VHS-c sound drop out intermittent

[Shamps]

Hi there,

I am new to capturing VHS etc etc and have ran into an issue with 2 VHS-c I have, plus I have had a little search in the forums as well as not being sure where exactly to post this... The sound is working in some areas of the tape but not others (consistently the same scenes of the tape), they are from 1995 so is it possible it is just deterioration?, I have tried all the steps found in online searches and in two different VCR's but the result is the same... I have also tried some other VHS-c tapes and VHS just to make sure, but they are all good... any ideas? and thank you in advance for taking the time to help me.

S.

[hech54]

Analog tapes wear out, just like audio cassettes did/do. You cannot get back what is no longer there. Be happy your capture/recording does not completely stop during the dropout.

[Shamps]

Ok I am happy with that... I kind of am hoping it is just deterioration and not just me not doing something right etc.. thanks for replying to me.

[JVRaines]

Ok I am happy with that... I kind of am hoping it is just deterioration and not just me not doing something right etc.. thanks for replying to me.

Your audio tracks are almost certainly AFM that's recorded literally underneath the video signal. It's very unlikely that they would simply disappear while the video still looks good. It is far more likely that you have a tracking problem. Try adjusting the manual tracking control and see if that brings the sound back. Or, if you're using an adapter, try playing your tapes on a VHS-C camera.

[Shamps]

Hi JVRaines,

thank you for posting a reply... I have just tried the manual tracking on the VCR and still all there is, is the shhhhhhhhhh type noise when I whack my speakers right up then it gets to the scenes where the audio is perfect..

[johnmeyer]

Depending on how the tape was recorded, it is possible to fully recover your audio.

Read on ...

The first thing you need to do is determine whether the audio you have captured is from the Hi-Fi or linear tracks. Hi-Fi audio is embedded in the video signal, as JVRaines already pointed out. The linear track is at the edge of the tape and is pretty much identical to the audio on a cassette or reel-to-reel tape. The linear audio is severely bandwidth limited, especially at the slower speeds (descending to AM radio quality in the LP mode) and always has the tell-tale background "hiss" that is characteristic of audio tape recordings.

Your VCR will tell you which audio track is playing. Most have a "Hi-Fi" light on the front panel. Lacking that, you can usually press the "display" button on the remote as the tape is playing and, as you cycle through various on-screen displays, one of those should show either "Hi-Fi" or "Norm" which are the two most usual terms for the two tracks.

If the audio is recorded in Hi-Fi mode, then the audio usually will pop in and out as the video signal changes. Thus, if you get picture breakup, the audio will also usually pop in and out or get garbled at this points. Sometimes there is a slight offset between the audio and video problems. The solutions to this sort of audio problem includes manual tracking control adjustment, which has already been suggested, and also using a different VCR.

The linear audio usually doesn't completely disappear at points where the picture breaks up.

So, with that as background, here's a trick that might help you rescue your audio, but only if you've been capturing the HiFi audio up until now. The trick?

Capture the linear audio instead.

Most (not all) camcorders, as well as commercially produced tapes, from 1985 onward (which is roughly when Hi-Fi was introduced) also include an identical audio track recorded as linear audio on the edge of the tape. Thus, you may have redundant audio on your tape in two completely different formats. In your VCR setup menu, you can switch between the various tracks. Most VCRs will let you choose between "Both" (which will choose the Hi-Fi track, if available, but if that is blank will choose the linear track); Hi-Fi (usually with a sub-option to choose only the left or right); and linear (usually called "Norm").

All you have to do is switch to the linear audio track, and see if your missing audio shows up there. If it does, capture the bad sections of the tape using the linear audio channel, and then drop that audio into the sections of your main capture where the audio disappears.

[Shamps]

Hello johnmeyer...

Thank you very much for taking the time to write your reply to me.

I have tried a few different things.. having a play with the tracking and on two different VHS players was one but this had no effect... the picture is very steady too no jumping about etc.. on one of the tapes the sound is missing for the first x amount of minutes but in the same filming period the sound comes on then after a while can go off again. The last 20mins or so of the tape is of a garden party and the sound is there for the whole thing. I have tried using the two VHS players in the photo and pressed and fiddled with the audio button but this doesnt have any affect either the outcome is the same.. the scenes the sound is missing in are consistant. These tapes are for a friend and I asked does he have the camcorder still and he said he does suprisingly.. but the sounds not recording? Im wondering if it may be possible that the said scenes have literally just been filmed with the camera in said state and the tapes go back to 1995 which is a long time to remember if that was the case maybe? Sorry if I sound totally naive with all of this and thanks again.

[JVRaines]

It's quite possible that the original recording is at fault. A bad mic cord will make the sound cut in and out, for instance. Have you tried playing these tapes on the camcorder they were recorded with?

[Shamps]

Not yet but he is bringing me the camcorder originally used tomorrow... He himself by the way is just happy to get anything at all of them but I like to problem solve and try my best to perfect, learn, improve etc so Im a bit frustrated by it to be honest. Thanks to all for your time again.