From time to time, I come across an audiotape that I have had lying around in a cassette box for many years (sometimes more than 20 years). I take it out of the box and put it in the tape player. It sounds fairly clear, bearing in mind that it is so old and before the time of digital audio.
I have some time on my hands so I decide to convert the tape to MP3. Once it is an MP3 file, I can start playing around with its sound quality. Firstly, what needs to be done is to level out the recording. Then, reduce the background noise, which is often the case with really old tapes as the quality of the recording was not that good all those years ago.
But, whilst doing this you have to be careful that you don't destroy the quality of the audio file.
Eventually, if Allah will, you can get it to the stage where it is presentable enough to be released I approach some of our brothers with regards to the title that is found on the cassette label. We then settle on a suitable title. In the case of audio such as the lectures of Shaykh Badee Uddin Shah (rahimahullah Ta'ala) I tend to slow the speed of the audio down by about 10% which helps the listener considerably to understand what the Shaykh (rahimahullah Ta'ala) is saying.
So, from tape to MP3, to editing of noise & quality, and finally the levelling out of its audio levels you reach the stage of being able to release the audio. Sometimes, the tape may be incomplete as they were usually 60 or 90 minutes in length.
Here, by the permission of Allah, I present the result of all that work to you, whilst humbly asking my maker to accept it from me.
Abu Hurairah (رضي الله عنه) narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said: "Whoever invites to guidance will be rewarded like those who follow him in the guidance are rewarded, and that will not decrease the reward of those who have followed him." [Collected by Imām Muslim]
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