Benefits of mixer. Which mixer should I buy?
 

I am wondering if I should get an audio mixer. I know with video if you don’t correct it with a proc amp before digitizing some errors can get baked in. What are the benefits of a mixer? Can I do all of the sound editing in software or should I get a mixer?

What mixer should I get for this task?

The first videos I am digitizing are my VHS-C wrestling videos. I digitized some of them in Premier then stopped when I figured out how much I was doing wrong. I’m redoing those ones. Anyways, when I added de noise to them in Premier it got rid of the noise but it also got rid of most all of the audience noise so I decided not to denoise it then. I am wondering if I can get rid of the hissing without getting rid of the crowd noise.

I think I am just going to restore the wrestling vhs-c tapes in software since I’m being picky about not deleting the crowd noise. Maybe I can find a happy medium in post. Premier is bad for capture but I’m probably gonna run into the same issue with deleting the crowd noise as I did in premier in another software. On my home videos that I am doing later I might look at getting a mackie 5. I was mainly just wondering if using hardware was the same as software when it comes to restoring audio.

Audiophiles don't like graphic equalizers (assume that is the function of the mixer you're after) because you do permanently lose something if say AI comes along later and is better able to pull out the noise portion better than just cutting out certain frequencies, you might be able to get a better audio restoration later. Graphic equalizers back in the day were more or less used to compensate for uneven frequency response with specific speakers or characteristics of the room they were used in. I agree they could have a use in VHS restoration depending on the content.

Audiophiles will also say that there's nothing that a graphic equalizer can do that messing around with the captured audio after the fact can't do better, but if you want to avoid that step, seems perfectly reasonable to me to use one. My thought also is that if there is noticeable high frequency noise that you know is completely useless that the capture theoretically could capture the remaining frequencies that you want at a more appropriate input level that it would also be worth using one.

I bought some inexpensive 10 band equalizers and have't really played around with them much yet, but I think the idea is that you can cut out or reduce very high frequencies which typically are not going to be present on VHS tape unless it is a recording of say a concert with relatively high pitches.

I suppose you could also record a test audio tape of sorts and then see if your specific VCR distorts the playback of certain frequencies then compensate with the graphic equalizer based on the test tape to then get the most likely accurate reproduction of the tapes to be archived. Not sure if anyone has posted about doing that?

Thank you for that information. I am going to be starting in January so im not gonna wait on technology to get better to capture. I get skeptical when I hear A.I. too but maybe that’s just me. Anyways I am just going to restore the audio in software.