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[rar2667]

I thought I saw a post a week or so that referred to a freeware utility to clean noise from vinyl recordings, but now I can't find the thread again.

Any recommendations on utilities? I've been using Spin Doctor (came with Adaptec 4), but not sure it's doing that much good.

Thanks for any advice.

[gvag]

I do a lot of LP ripping and it is my opinion that there is no one program that will clean all your vinyl recordings.  The only freeware app that I've found that can do any decent cleaning is:
Exact Audio Copy it has an indexing feature for manually splitting tracks and the slickest interface going for moving around in a wave file that I've come across.  You can play around with the noise profile settings and get some non-intrusive decrackling cleanup going prior to attacking any clicks and pops.

Check out Wave Repair recording tips and FAQ this is a freeware/shareware program, the shareware version has a good decrackling module.

Wave PurityI have the professional version and this program is as close as you can come to automatic wave cleaning.  That said, there have been many albums that I cleaned into which unwanted artifacts were introduced and I had to start over and use a combination of programs to get satisfactory results.

Another significant impact on the entire process is your sound card,  a good pro-sumer card is needed, I use the Audiophile 2496 but if I was able to afford it I would have bought a Terratec 2496 it has a builtin phone pre-amp that lets you go straight from your turntable to the soundcard.

Two last tips.  

Make sure you've got lots of HD space and if you can set up your audio processing on a separate partition, not your C drive and never work directly with your original wave recording.  Focus on one cleanup task at a time and make a copy of your wave file at each step in the cleanup.  If the end result is not what you want then you can always go back and try again without having to repeat the entire process.

Decide how much noise you can live with and go with the max. Depending on the condition of the source material you're never going to achieve CD clean audio but you can in most cases get cleaner sound and still retain the musical content.  Use a good set of headphones when your auditing your files, if you can get satisfactory sound through your headphone, you'll be really pleased with the results through your speakers.

Take care

George

[zevele1]

gvag

I have few thousands lps,one day i have to start to put some on my computer
2 questions
1-how much cost the Audiophile 2496 sound card?
2-If you want to rip a brand new lps ,or any lp mint,do you want to clean it?
For now i put lps and 7" on minidisc,it is quite easy.But i did not try to find out how to put it on my computer.

Anyway,i have some hard to find music on tape,and i'am just afraid to start to put them on my computer

There is another thing who bothers me: what do you get from lp to computer?
ADD ? AAD? or AAA? In fact i would like to get AAA .Is this possible or i'am just saying nonsense?

[Charlemagne 8]

I use WavePurity and really like it. There is a free version that does well on the basic cleanup. Like gvag said, it is not automatic ... that costs about US$150 ... but I have never seen or heard any artifacts and the Wizard walks you through step by step.
There are others ... none are free. Most cost around $50.
Clean the big stuff first and work your way down. I.E. start with pops and end with crackles.

Zevele,
By the definition of tha AAA to DDD rating, you would get AAD.

CVIII

[gvag]

Hi Zevele -

I have few thousands lps,one day i have to start to put some on my computer
2 questions

1-how much cost the Audiophile 2496 sound card?

CDN $250 around US $175, but you might have better access to the TerraTec 2496 with the built-in pre-amp.

2-If you want to rip a brand new lps ,or any lp mint,do you want to clean it?

If you mean a record cleaning machine, no.  I've always used a Discwasher brush and never play any LP without using it first.

For now i put lps and 7" on minidisc,it is quite easy.But i did not try to find out how to put it on my computer.

I have a receiver hooked up to my Audiophile 2496 using the TAPEIN and TAPEOUT on the receiver, so the computer sits in the sound system just like a tapedeck.  If you don't have your computer tied into a stereo system that's the advantage of the Terratec card, you can hook your turntable directly into the computer using the Terratec preamp.

Anyway,i have some hard to find music on tape,and i'am just afraid to start to put them on my computer

Why? I'll check one of my LP processing apps has a preset in it to deal with tape hiss, from there it all depends on the quality of your source material.

There is another thing who bothers me: what do you get from lp to computer?
ADD ? AAD? or AAA? In fact i would like to get AAA .Is this possible or i'am just saying nonsense?

Not sure.  Are we grading plywood, talking about analog to digital/digital to analog conversion or some sort of letter grading system for audio quality?

I'm sure there are lots of people on the board who know more about this stuff then I do.  I'm just now starting to feel I've got a bit of a handle on LP Ripping but there are many features of the programs I use that I do not understand or that are just too cumbersome to use.  a good example of this is declicking, I have the standard version of DCart32 but at US $99 you have to do one type of repair at a time then process the file again for the next repair.  

There are two disadvantages to this method the first is time and the second is that every time you process a wave file you degrade or change it somewhat.  Wave Repair is the same in this respect.  Wave Purity is better as cleanup is usually just a two step process and the Platinum version of DCart32 at $199 lets you apply multiple effects in one pass through the file.  The main disadvantage of all these programs is that they work with 44.1 khz files so rounding errors introduced by the repair process have a larger impact on the result.

You mentioned mint condition or new LPs.  If a lot of you records are in this category then I'd recommend using EAC.  Take a nose profile from the lead in, use a noise reduction setting between 6 and 12 db to deal with tape hiss or surface noise and live with the result.  The resulting sound will not be CD clean but if the material is good enough to listen to in the original format I think you will enjoy the results.  I'm looking forward to the day that I can sit at my computer and jump around in my entire LP collection with the click of a button in MJ.

Take care

George

[gvag]

C8 -

In general I agree with you about Wave Purity but it does depend on the program content.  I have one LP Chico Hamilton's "Passin' Thru" he uses a lot brushed cymbals in his style, its very bright and if you don't listen carefully you could almost think you were listening to surface noise or clicks.  Wave Purity "cleaned" the album and the result sounded terrible.  The drum work was totally destroyed.

cheers

[zevele1]

Thank you for your answers both.

AAD sounds like a good thing to me .I really like Analog\Analog\Digital wood...
I have-well not really-we have a cleaning machine[we put money together to get it].It is very very good BUT,after cleaning,you do not have the noise from dirt,the sound his much better,but the noises from scratchs on the lp have also a much better sound.......

I have my stereo just behind me when on my computer-speakers are in front of me-so i may not need to spend on a soundcard with pre-amp.

I will give a try at the Carolus 8 software and EAC.Most of my lps are mint.The punk ones are not for sure.But a punk song without any scratchs is not really a punk song

If Sony not that much [blank blank],i would be able to transfert my mini-discs of 7" sixties psy-garage to the computer,but....

[joe|PLS|mama]

gvag linked to this site in his first post.  I'm posting it again, just because I think it's a great site with a lot of helpful info.  It helped me figure things out when I decided to start transferring my vinyl to digital.

I also am just starting to get a grasp on the whole process, and it is very time consuming.  I've been using Cool Edit 2000 for recording and cleaning.  I am using the Echo Digital Audio MIA soundcard for recording and output to my stereo receiver.  It has both analog and digital in and out.  I have a Stanton STR8-100 turntable that has a built in preamp and can switch between line level and phono level analog output as well as digital out.

The main thing I've realized is that to get good results, most of the cleaning has to be done manually.  Unless you are fairly knowlegable when it comes to the various settings that are available in any of the automatic cleaning software, it is very easy to end up with very bad sounding "clean" files.  Because of this I've been doing just a  minimal amount noise reduction (Take a noise profile from the lead in, use a noise reduction setting between 6 and 12 db to deal with tape hiss or surface noise and live with the result.) and a little manual pop and click removal.  The main goal is just to start getting stuff transferred, so I can start thinning out my vinyl.  I'm saving all the original wave files compressed with APE, so I can go back later and do more cleaning/editing if needed.

Rob


Listening to: 'Overture From Tommy' from 'Soundtrack: Tommy' by 'The Who' on Media Jukebox