Converting Cassette Tapes To AIFF

Question

Hello all,
I am converting my Fathers cassette tape collection to AIFF, and then to MP3 for his ipod, and am trying to retain the highest sound quality I can.
My set up is I have a Marantz PMD 201, with a live feed into my imac. I play the tapes in real time, while Soundtrack Pro records them in AIFF and puts them into itunes. Some of the tapes are a little stretched making the voices a little too high, is there any filter that would assist in unstretching parts of the cassettes?
Also what filter would be recommend to take out the background buzz? I have played around with a lot of different things but it seems there should be something better out thereAs always thanks for any feedback.

Answer 1

Hi JArmeanio:
If your tapes are physically stretched, the audio inconsistency will be hard to determine as the magnetic medium will be pulled across the heads in an unpredictable way; drop outs, deterioration, etc. will be evident only to you in the digital audio performance of the resulting transferred files. If the tape sounds sped up - due to old cassette player tape speed issues - either check to see if there is a tape speed adjustment knob on the MArantz, or use the very handy re-size/re-tempo features in STP.
Likewise - for hums, unwanted 60cycle or other consistent tones interfering with your files, i cant stress enough the magic of editing the frequency spectrum of an audio file. IT IS A FEATURE MANY STP USERS ARE NOT AWARE OF. It is easy to do:
... in the audio file editor window, select the upper right tool in the window to show the frequency spectrum display instead of the wave form.
Right click the left grey area of the window outside the audio file (where the frequency graph is) and select"logarithmic" view - then right click on the file itself and select "show spectrum controls" - use the minimum and maximum frequency controls to highlight your buzz - which will be visibly obvious.
then select the frequency select tool - right next to the arrow in the upper left window of the file editor (NOT at the top of the session, which contains a different set of similar tools) - once you click on the frequency select tool, you will get a cross hair tool in the audio window. If you use that to narrow in on the visual line of the buzz, highlight it, and then delete those frequencies - you will be amazed at how clean it will sound. Its magic!
http://www.lynda.com/ provides wonderful tutorials - and can be accessed free for a time, in demo mode. Good luck! Sounds like a bit of a painful transfer!