so happy these kinds of imperfections are optional now, and not baked into music distribution systems as an expected flaw.
- This is interesting as I would assume multiple passes from each output would result in further multi generational loss akin to tape trading of band demos, soundclashes and dj mixes from pirate radioby omar_alt
- In my opinion, nothing is quite the same as real analog cassette sounds. It's nice to play around and prototype, but if you really want a good cassette sound effect, you have to use real hardware, for now.by speedgoose
- what is the appeal of cassette sound effects / analog cassette sounds? is it nostalgia?by raffael_de
- There's a number of VST plugins that get very close - much closer than a static set of filters every possibly could. This is just an approximation.by TonyTrapp
- My pioneer tape deck has a high end DSP that spanks dolby and removes tape noise and I love the sound it produces.by hypercube33
- How would one go about determining what effect to add for each cassette type? I don't know much about cassettes, I'm curious if this was something that could be done by ear or if these are commonly held opinions about the sound of each tape.
Again knowing nothing about tape, if I were tasked with this I would probably try to record the same audio to each of the tapes and then compare it with the original.
- I was too young to do much with this information, but I not-so-vaguely recall my father cared deeply about getting metal-tapes. Not the music, but the material. I don't know if they lasted longer or sounded better (and now I would suspect: maybe have a sound profile he liked, rather than have high fidelity), but it was important to him.by brnt
- Similar to how the different film stocks affected the look of the image, the different tape formats would effect the sound similarly. Crudely explained, the more light brown the tape, the more noisy it would be. The darker the tape, the cleaner it could be. If you like the sound of someone standing behind you constantly saying shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, then choose a brown tape.
By now, the audiophiles have lots of profiles of what the various tape formats would sound like. It's been ages since I've looked at audio plugins, but I would be shocked if there's not presets to make your pristine audio sound like a Maxell cassette that's been played hundreds of times.
by dylan604 - Has anyone come across a Dolby B (or similar) encode / decode program?
I've been wanting to experiment with quantizing Dolby (or similar) encoded audio to 8 bits, and then unencoding to see how well it can sound.
by gwbas1c - The only one I'm aware of is DDi Codec by Anaxwaves.by IHeartGaming
- U-he Satin emulates Dolby encoding/decoding.by vor_
- Dolby was just pre-emphasis of the higher frequencies before they were written to the tape.
It will sound the same with 8 bits. 8bit quantization will give you 48dB dynamic range (best case). Call it 36dB practical, around the same as an average cassette tape.
by RachelF - Can this be modeled with Neural Amp Modeler (open source) and Tone 3000 like a Space or a Pedal or an Outboard? https://www.tone3000.com/amalgamaudioby westurner
- You might want to have a look at https://github.com/jatinchowdhury18/AnalogTapeModel
Available as a (free) DSP: https://chowdsp.com/products.html#tape
by i_am_proteus - Of course ! By the way, I'd love to see more HN posts about NAM. I've been following the project since day one, and it's been an absolute game changer for guitar amp modeling. It's genuinely exciting to see an open-source project have such a profound impact on the entire industry,not just modelers but software plugins and hardware solutionsby lateralux