old vhs noisy/rushy audio problem

[Platos]

I have some vhs captures which has very strong shhhhh noises (not native english speaker sry). It is not because of wind/air noises. it sounds like when a cable of an audio-system is not connected correctly or when you touch the cable mixed with a "shhhh". I did recapture the vhs tape and it is still exactly the same, so i think it is a problem of the tape or of the camera-capture itself.

But do you guys know any tool where i can fix such problems? I do not like such programs like davinci and so on. I would like more tools like virtualdub and such stuff. But i need a gui. And for sure i search for free software.

Edit: here is a sample:
Edit 2: or another sample with even stranger sound:

[davexnet]

That crackling sound? Something is going wrong during the capture, either the VCR, capture device or the cables.
Audio should be captured as WAV/PCM (uncompressed)

Connect the VCR directly to a TV using the s-video or composite cable and the red and white audio plugs
and see if you get this noise

[Platos]

it's only on this capture, all other works well on the same set-up. and also another person did capture the same tape 3 years ago and it is the exactly same noise at the exactly same time.

So i think it is not solvable with a new capture. I can not buy another vcr and i also have no tv to connect.

But yes, it is captured with PCM uncompressed (this is only a reencode, but it is the same on .avi file).

[The_Doman]

Well, if there is no alternative audio track you can switch to (Linear/HiFi Stereo Audio) you can't do anything about it during capture.
Also the first video shows some bad interference, possible it is related to the audio distortion?
Advanced audio noise filtering is the only option then?

[Platos]

Well, if there is no alternative audio track you can switch to (Linear/HiFi Stereo Audio) you can't do anything about it during capture.
Also the first video shows some bad interference, possible it is related to the audio distortion?
Advanced audio noise filtering is the only option then?

Yeah, that's what i thought. I can't do sth against that on capturing.

That's why i ask for audio noise filtering-guis. Do you know anything who could maybe handle this stuff?

[davexnet]

Download the free trial of Izotope RX 10, it has the tools needed for this

[Platos]

thx, i will try it out. if someone knows sth which is free (real free), i would be still interested.

[davexnet]

thx, i will try it out. if someone knows sth which is free (real free), i would be still interested.

In theory, most of it could be done in Audacity, but RX is easier to use, and the tools work better (for example getting rid of the clicks)
Those sshhh sounds at the end of the second clip are much worse on the left channel,
so one approach might be to copy the right channel over the left for that section. Lots of things you can do

[Platos]

ah wait, i can download this only with registering there ?

[The_Doman]

Well, if there is no alternative audio track you can switch to (Linear/HiFi Stereo Audio) you can't do anything about it during capture.

It appears the source you have is recorded with a Stereo-HiFi track.
Also the sound on the first clip is clean on the right channel.
So start investigate/experimenting switching between the stereo left/right and mono audio track on your VCR when capturing and listen what is going on exactly?

Here the right audio track of the first clip sounds perfectly fine?
And yes, that's an old school program.

[Attachment 78810 - Click to enlarge]

[Platos]

thanks both for the information. Can audiotest "cure" the problems? Because the free trial from aboth needs a registration and audacity needs ffmpeg to open aac (i will try that with audacity and ffmpeg, but more possibilities is always better).

To know later how to do that, i will post the "guide" here: https://support.audacityteam.org/basics/installing-ffmpeg

(because i already installed it for the ffmpeg-gui).

Edit: The portable version from audacity does not allow you to choose a ffmpeg directory. only the installed version.
Edit2: und man braucht die ffmpeg 6.1.1 shared version, nicht die 7.x Version. Die wird nicht erkannt.

[The_Doman]

thanks both for the information. Can audiotest "cure" the problems? Because the free trial from aboth needs a registration and audiacity needs ffmpeg to open aac (i will try that with audiacity and ffmpeg, but more possibilities is always better).

Better use your souce avi captures with the uncompressed audio?

But yes, it is captured with PCM uncompressed (this is only a reencode, but it is the same on .avi file).

And again, check/change your VCR audio settings during playback if it makes a difference.

[davexnet]

Edit: The portable version from audacity does not allow you to choose a ffmpeg directory. only the installed version.

You can choose it using preferences/library

[Platos]

thanks both for the information. Can audiotest "cure" the problems? Because the free trial from aboth needs a registration and audiacity needs ffmpeg to open aac (i will try that with audiacity and ffmpeg, but more possibilities is always better).

Better use your souce avi captures with the uncompressed audio?

But yes, it is captured with PCM uncompressed (this is only a reencode, but it is the same on .avi file).

And again, check/change your VCR audio settings during playback if it makes a difference.

I did already encode (video editing) all captured videos. in mp4 i can not take PCM (hybrid says that) and if i would take the PCM version from the .avi files, i would have to mux them in again and also set the delay again. Can i somehow "read out" a delay i gave ? Because otherwise i would have to manually test out that again.

Edit: But how should i change the settings from audio on a vcr ?

[davexnet]

A little cleanup in RX...

[The_Doman]

I did already encode (video editing) all captured videos. in mp4 i can not take PCM (hybrid says that) and if i would take the PCM version from the .avi files, i would have to mux them in again and also set the delay again. Can i somehow "read out" a delay i gave ? Because otherwise i would have to manually test out that again.

I did not know you already encoded you captures of course?
I thought you were trying solving a CAPTURE problem.

Edit: But how should i change the settings from audio on a vcr ?

Much to learn here, read the manual?
Using the remote usually on a VHS HiFi machine you can switch between Stereo HiFi, Mono(normal), HiFi Left only, HiFi Right only and sometimes HIFi/Mono mixed together.
Google: VHS Stereo Audio Modes
Often when the stereo track is distorted because of bad tape/tracking/recording , switching to the linear mono track can help.

[Platos]

Yeah, VHS-Time was when i was Young. And also i did not touch a VCR or VCR remot for like 20 years or so

But question to Audio: I did load the whole capture into audacity and saw, that the right audio track is working fine (as you 2 said). So can i just delete the left and make the right to stereo (so basically use the right track for both sides)? I mean the Video-Camera did only have one microphone i think. It does not have a two microphones. Or do i understand that wrong? Im totally new on audio editing.

Is that a good idea?

Edit: Wait, how can i bring back the audio in the video in audacity? i feel like it does only extract the audio but then i can't put it back ?

Edit2: Ok, i did it now and i think it is a good idea to just use the right track as both (left and right). and i can export the audio in aduacity and in the ffmpeg gui i can import the new one and delete the old one.

Edit3: I found out, that the old capture made 3 years ago (worse image quality) has better audio-quality. I didn't notice it, because they have the exact same problem (left track is ugly while right track is better... so even better than the right track from the new capture). So i take now the old audio and put it over the new better (picture-whise) capture.