Tinny Sounding Audio, Any Cheap/Free S/W to fix?

[TBoneit]

Pretty much what it says. The audio sounds cheap as if made with a cheap limited frequency microphone. I don't really recall, Maybe I shouldn't have used the Mic on the camera? Or it may have been external, I did both.

(SVHS) Full size Camcorder originally.

And Where that Dang Powerline freq. hum came from?

SO to summarize I need to notch out the powerline hum, maybe improve the audio range, sort of what an equalizer would do. I'd hate to recapture so I'm looking for a really cheap/free s/w to do this repair.

Thanks

[redwudz]

Audacity is free and does a reasonable job reducing hum. Tinny sound? Not a lot to work with to improve it. Try some different filter settings and above all, find out where the hum and the tinny sound is coming from if you use that setup again.

[TBoneit]

I won't be using that setup again to record, The batteries died years ago, Won't take a charge. It is very heavy to carry being a S-VHS full sized camcorder. I have a Sony 8mm that is loads lighter and that battery has died from old-age (?) I charged it the other day and it didn't hold overnight even. My next one would be a mini-DV camcorder. I'm just working on some old vacation tapes to get them into/onto DVD format before they deteriorate. I figured I had the right stuff now to do properly... Pioneer DVR-531H, JVC HR-S9911U. And then the picture looks Ok, but the sound, Grrr.

I had looked at the Sound editors but none of their descriptions said anything about frequency equalization and/or filtering hum. Maybe time for another trip to the attic and dig out the old Realistic Audio Equalizer? But it just seems to me that Software should be able to normalize (??) audio level so some parts are not to quiet and others do not blast. As well as adjust frequency settings.

Thanks, I'll download and try your suggestion tonight when I get home from work. Hopefully it has an intuitive interface.

Cheers

[edDV]

S-VHS has both linear and Hi-Fi tracks (recorded with video). Maybe the quality is better on the opposite stereo pair.

Hum and tinny sound indicate a bad cable/connector either while recording or playing back.

[TBoneit]

Not a bad connection on playback. I'm pretty sure anyway.

I'm using a new JVC 9911U S-VHS VCR... All the other tapes I've captured from it both before and after the audio is ok. I did tapes with linear audio and HiFi just as a test. Except for more noise (hiss) in quiet passages the linear was fine. Since It was recorder on a S-VHS blank in a S-VHS machine, I'm guessing HiFi. However I'll have to go pull it (RCA Full Size, not VHS-C Camcorder) off the basement shelf and see what model etc. It could I suppose be a mono linear with S-VHS model, I do not recall ever really usin g it to playback so I can not recall what connections it has.

Thanks for the suggestions

Cheers