Audio distortion when digitising VHS?
 

Hi all.

I am digitising a vast (1000+) VHS tapes which I am struggling to configure the audio for.
The audio isn't necessarily important to me, It's just the words that are as Im getting them all transcribed via DaVinci.

In summary there is a syncing issue perhaps due to lack of TBC, which I am OK about, the picture quality is absolutely fine and stable but the audio is not and I get a lot of tape distortion when listening to the digitised file and it gets worse as the recording goes on.
As I listen to the audio (through amp) on the tape it sounds fine, no distortion.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why Im getting distortion?
You can hear the audio but you get this background noise, possibly sounding like the tape going through the reels, however I don't hear this when recording and listening through the amp?

I've tried running audio through the AMP with composite out of VCR but then I get no sound.

The set up is :
VHS video out-SCART> Sony Video monitor > video OUT > into Black Magic Ultrastudio HD mini (PAL/NTSC)
(Also off the SCART I have Composite (from SCART) going into Amp so I can hear tape while recording)
VHS Composite audio out > BlackMagic Ultrastudio JACK L/R IN.

FYI - I am in the UK. I have posted this int he BlackMagic forum and no one has answered me :(

Thanks for your thoughts. I hope there are some :)

Audio distortion issues are almost always related to this:
- bad/non-suggested capture card
- bad/non-suggested capture software (for example, OBS is terrible)
- lack of TBC- lack of TBC

Even with lack of TBC, audio is usually fine -- it's the image quality and image>audio sync that gets screwed. But sometimes software try to offset the lack of frame sync, and you get distorted audio.

An uploaded audio sample might help isolate the problem.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

I am using a BlackMagic Ultra Studio HD mini which theoretically should make easy work of this.
The software is Media Express which comes with the product so I cannot see that the problem would lie there, however I could be wrong.

Just to confirm, the audio isn't bad, there is just an underlying repetitive fuzz that continues over the top (or underneath) that isn't apparent when playing the video tape at source. It's definitely picking this up via the digitising process. Everyone talks about picture, but no one seems to talk about audio problems. It seems odd.

BlackMagic cards are not recommended for analog ingest, They are okay if you have a VCR built in line TBC but they are terrible if fed by a run of the mill low budget VCR.