[Hidden-tech] How to clean up a cassette tape for transcribers?

Sarah Meikle sarah at sarahmeikle.com
Wed Aug 31 14:28:57 EDT 2011


Hi Stephanie

I recently converted an old record my grandfather made during WWII to 
send to my grandmother that was a horribly scratchy recording of him 
speaking. (I guess they used to send audio-letters this way.)  Anyhow, I 
was able to convert it to an audio file and then bring it in to Audacity 
and clean it up quite well.

Audacity is free software (I am on a Mac, not sure if it runs on PCs) 
and is very easy to use.  You can isolate (highlight) sections of the 
recording that you want to clean up or isolate sounds on the recording 
which you want to elimInate throughout the recording.  It really is 
quite easy to learn at a glance, so don't be intimidated.  I cleaned up 
my file in very little time.

If you get stuck, I have a family member that does transcription, though 
there are probably more affordable options available.  However, like I 
said, if you get stuck, she is amazingly thorough and precise.

Good luck!

Sarah

On 8/22/11 4:16 PM, sgelfan at rcn.com wrote:
>     ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
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>
>
> Hi
>
> I have three very noisy, hard to understand cassette tapes of
> meetings which I need to have transcribed.
>
> I was able to do a lot adjusting the EQ, but it was still very
> very difficult to understand. EQ helps, but I really need more
> sophisticated equipment with better filtering.
>
> The two main problems were that it was done simply using the
> built-in mike, so you hear the sounds of the tape machine
> itself, and that the signal was very low.
>
> So far, putting it into digital format has not helped, but I
> am not up to date on the latest recording technologies, so I
> am hoping that there is an easy fix out there that I just
> don't know about.
>
> I am hoping someone on this list either has the equipment or
> has other suggestions for cleaning up those tapes, and/or
> does transcriptions off of cassette tapes
>
>
> thanks, Stephanie
>     sgelfan at rcn.com
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-- 
Sarah Meikle
Graphic&  Web Design
Creative Business&  Technology Consultant
sarahmeikle.comsarah at sarahmeikle.com

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