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?
Simulate cassette tape audio profiles using FFmpeg
31–40 of 82 posts
Re: Simulate cassette tape audio profiles using FFmpeg
#32What is "wow"?
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 medi…
Off topic, but only a couple of years ago the 3d printer community re-discovered these same kinds of flaws in the extruder gears that result in visible ripples in prints. When you put a gear on a stepper motor, and set it with a set screw, you’re pretty much always off center slightly.
Re: Simulate cassette tape audio profiles using FFmpeg
#33How 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.
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 profi…
Wavesfactory Cassette does exactly that for several well-known models.
Re: Simulate cassette tape audio profiles using FFmpeg
#34vaporwave fans rejoice
Re: Simulate cassette tape audio profiles using FFmpeg
#35I’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?
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
Re: Simulate cassette tape audio profiles using FFmpeg
#36I’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?
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.)
Re: Simulate cassette tape audio profiles using FFmpeg
#37I’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?
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...
Re: Simulate cassette tape audio profiles using FFmpeg
#38How 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.
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 profi…
This is my go to for making things sound "worse" :)
https://www.xlnaudio.com/products/addictive_fx/effect/rc-20_...
Re: Simulate cassette tape audio profiles using FFmpeg
#39Has 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.
The only one I'm aware of is DDi Codec by Anaxwaves.
Re: Simulate cassette tape audio profiles using FFmpeg
#40I 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.