Almost a wind noise

[Dan McDonald]

I have a cd transfer of a tape recorded with an open-reel machine in 1967, in a small nightclub with a blues band (electric instruments, etc.).

The quality is actually quite good except that the right channel gets what sounds like a blast of wind that sort of keeps time with the vocal. I assume the taper got the mic too close to the PA system, or else it's a problem with the mic the band was using.

Anyway, it sounds like wind noise but follows the vocals - the vocalist says something and the wind noise kind of echoes the sound.

Any suggestions as to how to tame that down a little? Other than that, the recording sounds very nice.

Dan

[Craig Maier]

Re: Almost a wind noise

Is it possible that this tape was recorded with Dolby A or B? Dolby A was sometimes used with Reel to Reel machines in the timeframe that you mentioned. If so and it is not properly decoded, that is the sort of sound that you would get although I can not explain why it is only on one channel. Maybe there is a level difference between the channels so that the Dolby "breathing" is only noticable on one channel. This is just a wild guess here. If that is the case, then I would process one channel through the Dynamic Noise Filter and adjust it for minimization of that effect. I would tend to use it in enhancer mode, but without hearing the tape, I am not certain. But the enhancer mode would tend to reverse Dolby.

[Dan McDonald]

Re: Almost a wind noise

Thanks Craig -

Yes, one of the channels is at a lower volume, and there is a chance of Dolby being used - I have no information, but the quality is good enough that it was likely someone's high end equipment at the time. Thanks - I wouldn't have even guessed Dolby on it.

I'll give this a try.

Dan

[Craig Maier]

The latest versions (DCArt version 10 and above) have a dynamic wind noise filter, which would probably be useful in this situation.

Craig