ToughDiamond wrote:
That's brilliant! Though I agree it won't necessarily de-click the record completely. If it's already been played with dust in the grooves, the stylus might have ground the dust particles into the vinyl, so removing the dust can leave potholes. I've even heard that a cleaned record can sound more clicky than it did before it was cleaned. Still, as a technique for removing dust, it probably beats my water methods. Auntblabby, are any of those de-clicking programs free and still available? Incidentally, my preferred de-hisser is Waves X-Noise, which performs better than any other I've tried, though it was horrendously expensive - luckily the trial version was free, though it times out after 2 weeks and you need a full system restore to get it working again. Off topic? Well, I'd say it was kind of on-topic by the skin of its teeth because it's advice aimed at facilitating the process of tidying one's home. The perfectionist, collection-obsessed Aspie can't discard their voluminous vinyl or cassette collection until they've been perfectly copied to a hard disc. Though if these detailed descriptions are getting tedious for members who don't have our rather specialised problems, if somebody shouts up, we could start a new thread.
lower overall surface noise [removal of fine particles] makes the sharper welded-in potholes stand out that much more so the record ironically will sound cracklier to the ear after cleaning, but less hissy, if that makes any sense. as for declicker programs, unfortunately none that are any good are free, but if you can get wavelab 8 elements, that is well worth $100 IMHO for the declicker/decrackler/depopper alone. it also has a somewhat useful noise reducer with variable fixed bandwidth and dynamic thresholds. acon digital media also makes a decent and affordable declicker/denoiser package for about fifty bucks at last check. or you can get their wave editor called acoustica which contains that package and has more elaborate noise reduction apps built-in, for about the same coin. their declicker compares favorably with [and behaves similarly to] the CEDAR DCX declicker but for thou$and$ le$$. the best FREE dehisser I have found, is MUNOISE. google it. it is donation-ware and well-worth contributing to IMHO. it lets you hear what is being taken out so you know just where to set the threshold to avoid hitting music. AFAIC it works about as well as the CEDAR dehisser module but for thou$and$ le$$ as well. the sound forge declicker is unique in that it has a spot-correction algorithm which comes in handy for stubborn impulsive disturbances of large amplitude/duration, up to a half-second or so. and on the subject of audio restoration, can you PLEASE start a dedicated thread?