reauthoring dvd with clearer/new audio track

[scarypoultry]

i have some music video clip compilations on dvd that i want to clear up the audio as the sources was mostly vhs tape & the sound is not the best it could be. I guess there are 2 ways i could do this, either using a tool to clean up the audio, or inserting a new audio track from say a ripped cd of the same song. I'm guessing they could both be quite time consuming but which would be the easiest & what tools should i use? thanks in advance

[scarypoultry]

ok i just noticed in tmpgenc dvd author im using that it has a noise filter, duh. anyway would this add much time to the processing & make much difference? i want a good result but not if its going to take an extra hour or something each time...

[Soopafresh]

What format is the captured video in ?

[scarypoultry]

oops sorry, i recorded from vhs to stand alone dvd recorder & am now importing the files directly into TMPGenc dvd author.

[Soopafresh]

Okay, so they are VOBs. Mind you, any method you try in enhancing the sound is going to take some time. Can't really say what your audio quality problems sound like, so I'll concentrate on the most common complaint - loudness variations.

The VOB_GAIN script, will certainly add "oomph" to the sound.
It is pretty well automated, so you can do other things as the audio is being modified. Takes around 5-7 minutes per VOB file.

* Make sure you have lots of free disk space - 12GB minimum

1) Download and unzip into its own folder

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/lxfiJFc230647/VobGain3.zip.html

2)

[scarypoultry]

the problem is i guess that the sound source is from vhs, so it just doesn't sound as good as a remastered dvd. Its not particularly bad i would just like it to sound more like cd quality, clearer etc so im not sure if your app would be suitable for that but i will certainly give it a try. If i wanted to go the route of inserting new audio what do you think would be the easiest way? i have read some stuff here but there are so many different tools its hard to know which is best. I guess sync could be a problem doing it that way too.

[obs]

I use TMPG DVD Author to rip the single video that I want to "remaster". Then I use a secure CD ripper (such as Exact Audio Copy) to get a quality audio track.

I then use a tool like DVD2AVI to extract the audio from the DVD clip. Load this audio track, as well as the CD audio track, to a wave editor. Compare both and sync them as close as I can.

Next step is to go back to TMPG DVD Author and re-do the video clip, adding in the CD audio track. If the audio still goes out of sync, I play around with time stretching in the wave editor.

Pretty straightforward, but time consuming.

[nguyengts]

To Soopafresh

I tried the link above <http://www.bestsharing.com/files/lxfiJFc230647/VobGain3.zip.html> to dowload your useful <VOBGAIN> program. But it seems the file is no longer avaible. I need this program very much because i have about 500 vob files to normalize. Is there anyway to have it ????

PS : i wonder if your program can normalize vob file with 2 audio ????

[Soopafresh]

Not really. It was an experiment that created more problems than it solved.

Conceptually, the process worked like this:

Demux audio from vob
Convert audio to WAV
Normalize Audio
Convert back to MP2/AC3 <--- Ruined 5.1 tracks
Re-mux back to vob <--- Didn't sync properly in all cases.

[nguyengts]

My vobs file are karaoke song, stereo only, so <VobGain> may work for me. Please send me the program, i want give it a try.

[sumeshkri]

i have got one DVD burned. the volume when played on the dvd player is loo low that i have to raise the volume of the TV to the maximum. i want to increase the volume. The audio is AC3. As per your instructiuon i have to demultiplex it.Is in't it? Then what to do? please instruct. thanks in advance.

[Soopafresh]

Someone mentioned the other day that Tmpgenc DVD Author has "normalize audio" button. That would do it, but I have never used the software personally. http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tda3.html

[sumeshkri]

thanks a lot

[tomlee59]

Not really. It was an experiment that created more problems than it solved.

Conceptually, the process worked like this:

Demux audio from vob
Convert audio to WAV
Normalize Audio
Convert back to MP2/AC3 <--- Ruined 5.1 tracks
Re-mux back to vob <--- Didn't sync properly in all cases.

When tape is the original source, sync problems are not uncommon. Dropouts and other tape defects force encoding/authoring programs to implement a number of recovery strategies, some of which may result in accumulating sync errors. In some cases, you can resync acceptably by slowing down or speeding up the audio by a tiny amount. Depending on the nature and distribution of the errors, you may have to perform the correction on small segments at a time. A great (and free) tool for doing these kinds of operations is Audacity (both Windows and Mac; Linux, too, for that matter).

Now back to your original problem of cleaning up audio. You were very vague about what is wrong with the audio, so it's hard to offer anything other than an equally vague response. But here are some of the more common VHS-type ailments, and some possible ways to improve audio quality. To set expectations correctly, though, you have to understand that you can't create CD-quality audio when you start with crappy VHS audio (even if recorded in "HiFi" mode). You can't make it good; you can only make it less crappy.

All of the following can be handled by Audacity. There are many faster/flashier tools out there, but Audacity has many features, and is free.

1) Insufficient audio gain has already been addressed with the normalization suggestions. This will raise the noise floor, however, so if you are complaining about the hiss level, this won't help.

2) Poor frequency response: Audacity has a graphic equalizer function, so you can twiddle those controls until you get satisfactory bass/treble/midrange, or whatever you're trying to rebalance, just as you would with your home stereo. Intentionally rolling off some high-frequency gain is very beneficial at reducing hiss, so you might want to experiment with a bit of that if hiss is more objectionable than a little loss of high-freq. Good eq goes a long way to making VHS audio sound better ("less crappy").

3) Hum/motor noise/etc.: If the original was shot on portable gear with an integrated microphone, motor noise will often creep in at annoying levels. Audacity has a remarkable noise removal tool -- you train it by exposing it to a quiet segment of audio that has mainly the noise you want gone, and Audacity will do its best to make it so. I've used this function many times to remove hum from recordings made with bad grounds, and it does an impressive job of it, without otherwise damaging the bass response.

The "HiFi" mode in VHS suffers from bad noise if there are head alignment issues (you essentially get a buzz at the field rate sneaking through). Audacity is reasonably effective at reducing that buzz, although you may have to process short segments at a time, retraining the noise remover each time, if the buzz changes in character throughout the length of the movie.

4) Distortion: If the recorded audio suffers from distortion (say, due to excessive loudness), there's nothing you can do.

5) Wow/Flutter: The instability of tape means that there will be speed variations in the audio. A steady tone will be rendered with a warble, for example. There's no practical way to de-flutter (unless you're good with programming your own DSP algorithms).

6) Breathing: Many VHS recorders have automatic level controls on their audio circuits. Loud sounds are compressed, and soft sounds are gained up. The rates of attack and decay for these actions can cause audible effects known as "breathing." Again, there's no easy way to remove these effects.

That's not a complete list, but it covers some of the more common complaints and some of their solutions. Hopefully, there's something in there that will help you out.

Good luck!