Recording cassettes and LPs to computer
swangdb
computer. I have an M-Audio Audio Interface and Audacity does a pretty
good job of recording audio. I'd like to be able to remove noise from
some of the recordings and I want to remove the pops and clicks from
the songs from LPs. I don't want this processing to ruin the "magic"
of the original recordings if possible.
I've heard of SOUNDSOAP, Magix Audio Cleaning Lab and Steinberg Clean.
Are any of these any good? Are they worth the money? Are there any
other packages that do the same thing? I'm not worried about the
cassettes as much as I am the LPs, I'd like to remove as much of the
crackling/clicks/noise as possible.
Magix ACL offers "Analog Distortion Tube Amp" and "Tapesimulation."
Would these actually improve some slightly sterile-sounding recordings
or are these just cheesy gimmicks?
Also, I have read the BBE Sonic Maximizer plug-in works with Audacity.
Can this software really improve recordings? I guess this is a loaded
question, I've never used a BBE Sonic Maximizer so I'm not sure what
they do to the sound, but a friend of mine raves about them.
Thanks for any info you can give!
--
David Swanger
swa...@auburn.edu
Scott Dorsey
>I have many cassettes and LPs I'd like to record to WAV files on my
>computer. I have an M-Audio Audio Interface and Audacity does a pretty
>good job of recording audio. I'd like to be able to remove noise from
>some of the recordings and I want to remove the pops and clicks from
>the songs from LPs. I don't want this processing to ruin the "magic"
>of the original recordings if possible.
So, get a good cartridge and tonearm that doesn't ring. Get a record
cleaning machine. Your pops will go away.
Get a good belt-drive turntable with a well-damped platter. Your rumble
and a lot of the surface noise will go away.
>I've heard of SOUNDSOAP, Magix Audio Cleaning Lab and Steinberg Clean.
>Are any of these any good? Are they worth the money? Are there any
>other packages that do the same thing? I'm not worried about the
>cassettes as much as I am the LPs, I'd like to remove as much of the
>crackling/clicks/noise as possible.
Spend your money in getting good playback in the first place. If you
get a good clean playback without noise, you won't need any processing.
Digital processing after the fact is a last-ditch sort of thing that
you do when you have no other alternatives.
>Magix ACL offers "Analog Distortion Tube Amp" and "Tapesimulation."
>Would these actually improve some slightly sterile-sounding recordings
>or are these just cheesy gimmicks?
They are cheesy gimmicks.
>Also, I have read the BBE Sonic Maximizer plug-in works with Audacity.
>Can this software really improve recordings? I guess this is a loaded
>question, I've never used a BBE Sonic Maximizer so I'm not sure what
>they do to the sound, but a friend of mine raves about them.
It adds high order even harmonic distortion, which makes everything sound
much brighter. It basically simulates the "bad transistor sound" of
the early seventies. It's a very useful tool for dealing with poor quality
recordings that have no top end, but it can be very easily overdone.
Much of this stuff is discussed in the r.a.p FAQ.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Mike Rivers
swangdb wrote:
> I have many cassettes and LPs I'd like to record to WAV files on my
> computer. I have an M-Audio Audio Interface and Audacity does a pretty
> good job of recording audio. I'd like to be able to remove noise from
> some of the recordings and I want to remove the pops and clicks from
> the songs from LPs. I don't want this processing to ruin the "magic"
> of the original recordings if possible.
> I've heard of SOUNDSOAP, Magix Audio Cleaning Lab and Steinberg Clean.
> Are any of these any good? Are they worth the money? Are there any
> other packages that do the same thing?
As you'll discover after the first dozen or so, this is a very tedious
and time consuming process. Most people with a decent sized collection
give it up before they're finished, so you'd best not invest a lot in
it.
It should go without saying (but somehow it needs saying) that the
first step toward minimizing clicks on LPs is to clean the records
thoroughly before playing. You can spend a grand on a liquid-and-vacuum
cleaner, or you can wash the disks by hand using a mild detergent,
being careful not to get the label wet. At minimum, use a "preener"
brush with a liquid cleaning solution. The less processing you have to
do on the recording, the more accurately the recording will be
preserved.
Let me put in a plug for a non-mainstream highly consumer oriented
program called Spin It Again from Acoustica (http://www.acoustica.com).
It has a recording program, gives you a means to set the record level
easily, automatically shuts off after a few minutes of silence so you
can walk the dog between transferring sides of an LP, and it has a
CD-burning module built in. It also identifies silence between cuts on
a record or tape and inserts the CD track index points automatically
(you can tweak them, and probably should at least check them), which is
one of the most tedious parts of the job if you want to make CDs that
play like CDs. There's also a click reduction tool which works fairly
well. It's a pretty inexpensive program, and you can download a
functional demo version (I think it works 5 times or something like
that) to get a sense of what it can do.
Paul Stamler
news:1146235332.3...@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com...
> I have many cassettes and LPs I'd like to record to WAV files on my
> computer. I have an M-Audio Audio Interface and Audacity does a pretty
> good job of recording audio. I'd like to be able to remove noise from
> some of the recordings and I want to remove the pops and clicks from
> the songs from LPs. I don't want this processing to ruin the "magic"
> of the original recordings if possible.
>
> I've heard of SOUNDSOAP, Magix Audio Cleaning Lab and Steinberg Clean.
> Are any of these any good? Are they worth the money? Are there any
> other packages that do the same thing? I'm not worried about the
> cassettes as much as I am the LPs, I'd like to remove as much of the
> crackling/clicks/noise as possible.
Check out DC SIX as well; it was developed primarily for cleaning up LPs and
78s, and does a better-than-decent job. Also, ClickFix used as a plug-in
with Adobe Audition is useful.
> Magix ACL offers "Analog Distortion Tube Amp" and "Tapesimulation."
> Would these actually improve some slightly sterile-sounding recordings
> or are these just cheesy gimmicks?
Cheesy gimmicks. The way to avoid ruining the "magic" of the original
recordings is to alter them as little as possible.
> Also, I have read the BBE Sonic Maximizer plug-in works with Audacity.
> Can this software really improve recordings? I guess this is a loaded
> question, I've never used a BBE Sonic Maximizer so I'm not sure what
> they do to the sound, but a friend of mine raves about them.
It makes the recording sound harsh and brittle. If you like that, fine.
Peace,
Paul
Buzz
1146235332.3...@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com...
=========================================================
My way of doing things like LP=> Computer=> CDR here :
http://www.a-reny.com/iexplorer/restauration.html
--
Allen Reny
http://www.a-reny.com
fred-bloggs
@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com:
> I have many cassettes and LPs I'd like to record to WAV files on my
> computer. I have an M-Audio Audio Interface and Audacity does a pretty
> good job of recording audio. I'd like to be able to remove noise from
> some of the recordings and I want to remove the pops and clicks from
> the songs from LPs. I don't want this processing to ruin the "magic"
> of the original recordings if possible.
Have you tried using Audacity's plugins? v1.2.4 has click removal and
noise removal (great for tape hiss) in the effects menu. You can also
remove loud clicks and pops with the pencil tool.
To maintain a constant effect throughout each LP I suggest you record and
clean up the whole of each side of the LP before splitting into tracks.
>
> I've heard of SOUNDSOAP, Magix Audio Cleaning Lab and Steinberg Clean.
> Are any of these any good? Are they worth the money? Are there any
> other packages that do the same thing? I'm not worried about the
> cassettes as much as I am the LPs, I'd like to remove as much of the
> crackling/clicks/noise as possible.
These use the same tecniques as the Audacity plugins.
>
> Magix ACL offers "Analog Distortion Tube Amp" and "Tapesimulation."
> Would these actually improve some slightly sterile-sounding recordings
> or are these just cheesy gimmicks?
>
> Also, I have read the BBE Sonic Maximizer plug-in works with Audacity.
> Can this software really improve recordings? I guess this is a loaded
> question, I've never used a BBE Sonic Maximizer so I'm not sure what
> they do to the sound, but a friend of mine raves about them.
>
All of these alter (distort IMHO) the original sound.
--
fred
dadiOH
> I have many cassettes and LPs I'd like to record to WAV files on my
> computer. I have an M-Audio Audio Interface and Audacity does a
> pretty good job of recording audio. I'd like to be able to remove
> noise from some of the recordings and I want to remove the pops and
> clicks from the songs from LPs. I don't want this processing to ruin
> the "magic" of the original recordings if possible.
IMO, Wave Repair is about as good a cleaner as you can get. Not the
easiest nor the fastest though. Others in my dandies, see sig. An easy
one to use (pretty good too) is WavClean.
Wave Repair
http://www.delback.co.uk/wavrep/
WavClean
http://www.excla.com/index-E.htm
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wavclean
As far as the cleaning messing up the "magic", that is entirely possible
so clean a copy or save the cleaned wave as something else...IOW, be
sure you can get back to square one. Many cleaners will have some way
of setting how agressive they should be in noise removal; if so, set
minimally at first.
--
dadiOH
____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
MD
I use Total Recorder
swangdb
# noise removal (great for tape hiss) in the effects menu. You can also
# remove loud clicks and pops with the pencil tool.
I had an older version of Audacity that was lacking these plugins. I
just downloaded this version. Cool.
Thanks for the tip(s) all of you!
Charles Russell
The goldwave audio editor may be worth a look. It is inexpensive and
free trial is available. I use it for recording tapes, splitting,
converting formats, and ripping CD's and consider it good,
well-documented software, but I haven't tried its extensive clean-up and
noise reduction tools since my recordings are mostly voice.