From time to time I get the urge to try to de-flutterize some old (1960s) home recordings. First pgm I found was Capstan; 5-day rental price is reasonable. Apparently RX11 also has a wow/flutter tool.

Does anyone know of any other software that can remove wow & (especially) flutter?

TIA to anyone who's still following the Audio group!!!

I have Izotope RX and you're always welcome to send me an audio file to test it with.

Andrew

From time to time I get the urge to try to de-flutterize some old (1960s) home recordings. First pgm I found was Capstan; 5-day rental price is reasonable. Apparently RX11 also has a wow/flutter tool.

Does anyone know of any other software that can remove wow & (especially) flutter?

TIA to anyone who's still following the Audio group!!!

I use both Capstan and RX. The wow and flutter control is unsurpassed in Capstan. I've not seen... or rather heard better. Having found it to be so good I didn't look any further so can't comment on other software. Capstan is very configurable in as much as for music it can correct W&F but in the process it will microscopically adjust the length of the recording. Generally this not really a problem for stand-alone music. Having spent many years editing history docos, we often had old film audio that was plagued by W&F. The beautiful thing with Capstan is that it can analyse a piece of footage for W&F but once it's finished its analysis you can instruct Capstan to maintain the exact frame duration of the clip. Capstan will then render out the audio while maintaining the correct pitch yet matching the clip's exact duration, thereby maintaining audio sync on any dialogue in the clip.

My business actually purchased Capstan some years back. Not cheap, but with so much doco material that need fixing on a multi-year project for the government purchasing it was a more economical way to go than rental.

Chris Young

Do the clients notice and appreciate the difference when the audio is corrected?

Andrew

Andrew,

Thanks for your generous offer. I may take advantage at some future time.

Thanks, also, for any and all other replies. This topic has intrigued me since playing with my father's tape recorder ca. 1959.

FWIW I just came across this article, which has many audio samples:
https://mathis-nitschke.com/en/the-story-of-capstan-and-how-it-relates-to-the-new-wowflutter-repair-plugin-in-izotope-rx8/

The author states that Capstan is very good for wow and one-time events (sticky tape splice, etc.), but he feels that RX is better for cyclical higher-speed variations (i.e. flutter). There's always something to learn.

That article is super interesting. Capstan is certainly a great product.

Andrew

Do the clients notice and appreciate the difference when the audio is corrected?

Andrew

That's the $64K question, Andrew.

I've worked on docos where there was plenty of budget and a lot of work was done on both video and audio. Conversely, I've worked on programs where apart from noise reduction being applied to both video and audio, little else was done. Both series had viewing figures that kept the production companies and their bean counters happy.

I guess what I am saying is the public don't really know or cares, I think of what goes on under the hood as long as they enjoy the viewing experience and the story being told. What I do know is that sometimes some old vision is pretty bad, and you can get away with it. You can get away with far, far less if your audio is bad. Audio effects you physically and gets noticed at much lower levels of distortion and artefacts than any vision does.

Chris Young

That’s true, and many sound engineers built their careers and a successful business repairing bad sound.

I’ve been asked would I present a motivational talk to this years passing out sound and vision class at a local high school and I’ll cover that exact notion, plus others.

I’ll finish with, “If you’re ever thinking about starting your own business, make sure you cover all aspects, but just do it! You don’t want to get to my age and wonder why you didn’t.”

Cheers.

I routinely remove air-con rumble from audio as well as other unwanted aspects. Clients don't necessarily know what the difference is, but they think my (professional) video is so much "clearer". They actually associate it with the vision component from what I can work out.

Audio quality is so important.

Andrew

There's an old saying in this industry. I first heard it at the Beeb in the '60s. "Love the pictures, shame about the sound." Usually meaning we can't use it as the audio is c**p!

Chris Young

I got word via my dear granddaughter who’s studying in the Sound and Light class at her local high school, that the teachers will want a precis about what I’ll be talking about in my motivational speech. Fair enough so here’s what I plan to say …

If you’re going to start out on your own, look for something no one else is doing. Easy to say, hard to do. The new thing is ‘On line mixing’ where aspiring musicians email each of their new songs music tracks to a pro outfit who’ll finally mix them - for a price.

This new business is growing like topsy as we speak, all the big pro studios are into it, Abbey Road etc. improving their new services every week. Of course what they’re looking for is a new Justin Bieber etc. someone they can put under contract to make a serious fortune with.

With what you’ve learned here, you could start a similar business, but in your local area. Your big plus is, you can ask your clients to come in and work with you, in person. You’d need to set up your mixing studio with a website and maybe examples on line.

I’ll ask the class for questions and be prepared to answer all sorts.