Posted by Scott Dorsey on 04/28/06 14:58

swangdb <swangdb@auburn.edu> 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.

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."

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