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Info & Help Wanted: Bram Stoker's Dracula VHS audio rip

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 (Edited)

Hi,

I was given the Bram Stoker’s Dracula, coffin shaped, box set for Christmas in 1993 when I was kid and have recently transferred the VHS onto my hard drive. The VHS looks like absolute garbage, I’m sure that it’s age related as I don’t remember it looking anywhere near as bad as it does. I was however very impressed with the audio, I used a HI FI video player for the transfer and was surprised at how nice the stereo track sounds.

I would love to integrate the audio track into a hi def copy of the film, as an extra audio track.
As I understand it I will need to slow the audio track by roughly 4% and sync it. What software could anyone recommend that I use?

I’ve also read somewhere that the VHS was a slightly longer cut of the film, I’ve watched it recently and didn’t notice any difference, does anyone know for certain if that’s true or not as I anticipate it being very difficult to sync if true?

Many thanks,
Tim.

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I’ve managed to extract the audio and have now converted it to WAV so that I could import into Audacity. I’m unsure of the best way to convert the audio speed so that it matches with 24FPS.

Can anyone best advise?

Many Thanks.

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I’m checking in to see how your project is coming along and if you still need help.

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Hello Alex,

Many thanks for your reply. I’ve managed to get the audio to the correct speed and I’m in the process of tidying it up a bit by removing some crackles, I just need to know the best way to make the audio match up to my hi def copy. What software do you guys use?

Thanks again.

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You need two audio files to synchronize (or ‘sync’) your rip of the VHS audio track to your HD video.

  1. The audio file the VHS audio track (which you have already)
  2. The audio file of the HD video audio

Since you are already using Audacity, will use that as an example.

Open both audio files

Compare the waveforms of each file–look at the head-end and the tail-end of each file and line up the VHS audio file to the HD file by the waveforms. If your VHS audio track doesn’t ‘line-up’ with the HD audio file, then you have to either extend or shorten the duration of the VHS audio.

There’s some YouTube videos, out here, that help you ‘line-up’ or synchronize audio files of instrumental tracks and vocal/instrumentals tracks of the same song (to make a ‘vocal-only’ audio file). Get tips on synchronizing the two files from these videos.

After you line-up the files together, ‘select’ the VHS audio file, then go to: Effect–>Change Tempo.

You have to put in the percentage value that will determine the right length of the VHS audio file to match the length of the HD audio file. This way, you change the duration of the stream, but you are maintaining the pitch.

After you change the duration, compare the waveforms of the files again. If they don’t match up, then you have to try again. Keep playing with the percentage values until the waveforms on each ends of the audio file match-up.