Tools to fix wow & flutter from cassette

[direwolf-pgh]

ive got a cassette tape im working with & two tracks suffer from wow & flutter.

any software/tips/tricks out there that attempts to correct the issue ?

apparently you cant dance & record at the same time.

[paddington]

I've never had any luck, despite trying some really complex tricks.

so there's your encouragement for tonight.

[Karst]

I would just leave them as they are. Any work you do to them will probably turn them out worse.

[direwolf-pgh]

ok - good call guys. Ill leave it be. its not that bad & only 2 tracks.
kinda sounds like the band was pushed through a Leslie speaker

[paddington]

ok - good call guys. Ill leave it be. its not that bad & only 2 tracks.
kinda sounds like the band was pushed through a Leslie speaker


Is everything on the cassette that way? It's possible the recording is good.. some times it's a mechanical playback problem. Make sure the little spring with the felt pad under the tape in the head position (middle) is tight and not sliding around. Also, be sure your capstan roller is perfectly round and not being a cam instead of a wheel (and that the capstan itself isn't bent slightly). If that happens, the tape will be lifted up and down during playback. Of course, that could have also happened during recording with the same effect. That would account for an up & down movement.

If it's going to side-to-side, it's effectively adjusting the azimuth in & out during playback.. make sure the tape reels aren't moving in and out in the cassette as it turns and that the tape itself isn't moving back and forth across the head becaus ethe shell isn't guiding it correctly (you may have to remove the door cover to watch it).

[GimmeAreason]

Wow, reading this stuff just makes me simultaneously envious and Impressed with your use of the language of 'Audio Geek'. You both speak it so fluently, with no errors! It truly is a beautiful language and to hear the ancient tongue being used in conversation I

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Thanks for the mention of this interesting and useful software for correcting speed issues. Hope it can fix my problem audio file, which is, apparently, the oldest human voice recording that we have in the world!


Actually the audio problem i have is not from the following oldest vocals recordings files! I found these while researching my problem and thought they were so
interesting I decided to have a listen and downloaded s few of them! Fascinating stuff though.

So, what exactly IS my problem?
Well, i find some great documentary video series' on the Internet Archive and just had to have them. The thing is that whenever there is music played, either background music or a moment where music is played, you know, for dramatic effect, etc. It sounds absolutely awful on account of its being quite obviously recorded from a faulty machine at the time. It sounds as if we are listening to a tape that is loose and the mechanism is moving all over the place instead of just round and round. So, to my ears it sounds like, when a long musical note is played, for example let's say a C, well the note shifts itself up to a C#, maybe as high as a d, then it shifts back down the scale and so on. A single 1 second long note in a tune csn shift to 2 or more notes or never really even be on the note it's supposed to be. What you end up with is music thwt sounds like the band is drunk and are not playing a recognisable tune at all, just a load of bending notes that are all over the place and sound just horrible,!
I'm not sure if it is even fixable. I understand the audio needs to be corrected, so if it is too high it needs to be manually brought back down and if it's too low it needs to be brought to a higher note and so on but if it is really moving around as much as it seems to be then it may be a case of easy to describe the problem but impossible to do!


Meanwhile, listen to these very old vocals just for the he'll of it.

And if you think YOU can help me with this old video's audio track then please do and I will get the audio part to you, to see if you can get any success with it!?
https://www.firstsounds.org/sounds/scott.php

Thanks!