Hi everyone,

i think you guys have much experience with audio tools. i recorded some of my old vinyl from 1996 onto my pc using soundforge. In fact that they are old i got a lot noise on it (clicks, crackle). What is the best program to clean the *.wav files and is there a tutorial? If there isn't one, maybe one of you guys got some experience in cleaning audio.

much appreciated...daj

I'd say your best bet (if you still have the vinyl) is to clean it really really well (e.g., get some real record cleaner and a microfiber cloth or something), make sure the stylus is clean and new, and re-record.

If you can't do that, then you should try noise reduction in an audio tool. For free, I think the best you can do is Audacity (look it up on google, it's a free open-source audio editor). It has an "effect" called "noise reduction" where you get a noise-profile from a section of track without music, and then apply the noise filter on the music to varying degrees. I think soundforge has something similar (look for "Pops and clicks" ?)

But-- it has lots of drawbacks. You can definately hear the difference in the actual music when you try to reduce the noise behind it. No noise-reducer is going to be perfect, you'll always get some reduction in quality with the reduction in noise... which is why I say you should try to get the record as clean as possible instead, and maybe take the noise as a given.

I'm quite sure I've read somewere, maybe here at HA, that an old but very effective method for cleaning vinyl (a method said to be used at BBC too, maybe in the old times) was to apply subsequent layers of diluted vinyl glue to the disc, letting each layer thoroughly dry between each application, and then "strip" those layers as a whole... toghether with any dirt.

You better check the details of this searching HA or googleing.

Sergio

Etit:

P.S.: I agree with trisweb. At least keep an untouched lossless copy of your rip. You will be very happy when a new better cleaning filter and/or compressor will be available.

I use Magix Audio Cleaning Lab .....it has built in effects but you can tweak them to your pleasure.
(Im not sure if Im breaking rules here ie advertising or something........if its a problem feel free to delete this post Moderator)
Mr E

Download Sony Noise Reduction 2.0b it has click and crackle removal and noise reduction.It works with sound forge.

I have obtained very good results with Cool Edit Pro v1.2a; with this settings:

Go to: Transform(menu)--> Noise Reduction --> Click/Pop Eliminator --> Medium Amplitude Audio (Preset)

Good Trick: Clean each channel separate; not the two channels at the same time.

Doing a good job of restoring recordings of vinyl records requires patience and dedication. If the albums are available on CD (and haven't been butchered during so-called remastering), then it's basically much less hassle to just go and buy the CDs.

Assuming this isn't an option, two sites with some useful notes about the subject are Allen Reny's page of tips and my own page of tips.

Regarding the initial physical cleaning of the LPs prior to recording. By far the most effective method is to use a vacuum based machine, such as the Moth, Nitty-Gritty or VPI. But these are all fairly expensive ($hundreds). The best vacuum machine of the lot is the Keith Monks ($thousands), and some high-end HiFi stores have them available and provide a cleaning service (typically about $1 per LP).

The method using diluted PVA glue described by smz is commonly called the "face mask" method. I've tried it, but found that the "mask" tended to come away in thin strips, resulting in a very frustrating time trying to remove all of it. Perhaps I got the layer too thin, and more experimentation would have improved my technique. But since I have a Moth machine, I wasn't inclined to persevere very much.

As for the specific cleanup software mentioned in this thread so far:

Audacity is a nice editor, but it has no impulse filters, so isn't well suited to vinyl cleanup. It's noise reduction seems to me to be a standard spectral subtraction tool, and can be useful for broadband noise reduction (hiss, vinyl roar).

The Sony Noise Reduction 2.0 plug-in is one of the best restoration tools I've tried, but it's not cheap, well over $100 last time I checked (when it was still a Sonic Foundry product).

Magix Audio Cleaning Lab is a "jack of all trades, master of none", similar to Roxio Spin Doctor and Steinberg Clean. These kind of programs can give reasonable results if your standards are not too critical.

CoolEdit Pro (now Adobe Audition) has a click/pop eliminator that works well but painfully slowly. I concur with Gray_Wolf that the Medium Amplitude Audio preset is the best all-round compromise for most LPs. There's a third party plug-in for Audition called ClickFix that seems as good and runs about 5-10 times faster.

There's a host of other more special-purpose restoration tools that are mentioned on my web page (link above).

And finally: some glitches simply cannot be fixed by automatic tools, and you just have to get in there and repair them by hand using some sort of audio editor that allows very tight levels of zoom and has the necessary tools to sort out the waveform.

You're too modest Clive! Your page is excellent, but I'm not sure I'd follow all the advice from the other site. Some of the downloadable files show hallmarks of doing exactly the wrong kind of audio restoration!

Cheers,
David.

Two I haven't really messed around with yet are the Waves X-Hum & X-Noise and Voxengo Noise Reduction. Any thoughts on these. I plan to review them in a bit.

Jon

I use a program called Pristine Sounds 2000, I've been happy with the results of it's vinyl restortion tool. Has anyone else here tried this program or am I the only one, I've never heard anyone else here mention it.

This is an interesting topic. I have been checking out some of the tools I have lately.

Waves X-click sounds good when you listen to the Difference mode. Set right it seems to remove only clicks. But applied to a big fat click, twice, it doesn't work. Manual removal is neccessary. I remember reading that applying noise reduction manually should be done twice.

I use Wavelab, it has built in tools. The Declicker is pretty good for manual removal but not perfect.

I'm not much for major EQ'ing & noise reduction etc but I do want the major clicks out. I 'd rather not apply something like Waves X-click to an entire file, even gently, if it's not going to do the job.

It takes a lot of work to clean up a medium quality dub from vinyl. I'm inclined to just record as hot as possible, maybe apply some click reduction, and apply some maximization while dithering down to 16/44. I don't want to take one day and get one dub done. Well that would be great, but being a full time student, I don't have a full day or half day to sit down and tweak. I guess I'm still looking for the perfect balance.

any thoughts,
Jon

PS DC, hum, and rumble removal (with Waves X-Hum) seems to take out more than I'd like; it's subtle and you can hardly notice the difference on my dubs. But I plan to play around with the settings a bit and explore some other plugins.

It just seems like perfection will drive you crazy if you have a somewhat noisy LP, but on the otherhand, I have a lot of stuff I want to sound great for my archive.

In my experience big clicks can't be successfully fixed by automatic tools: the damage simply extends too far, and automatic declickers often replace them with thuds and splats. Some kind of manual fix (eg. by copying a nearby undamaged section, or by spectral replacement) is required. Mind you, I've not been able to try the Waves plug-ins (which have an excellent reputation) due to their cost.


Yes - multiple gentle passes (taking a fresh noise print between each pass) is usually better than one aggressive pass.


I'm a bit anal about this, and do strive for the best possible results. I try to eliminate even tiny ticks that are probably only audible on headphones. A thorough job from an LP even in pretty good nick can easily take a day. (When I started out on this hobby back in 1994, the available tools were very basic, and the first LP I transferred took literally weeks of elapsed time - probably 50 man hours all told!) From a pragmatic perspective, if you only listen on speakers, then a less fastidious restoration is OK.