Robert, Tom, and others,

I was able to right-click on the file in my mail machine and save it to 
a folder on my studio machine over the LAN. I generally do not try to 
stream WAV files directly, as it has often been problematic in the past 
and I wanted to look at it in detail anyway.

When I inspected the file, it was a 24-bit 44.1 stereo WAV file. Wavelab 
showed bits 8-24 as active with now level boost.

The problem is there is a noise-to-signal ratio on this recording.

If it were to be retransferred with a Nakamichi Dragon or CR7 as 
playback with some analog boost ahead of the converter, and the 24 bit 
digitization retained, then we could be fairly certain that the analog 
and converter chain were giving us most of what was on the tape (if not 
all) and we were going to have to deal with a poorly recorded tape.

I suspect the current transfer is a fairly good representation of what's 
on the tape, and I would not expect a huge improvement based on the 
levels involved and what I heard. When normalizing the tape, I had to 
boost it 44.5 dB, so it's really rather low-level, as discussed.

My processed version is 16 bit mono, as we don't need more than a few 
bits to represent the horror that resulted. (see link in previous message)

Cheers,

Richard



On 2012-06-20 12:09 PM, Tom Fine wrote:
> CM SPAM detection: spam
> References: 
> <[log in to unmask]>
>
> Hi Robert:
>
> If the low bits weren't switched on, there is nothing to recover. If 
> digital information was recorded, it can be boosted in any software 
> program. There may not be enough information to produce high-quality 
> audio, but there are programs that can "guess and smooth" to enhance 
> audibility. However, these programs need some bits and bytes to work 
> with.
>
> You may be up against what was discovered on the Nixon tape that was 
> "accidentally erased":
> http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/forensic.audio/watergate.tapes.introduction.html 
>
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Richard" 
> <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 10:35 AM
> Subject: [ARSCLIST] Very low level audio recording
>
>
> Arsclist,
>
> I'm currently digitizing an 1999 audio analogue folklore fieldwork 
> recording. This recording has a very low audio level (unusable).
>
> If any possibilities of recovering this recording, do you have 
> suggestions? The content of this recording is more important than the 
> quality or cosmetic.
>
> I've link an excerpt for your appreciation on my website:
>
> http://yvondurelle.com/?p=690
>
> Thanks in advance for all replies.
>
> Robert Richard
> Centre d'études acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson
>
> Université de Moncton
> Moncton (Nouveau-Brunswick)
> [log in to unmask]
> 506-858-4724
>
>
> L'information contenue dans ce courriel (y compris les pièces jointes) 
> est confidentielle et vise uniquement son destinataire ou ses 
> destinataires. Toute autre distribution, copie ou divulgation est 
> interdite. Si vous avez reçu ce courriel par erreur, veuillez nous 
> aviser et éliminer ce courriel, ainsi que les pièces jointes, de votre 
> système informatique et de vos dossiers.
>



-- 
Richard L. Hess                   email: [log in to unmask]
Aurora, Ontario, Canada           (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.