hi all. after reading the "dead fidelity" thread, and a few like it, i wondered what we could do to make some particularly horrid songs sound better.

post ideas/suggestions here.

(by the way, CoolEdit/Audition's clip restorer is kinda sub-par in this task - it usually turns a flat clip into a full-blown spike that appears at right angles to the wave it came from)

if anyone wants me to post a short sample of some horrifically clipped audio that otherwise sounds okay, i can do so (ever hear "Heavenly" off the latest Dandy Warhols disc? nice song, but the kick drums make me think violent thoughts)

Yes, the clip restoration is a blunt instrument to use that hardly made any improvement that I could hear.

I have been experimenting with delay effects to smooth the sound of clipped audio. It varies for each and every song but the basic principal I'm trying is something like reverb (my very vague estimatation of general use is something like 2500-18000Hz, 25-45ms duration, wet/dry levels at 10%/80%). To its dubious credit it does seem to benefit the music instead of the clipping but only very slightly :/

People tell, something like AIPL Warmtone is trying to add Tube alike sound and gives at least some personality back to the flat sound of these recordings

Wombat

audition's clip restore is useful for some things... takes the obvious clipping artifacts out of bass kicks and such. Just don't expect it to make your favorite hot-mastered song come to life with dynamic range or anything. In general, I feel it removes the edginess of hyper-clipped songs, but I haven't ABX'ed it or anything :)

Sometimes audition's clip restore will produce huge spikes where the percussion is. Use the hard limiter to bring them under control