Artifically aging a recording?

[Mark_S]

I have been working with an independent film maker, and while I am not the sound engineer (not even close!), they know that play around with cleaning recordings.

I was asked if I could artificially age recording like it was recorded on a poor quality recorder from the 1970's.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

It is easy to add hum/buzz and hiss. They would probably be happy with that.

But is there any way I can:

Add variable hiss?
Drop outs?
Make it sound like the tape has gotten crumpled in the mechanism of the recorder and flattened it out, you know... That muddy, garbled sound
A few seconds of slow change as if the ALC on the recorder needed to catch up

I am specifically talking about a tape recording, but I would also like to create the groove noise, pop, clicks, and hashing crackle like it was an old scratchy record.


d

[Craig Maier]

Hi,

For record noise (scratches, etc) you will find a bunch of preset in the presets sharing portion of this forum which address this. The presets will create scratching noises (clicks, pops and crackle). Follow the instructions carefully before applying the presets.

To get an old analog tape sound, I would apply some of the VVA in "Full Range" mode. That will add in both IM and Harmonic distortion as would a tape deck. I would choose one of the pentode tubes.

I would also add some hiss, but I would make pink noise first and add that in. White noise is not what a tape deck produces. There are instructions available on how to make white noise into pink noise (involves a preset in the paragraphic EQ).

As for hum, buzz is better - - - the make waves generator set for 60 Hz and triangle wave mode does that trick nicely.

Craig

keywords: adding age to a modern recording, adding noise to a recording, adding distortion to a recording, simulating a vintage recording from a modern one

[Dan McDonald]

This might work also:
Take an old andn similar tape recording and run CNF in 'keep residue' mode, and save that file, then add the residue to the recording you have using paste mix or another method of combining files.

You'd probably want to make it louder than the noise actually is on the tape, because the general public's memories of old media tend to make them much noisier than they were, or at least media presentation of old media tend to make them noisier.


Do you mean ALC or do you mean the speed of the tape? If you're talking about the 'getting up to speed sound' you can do that with the change pitch function.
Dan

[Craig Maier]

Here is a bit more on simulating tape drop-outs. There are two types that I have witnessed. One is where the oxide is completely missing from sectors of the tape. This is the rarer case. To simulate this, I would mute sectors of around 50 mSec and then do a fade out and fade in around the mute (because that would agree with the physics of the situation and how the tape head gap reacts to the missing portion.

The other is a more common tape drop-out situation wherein the tape is not gliding over the playback head evenly. This intermittently kills the top end of the audio spectrum. To simulate this, I would selectively apply a low pass filter set for around 2 kHz for roughly 50 milliseconds at a time. This is best done in fast edit mode.

keywords: simulating tape drop out, Simulating tape drop-out

[quartet87]

Mark, who's the film maker...Tarantino?

[Mark_S]

I knew this would be the place to ask a question like that!

I've got a whole gamut of things to try.

As I said, I'm not an audio engineer, so I never would have even thought about pink vs white noise... Thanks Craig!

And Dan, That is an even more kick-*ss idea than you might imagine.

I think I am going use your "keep/mix residue" to emulate the incomplete erase and record that seemed to be pretty standard back then (at least on the decks that a 12 year old could afford)

The drop out stuff is was meant more as not tracking over the play head properly sort of like tape that has been somewhat straightened out after having been crumpled in a tape jam.

The ALC idea would probably be a compressor with a fast attack and very slow release (think of a dish breaking loudly by the microphone -- the voices would come up slowly). Although

As I said, they would have been happy with a low pass filter to make all of it muddy and a large amount of hiss.
It was just me that wanted to get it 'right'.

The film is about the memories of deceased family members that come up from listening to tapes that were recorder at old family get-togethers.
Don't laugh.. I told you it was an independent film!

Not a really big deal, but it did get me thinking about aging , considering all of the video editors seem to have 'scratched film', and sepia effects built-in; sometimes even 'hair on the lens', and 'melting film onto lens'.

[Craig Maier]

Links for Record Scratch Sound Simulator Presets

As many folks here know, each type of record produces a distinctive type of impulse (scratching) noise. Here are a few links to Diamond Cut Multifilter presets that will allow you to simulate record scratch sounds based on the type of record you are interested in simulating:

78 RPM Record Clicking Simulator:

http://www.diamondcut.com/vforum/showthread.php?t=783

33 and 45 RPM Record Clicking Simulator:

http://www.diamondcut.com/vforum/showthread.php?t=2071

Generalized Random Impulse Noise and AM Radio Static Sounds:

http://www.diamondcut.com/vforum/showthread.php?t=760

Note that the last one shown here will simulate AM Radio static best when the final signal is then passed through the Bandpass Flter set for 50 Hz to 4000 Hz, 12 dB/Oct Slope, Chebyshev Response.

Please following the instructions associated with these presets carefully in order to obtain the proper simulation(s).

Craig

keywords: Smulating AM Radio Static, Simulating Record Noise

[Craig Maier]

And then, Bring Acoustics into the situation to top it off

After you insert the noise(s) that you want to simulate an old recording or audio situation, bring acoustics into the equation.

First, goto the bandpass filter (Filter Menu/BP) and find a preset that closely fits the sort of reproducer that you are simulating (ie 1930 Vintage Table Top Radio, etc). Run that on the noisey file that you have created. Lastly, bring up the reverb and apply it based on the type of room environment that the audio will be eminating from.

Between all of these steps, I have gotten nearly perfect simulations of many scenarios of sound for theatrical use. The possibilities are almost endless and it is a lot of fun creating these too.

Craig

ps - nothing bothers me more than when you are watching a movie and someone puts on an olde acoustical phonograph and drops the tone arm onto the record and out of the sound track comes Hi-Fi Digital sound of something like Beethovens 9th! That really throws me.

keyword: Acoustical simulation, acoustical simulations, acoustical environment simulation, acoustic simulation