Excalibur (1981) - Original Mono Mix from US-LD

[PomSpitz]

Thanks for the feedback.

I think I will go ahead with capturing these tapes. Any technical preferences?

I was planning on capturing at miniDV-quality with FCP at 48khz/16bit audio using the SL-20 deck (as I find playing mono tapes with stereo machines sometimes introduce additional background hiss), but if members here have suggestions on better recording settings, I'm all-ears.

[Yarp]

I don't have the original Laserdisc release of Excalibur with the mono mix BUT... I do own two copies of the original green clamshell Betamax.

Being bit-perfect is towards the bottom of the list of things you want for an audio track. Yes, it's ideal, but it's not necessary. Recording digital LD audio is super easy though. Just pick up any of the cheap input devices on amazon and start recording.

But yeah, Beta's audio quality wouldn't be as good as a digital LD track and probably not even LD analog (assuming proper mastering), so I don't think anyone would blame you if you didn't want to go to the trouble of capturing it.

If these beta tapes are really old it's probably not worth the time, but if they are Beta hi-fi, that's just as good as VHS hi-fi which is on par with LD digital audio.

[PomSpitz]

I'm actually pretty impressed by how good Betas sound - especially the older cassettes as they used stronger components and better formulations in the early days of the format.

It's usually the HiFi tracks that are the first thing to degrade over time, but the older tapes with only linear audio tend to hold up pretty well with age.

That being said, I haven't played either of my copies of Excalibur yet. I have no idea what shape they're in. I'm hoping between the two tapes to be able to cobble together a clean mono audio track though.

[BusterD]

If these beta tapes are really old it's probably not worth the time, but if they are Beta hi-fi, that's just as good as VHS hi-fi which is on par with LD digital audio.

Right, I was under the impression that Beta Hi-Fi came out a bit after Excalibur.

[PomSpitz]

Right, I was under the impression that Beta Hi-Fi came out a bit after Excalibur.

About a year afterward. 1982 for the tape, I believe... and Beta HiFi came out mid-83.

[Yarp]

I'm actually pretty impressed by how good Betas sound - especially the older cassettes as they used stronger components and better formulations in the early days of the format.

It's usually the HiFi tracks that are the first thing to degrade over time, but the older tapes with only linear audio tend to hold up pretty well with age.

That being said, I haven't played either of my copies of Excalibur yet. I have no idea what shape they're in. I'm hoping between the two tapes to be able to cobble together a clean mono audio track though.

Linear tracks will always be a huge step down in terms of potential quality, but I have heard a few that sound solid but they usually have a high noise floor. For older tracks that are often cut off at 8khz+, a low pass around that freq can clean up a lot of the extraneous noise and make them very listenable though. I sent a recording of an 81 VHS of The Maltese Falcon to blah-ray awhile back and told him to give it a listen because I was surprised at how good it sounded. He said this:
"I normally wouldn't even bother with any tape released before 1983 (pre-HiFi), but that Magnetic Video one sounds much better than I expected it to... The noise is a bit extreme though, even for me."

[PomSpitz]

Yeah, that's precisely the reason I'm going to try that linear track on my older SL-20 instead of one of my newer HiFi decks. I've noticed the noise floor is a bit louder when playing a linear track with a HiFi machine.

I'll post an update here when I get it captured!