Getting Noise When converting from Audio Cassette to MP3

6 messages

Getting Noise When converting from Audio Cassette to MP3

Reply Threaded

Hi,

I'm new to Audacity. Started with 1.2 and now using 1.3.9 a week ago.

My goal is to convert my library of music cassette and CDs to MP3 files. When I use Audacity to record ( 192 KHz and 24-bits.) music cassettes sound o.k. when I listen to it inside Audacity (AU file). Although, I've heard an occasional click. Sometimes I was able to get rid of Hiss (depending on what was going on in the music) using Noise Removal. I'm aware of Click Removal and Noise Removal. (1) I'd like to know what to set the parameters at. What are the ranges of the parameters? However, the resulting MP3 file (44,100 Khz, 128 Kbps, has terrible noise in the background. We're hearing crackles, clicks, and pops, etc. The noise in the background sound warbly and garbled.

When I use audacity to record CDs, it sounds o.k. in audacity but I hear noise background after converted to a MP3. It's not as bad as cassettes but still it's unenjoyable to listen to. I use "Stereo Mix" as the source to record the CD music. I tried CD/Video in but couldn't hear anything. I noticed that any thing I was doing while Audacity was recording, got recorded like mouse clicks, any sound effect the computer makes and also latency of the computer would show up in the recording. Therefore, I found that turning the internet connection off and disabling any background programs was helpful in dealing with latency. My computer is a 3500+ AMD Athlon 64 Processor, 1 1/2 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard drive, XP Professional, sp3, HP Pavilion a1210n PC.

2) I noticed that when exporting to MP3 format, Audacity does not give me an option to change the 128 Kbps parameter. Is that a fixed parameter?

I recorded music from internet radio and it sounded great in audacity and perfect as an MP3 file. I guess that's because it's already in the digital domain. 3) What format does it download as?

I've gone back to listen to old CDs that I ripped using iTunes and we can hear background noise in the AAC file that iTunes makes. But not all CDs sound bad. 4) Why do some CDs ripped in iTunes sound o.k. but most are o.k.?

Thanks in advance.

Scratching my head in Southern California. (And I don't have much hair to spare :))

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Bob Long

Re: Getting Noise When converting from Audio Cassette to MP3

Reply Threaded

Wirth Davis wrote:

[big snip]

> I use "Stereo Mix" as the source to record the CD music.

I suggest, rather than play them in real time and record with Audacity,
it would be better to "rip" CDs (presuming your computer has a CD player):

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=How_to_import_CDs

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Wirth Davis

Re: Getting Noise When converting from Audio Cassette to MP3

Reply Threaded

Thanks Bob for posting a link to How to import CDs. I'll give this a whirl some time.

Still, looking for advice on converting music cassette tape to mp3 using Audacity.
By the way, I'm using the latest LAME library download ver. 3.98.2 for Gale who informed a user about the noise problems of LAME ver. 3.97

Thanks again...Words44

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 6:37 PM, Bob Long <[hidden email]> wrote:

Wirth Davis wrote:

[big snip]

> I use "Stereo Mix" as the source to record the CD music.

I suggest, rather than play them in real time and record with Audacity,
it would be better to "rip" CDs (presuming your computer has a CD player):

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=How_to_import_CDs

--
Bob Long

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David R. Sky

Re: Getting Noise When converting from Audio Cassette to MP3

Reply Threaded

Hi Wirth,

Check out

Linkname: Transferring tapes and records to computer or CD - Audacity
Wiki
URL:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Transferring_tapes_and_records_to_computer_or_CD

David

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http://www.shellworld.net/~davidsky/

On Thu, 17 Sep 2009, Wirth Davis wrote:

> Thanks Bob for posting a link to How to import CDs. I'll give this a whirl
> some time.
>
> Still, looking for advice on converting music cassette tape to mp3 using
> Audacity.
> By the way, I'm using the latest LAME library download ver. 3.98.2 for Gale
> who informed a user about the noise problems of LAME ver. 3.97
>
> Thanks again...Words44
>
> On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 6:37 PM, Bob Long <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>> Wirth Davis wrote:
>>
>> [big snip]
>>
>>> I use "Stereo Mix" as the source to record the CD music.
>>
>> I suggest, rather than play them in real time and record with Audacity,
>> it would be better to "rip" CDs (presuming your computer has a CD player):
>>
>> http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=How_to_import_CDs
>>
>> --
>> Bob Long
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Come build with us! The BlackBerry® Developer Conference in SF, CA
>> is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your
>> developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay
>> ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9-12, 2009. Register now!
>> http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconf
>> --
>> Mailing list: [hidden email]
>> To UNSUBSCRIBE, use the form at the bottom of this web page:
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-users
>>
>

Wirth Davis

Re: Getting Noise When converting from Audio Cassette to MP3

Reply Threaded

Does anyone know what to set the Preferences to-Quality tab from the Preferences Menu (Cntrl-P) to?
This is what I set mine to and I am still can hear noise in the background of music tapes converted to MP3 or WAV (not so much with WAV but it still is annoying)

Sampling
Default Sample Rate: (Changed it to) 192,000 Hz
Default Sample Format: 24 bit

Real-Time Conversion
Sample Rate Convertion: Fast Sinc Interpolation
Dither: none

High-Quality Conversion
Sample Rate Conversion: High Quality Interpolation
Dither: None

I've played around with these parameters and these settings seemed to work the best.

What about all the other Preference tabs? Does anyone have link that explains what to set them at? I'm using Audacity Beta 1.3.9.

Thanks David for the link. Words44

On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 2:47 AM, David R. Sky <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Wirth,

Check out

Linkname: Transferring tapes and records to computer or CD - Audacity
Wiki
URL:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Transferring_tapes_and_records_to_computer_or_CD

David

--
David R. Sky
http://www.shellworld.net/~davidsky/

On Thu, 17 Sep 2009, Wirth Davis wrote:

> Thanks Bob for posting a link to How to import CDs. I'll give this a whirl
> some time.
>
> Still, looking for advice on converting music cassette tape to mp3 using
> Audacity.
> By the way, I'm using the latest LAME library download ver. 3.98.2 for Gale
> who informed a user about the noise problems of LAME ver. 3.97
>
> Thanks again...Words44
>
> On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 6:37 PM, Bob Long <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>> Wirth Davis wrote:
>>
>> [big snip]
>>
>>> I use "Stereo Mix" as the source to record the CD music.
>>
>> I suggest, rather than play them in real time and record with Audacity,
>> it would be better to "rip" CDs (presuming your computer has a CD player):
>>
>> http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=How_to_import_CDs
>>
>> --
>> Bob Long
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Come build with us! The BlackBerry® Developer Conference in SF, CA
>> is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your
>> developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay
>> ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9-12, 2009. Register now!
>> http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconf
>> --
>> Mailing list: [hidden email]
>> To UNSUBSCRIBE, use the form at the bottom of this web page:
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-users
>>
>

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Gale (Audacity Team)

Re: Getting Noise When converting from Audio Cassette to MP3

Reply Threaded

On Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:55:28 -0700
Wirth Davis <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Does anyone know what to set the Preferences to-Quality tab from the
> Preferences Menu (Cntrl-P) to?
> This is what I set mine to and I am still can hear noise in the background
> of music tapes converted to MP3 or WAV (not so much with WAV but it still is
> annoying)
>
> Sampling
> Default Sample Rate: (Changed it to) 192,000 Hz
> Default Sample Format: 24 bit
>
> Real-Time Conversion
> Sample Rate Convertion: Fast Sinc Interpolation
> Dither: none
>
> High-Quality Conversion
> Sample Rate Conversion: High Quality Interpolation
> Dither: None
>
> I've played around with these parameters and these settings seemed to work
> the best.
>
> What about all the other Preference tabs? Does anyone have link that
> explains what to set them at? I'm using Audacity Beta 1.3.9.

There is documentation for the Preferences tab in the draft Audacity
1.3.9 Manual:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Quality_Preferences

If you installed 1.3.9 rather than got the zip file, clicking Help >
Manual should load a local copy of the Manual in your web browser.

"Dither" adds very low level noise when you need to downsample from
32-bit or 24-bit quality to 16-bit (as you would when exporting to
a 16-bit PCM WAV file). Real-Time dither is applied when playing audio
and High-Quality when mixing audio into the project data or exporting.
The noise is meant to smother out possibly clicky noise from the
data rounding errors that downsampling causes, but is not audible to
most people.

The dither settings will not affect noise at the recording stage.
Leaving quality at the default 32-bit float is preferable because it
has no noise floor for practical purposes. So you don't lose
signal-to-noise ratio when you apply amplification edits after
recording. If you record at 32-bit quality, the general recommendation
is to leave dither on. Noise from the tapes is likely to be far louder.
Make sure you have Dolby turned on in the tape player if these are
Dolby tapes, and consider using Effect > Noise Removal before
exporting.

A sample rate of 192000 Hz is probably overkill. Because that requires
nearly 5 times the processing of the default 441000 Hz sample rate,
it may even run the risk of recording dropouts if your computer is busy
with something else while you are recording. I know you have a 64-bit
fast processor and lots of disk space but others may not.

Gale

> On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 2:47 AM, David R. Sky <[hidden email]>wrote:
>
> > Hi Wirth,
> >
> > Check out
> >
> > Linkname: Transferring tapes and records to computer or CD - Audacity
> > Wiki
> > URL:
> >
> > http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Transferring_tapes_and_records_to_computer_or_CD
> >
> > David
> >
> >
> > --
> > David R. Sky
> > http://www.shellworld.net/~davidsky/<http://www.shellworld.net/%7Edavidsky/>
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 17 Sep 2009, Wirth Davis wrote:
> >
> > > Thanks Bob for posting a link to How to import CDs. I'll give this a
> > whirl
> > > some time.
> > >
> > > Still, looking for advice on converting music cassette tape to mp3 using
> > > Audacity.
> > > By the way, I'm using the latest LAME library download ver. 3.98.2 for
> > Gale
> > > who informed a user about the noise problems of LAME ver. 3.97
> > >
> > > Thanks again...Words44
> > >
> > > On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 6:37 PM, Bob Long <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > >
> > >> Wirth Davis wrote:
> > >>
> > >> [big snip]
> > >>
> > >>> I use "Stereo Mix" as the source to record the CD music.
> > >>
> > >> I suggest, rather than play them in real time and record with Audacity,
> > >> it would be better to "rip" CDs (presuming your computer has a CD
> > player):
> > >>
> > >> http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=How_to_import_CDs
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> Bob Long
> > >>