De-hissing and normalizing tapes to CD - Need advice

[cyberia]

I am converting my collection of cassette tapes to CDs. I am pretty familiar with the basic mechanics of the process.

I do need an advice though. Should I de-hiss first and then normalize? Or should I normalize to 98% and then de-hiss?

If I de-hiss first, I achieve great results that I am happy with. However, once I normalize, tape hiss does become more noticable because it gets boosted by the normalization process.

Thanks.

 

[cyberia]

Any suggestions/ideas?

 

[Bglad]

Don't normalize at all unless totally necessary. This is basically a combination expander and comopressor to stabilize the overall volume. How well it works depends on how fast the attack is set. Very very slow is much better. Along with adjusting the volume, itt is going to compress the dynamics of the music you are transferring. You are better off just raising or lowering the record input as necessary to get a good recording and letting the dynamics live as they are.

Of course I wouldn't de-hiss either unless that was completely necessary. It is going to remove any high end in the hiss range as well. If you do, use it sparingly as well.

 

[Bglad]

Don't normalize at all unless totally necessary. This is basically a combination expander and comopressor to stabilize the overall volume. How well it works depends on how fast the attack is set. Very very slow is much better. Along with adjusting the volume, itt is going to compress the dynamics of the music you are transferring. You are better off just raising or lowering the record input as necessary to get a good recording and letting the dynamics live as they are.

Of course I wouldn't de-hiss either unless that was completely necessary. It is going to remove any high end in the hiss range as well. If you do, use it sparingly as well.