[James Bittl]

Unfortunately, when I play the tapes just in the deck, the audio is fine (except for cellphone interference when one of the subjects gets a call, there’s the usual interference). So this must be a capturing issue…

I’ve just tried capturing with iMovie, and the dropout issues happen in all the same places as if the tape is messed up.

Would the tape deck just not pick up these dropouts until digitized? Or would I be able to hear the dropouts straight from the tape deck?

Would it be worthwhile trying capture presets at 32khz and 12-bit? Or wouldn’t iMovie already recognize whether the audio was recorded at 32khz or 48khz?

Thanks again for helping.

[James Bittl]

This is while digitizing, but the audio inconsistencies play back in the timeline as well. I’m loading through firewire. The audio properties are whatever the capture presets are: 48khz, 16 bit, 2 channel audio (either stereo or mono).

I first tried it off a clamshell, but have had more success with a DVCam deck hooked up to a little monitor and capturing through iMovie HD…audio inconsistencies are still there though. Again, some tapes are perfect, and some drop audio. Hmm…

Thanks for your response.