1980s children audio cassettes Well Loved Tales

[BlitzKid]

Re: 1980s children audio cassettes Well Loved Tales

Loved the Dracula one! Very atmospheric and eerie and great voice acting; would have scared me if I'd heard it as a kid! Can't wait to hear the rest

[Retro Ghoul]

Re: 1980s children audio cassettes Well Loved Tales

Glad you liked it, it is one of the best of the Ladybird Tell-A-Tale tapes. Here is the Frankenstein one, hope you all enjoy this one too.

Side 1 - http://www.mediafire.com/?2pdpv2i3ibcihb4
Side 2 - http://www.mediafire.com/?e7pbfbfw9ac94yf

Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde to follow.

Has anyone ripped the Hound of the Baskervilles one yet?

Loved the Dracula one! Very atmospheric and eerie and great voice acting; would have scared me if I'd heard it as a kid! Can't wait to hear the rest

[Guest]

Re: 1980s children audio cassettes Well Loved Tales

They are very hard to find Retro, I have only tracked a handfull of all of the tell-a-tales and I've been searching for months now!

Of course, SOMEONE must have a full set, it's just a case of the person seeing the threads I have put up!

[Guest]

Re: 1980s children audio cassettes Well Loved Tales

hay Retro,
How did the original tapes sound? The rips are quite low and hard to hear in places. I'm going to ask a friend of mine who works with audio if he can improve quality.

The few Tell-a-tales that have shown up all seem to be of this quality. This is because they are all from the early to mid 1980s and the sound had degraded.

It is great to have them. Looking forward to hearing the rest. Really enjoyed Frankenstein

[Retro Ghoul]

Re: 1980s children audio cassettes Well Loved Tales

Hi Jaygon
The original tapes don't sound too bad really and I thought that when I ripped them they sounded ok. I think on the original tapes there are quite a few low bits on them. I am using Audacity but I am not really sure about how to improve the sound quality, I don't really want to start adjusting levels etc because I don't know if I will be doing the right thing. Will have to try and figure it out though sometime. Will be great if your freind can improve them.

How many tapes have you managed to find? What are the titles? I guess the sound won't be too great because like you say they are from the early to mid 80's and are bound to lose quality of sound.

Glad that you are enjoying them, here is Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde:

Side 1 http://www.mediafire.com/?7jn4pcvglj6d7nf
Side 2 http://www.mediafire.com/?m70iw51lcc0x31s

'The Mummy' coming very soon.

hay Retro,
How did the original tapes sound? The rips are quite low and hard to hear in places. I'm going to ask a friend of mine who works with audio if he can improve quality.

The few Tell-a-tales that have shown up all seem to be of this quality. This is because they are all from the early to mid 1980s and the sound had degraded.

It is great to have them. Looking forward to hearing the rest. Really enjoyed Frankenstein

[Guest]

Re: 1980s children audio cassettes Well Loved Tales

My friend wrote this :
Actually I think that (apart from the volume flucations at the beginning of Dracula side 1) the quality is not too bad for a tape. Someone (with more skill than me) could probably clean it up pretty nicely. The beginning of Dracula side 1 needs to be digitized again though - part is too loud causing clipping and part is too quiet causing lots of quantization noise.

But if this is the way that it plays on the tape there is no point in digitising again. I'm sure they can all be cleaned up and I will attermpt to have it done :

Of the Tell-a-Tales I have :
Treasure Island (needs a bit of work)

Hansel and Gretel
The Elves and the Shoemaker All 3 are 'Well Loved Tales' series and I'm keen to get more of these.
Tom Thumb

Tim Catchamouse (Puddle Lane)
He-man and the Masters of the Universe (various)
She-Ra (various)
Thomas the Tank Engine (Various)
Transformers (Various)

[Retro Ghoul]

Re: 1980s children audio cassettes Well Loved Tales

Hi Jargon

Pleased to hear that your freind thought that the Dracula recording was generally not bad. How did the Frankenstein tape sound, was this just the same? Will have to try and do the Dracula one again with better sound.

Nice collection of Tell-a-tales you have collected up to now, hope you managed to get many more. I'll have a look around myself and let you know if I get any.

Well here is the last in the classic horror Tell-a-Tales tapes, well apart from 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' would love to get a copy of this.

The Mummy:

Side 1 http://www.mediafire.com/?9ch23ongbttmcfw
Side 2 http://www.mediafire.com/?69v1j0i5mlafgj1

My friend wrote this :
Actually I think that (apart from the volume flucations at the beginning of Dracula side 1) the quality is not too bad for a tape. Someone (with more skill than me) could probably clean it up pretty nicely. The beginning of Dracula side 1 needs to be digitized again though - part is too loud causing clipping and part is too quiet causing lots of quantization noise.

But if this is the way that it plays on the tape there is no point in digitising again. I'm sure they can all be cleaned up and I will attermpt to have it done :

Of the Tell-a-Tales I have :
Treasure Island (needs a bit of work)

Hansel and Gretel
The Elves and the Shoemaker All 3 are 'Well Loved Tales' series and I'm keen to get more of these.
Tom Thumb

Tim Catchamouse (Puddle Lane)
He-man and the Masters of the Universe (various)
She-Ra (various)
Thomas the Tank Engine (Various)
Transformers (Various)

[Guest]

Re: 1980s children audio cassettes Well Loved Tales

Thanks Retro,
Really interested in the WEll Loved Tales series but they are very difficult to find. Ideally, I'd love to collect them all repair them, and share them with fellow fans.

Frankenstein sounded great!

[Guest]

Re: 1980s children audio cassettes Well Loved Tales

Frankenstein, the Mummy and Dr. Jeckyll are perfect.

re : Dracula, my friend says :
It can be improved, but there will still be annoying artifacts unless that side is digitized again - the tape seems to be fine but information has been lost in the digitization process. If Dracula side 1 is re-ripped at the same volume as side 2, then it should be possible to fix it up to nearly CD quality.

[Retro Ghoul]

Re: 1980s children audio cassettes Well Loved Tales

Hi Jargon

I'll re-rip the first side of Dracula as soon as I can, I think because it was the first one I had done it was a bit hit and miss wether I got the sound ok. I think I did alter things a little after that one. Now when I do another tape the levels stay the same, so I try not to alter them. Hoped you liked Dr.Jekyll and The Mummy.

Frankenstein, the Mummy and Dr. Jeckyll are perfect.

re : Dracula, my friend says :
It can be improved, but there will still be annoying artifacts unless that side is digitized again - the tape seems to be fine but information has been lost in the digitization process. If Dracula side 1 is re-ripped at the same volume as side 2, then it should be possible to fix it up to nearly CD quality.

[Guest]

Re: 1980s children audio cassettes Well Loved Tales

I really enjoyed them and appreciate it!!!!
Keep your eyes peeled for others! I'll do the same!

[Retro Ghoul]

Re: 1980s children audio cassettes Well Loved Tales

Its a pleasure, glad that you enjoyed them. I have been wanting to put my tapes onto CD for years and thanks to yourself telling me about a way that this can be done it has given me the motivation to begin them. Will certainly keep looking for others.

[Guest]

Re: 1980s children audio cassettes Well Loved Tales

Thanks Retro,
In the meantime, if you get a chance, could you re-do Dracula Side 1?

[HG]

Re: 1980s children audio cassettes Well Loved Tales

Can we take this to pm now please? This is not a file sharing site, thanks.