[Pauline]

I was wondering if you guys might be able to help me out with something? I have a couple of VHS tapes that I want to record the audio from onto my Minidisc. I'm using the Miglia Director's Cut to connect the VCR to the Minidisc recorder via my Mac. All has went well on that front and will record the audio.

However as clear as the audio is there is hissing in the background. When I play the tapes on my TV there is no hissing, it's only when I'm recording onto the Minidisc. It's not major but enough to be annoying. Does anyone have any tips on how to get rid of this hissing? Be it connecting everything up another way to record the audio or some editing software I could use to get rid of the hissing?

Any help would be really, really appreciated

[pfflam]

Are you going in to Line in or Mic in on the Minidisk player?
Try switching them around

Are you going out of a headphone jack?

My bet is to forego the Mac and go directly into the Minidisk recorder with a mini-jack out of the headphone jack of the VCR . . . listen with headphones and adjust volume manually before taking pause off of the minidisk recorder . . .

. . . why do you have it going through the Mac in the first place?

Do you realize that minidisks will only give you a 44.1 hz file, that is, IF you ever manage to figure a way to get a true digital transfer to a computer from a minidisk player? . . . which I am pretty sure is only something you can do with the TimeCode minidisk recorders for film use . . .

(allthough I don't know about the optical jacks in the new G5s . . . maybe they work)

[Pauline]

Thanks for the reply. I was trying to do the recording via the Line In. I'll switch them around and try giving the Mic In a go. I have it going through the Mac because my VCR doesn't have a headphone jack. I have one of those scart leads that splits off into video and audio cables so have been using that as it seems the only way I can get a recording (or as far as I know it is?).

[k_munic]

Originally posted by Pauline:
Thanks for the reply. I was trying to do the recording via the Line In. I'll switch them around and try giving the Mic In a go. I have it going through the Mac because my VCR doesn't have a headphone jack. I have one of those scart leads that splits off into video and audio cables so have been using that as it seems the only way I can get a recording (or as far as I know it is?).

well, when you have a cable with an extra audio out, you should connect that directly to your minidisk recorder, shouldn't you?

about that hizzing: a tv set often hasn't the sound capabilities of a "dedicated" audio machine as your md recorder; and vhs is really bad in sound, if the audio is recorded "standard" - maybe you're hearing something which IS actually on your tapes...- that would mean, you could try to "post produce" your recordings by filtering the hizzes...-

my 5 euro cents

[Pauline]

I'll need to look and see if I can connect the audio out cables straight to the Minidisc as they are split in two, one for left and one for right audio so I thought I had to hook it up via my Director's Cut (as you can probably tell I'm not much up on this sort of thing! ) into my Mac.

I think I'll put what I've recorded so far into my Powerbook and try to get rid of the hissing like you suggested. Any advice on what software would be good for this?

[pfflam]

You can get dual RCA to single mini-jack adaptors at Radio shack.
I would recomend recording to Minidisk that way, if you don't have a headphone jack-mini-jack option . . . into the mic-in (with record level bossted up) or in to Line-in . . . whichever results in the best sound.
I really would try to cut out any extraneus middle connection technlogy . .. all of it adds noise and eats away at the signal.

or, get Garage Band and record directly to it with a dual-RCA audio out to mini-jack adaptor. . . or an iMic . . . I hear that works, though I never managed. I use Protools with a dedicated sound-card.

Also, there is a freeware program called Wiretap that will record ANY sound that is playing through System-Sound . . . . if you cn get it to play through the computer then that will record it . . . and it has a fair number of options as well.

VHS sound is actually pretty high quality . . . but it is analogue, and many VCRs are really low-quality and inexpensive and have a terrible signal-to-noise ratio and might create a hiss

If you end up working with a sound that has a hiss I would get a sound program that has equalization capabilities (Peak, SoundEdit (an excellent little program that unfortunately died with OS-9) Garage Band or etc). I would set one band of the equalizer with a small band-width, and boost that up and move it around till you end up boosting the frequency with the most amount of hiss on it . . . visually, what I am talking about will look like a spike . .. then, once you have found the sound, you bring that frequency down drastically . .. . . . the reason for doing that is that it is easier to find the sound by hearing it then by not hearing it.

Just a suggestion.