Software for ripping and declicking vinyl

[Coldacre]

Audacity is great for a free program. Unfortunately if you're using a Mac it won't let you record at anything higher than 44100 Hz.


Sound Studio 3.0 is another great program, very easy to use and allows you to record 24/96 on a Mac. it's definitely worth paying for.

ClickRepair is a no brainer for cleaning up surface noise. A little tip is to reverse the file before running it through.

[Alec124c41]

I use Audacity at 96000, preamp out to mike in.
ClickRepair is my next step. The same guy has another program called Equalizer, that will correct for the different curves used by different companies at different times. I think it also allows one to record 78s at 45, and correct the eq.
Alec

[pauliet]

I use Sony Sound Forge on a PC with an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card.

Sound Forge has a lot of good filters to remove unwanted snap, cracke and pop from your records. I have been using this software for two years with excellent results.

I am curently trying a demo of Diamond Cut (DC7) which is proported to have even better filters.

I record and process everything at 24 bits 96K samples, then I resample to 16/44.1 before making a CD. Yes, the files are a lot bigger but the processing and signal to noise is better this way.

I am not sure if either is software is available for the Mac.

[emanul2000]

Magix audio is wonderful, I've used adobe audio 3.0 and magix is much easier to use ( edits in realtime) to declick the magix sprctrum cleaning is unsurpassed. try it

[Werner]

I record on DVD+RW on a Tascam DV-RA1000. Then carry
over the disc to my PC for processing.

I reverse the files in Audition, then into ClickRepair for declicking (which is totally awesome and leagues ahead of anything else I've
ever tried).

Then they go back into Audition for reversal, setting of cue marks,
and then mild equalisation with Voxengo CurveEQ.

Sometimes I burn music-only 96/24 DVD-Vs, but often (80s new wave LPs and such...) I just stick with recording at 44.1k/24 and then final conversion in Audition with shaped dither (no noise shaping!).

[Distorted Vision]

I've been using Acoustica from Acon Digital and I think its excellent. Its much better than Audacity or Sony Soundforge for that matter.

Out of interest why do you reverse the audio before processing it with ClickRepair?

[Werner]

That was hinted by someone with a lot of CR experience, somewhere on the 'net.

I tried it once and it definitely was not worse, and probably even a bit better than straight processing.

I assume this could be because of the difference in fall time between a click and a transient in the music.

But again, CR is so good that reversal is not a hard requirement.

[floweringtoilet]

Personally, I am not a fan of anything that repairs clicks and pops automatically. I prefer to remove really noticeable clicks and pops individually and by ear in Adobe Soundbooth, then let well enough alone. The really bad ones stand out visually and aren't hard to spot once you know what you are looking for.

Amadeus Pro has a nice tool that seeks out cracks and lets you decide whether to repair them individually, and this can save time. But the results are not as good as the click removal and auto heal tools in Soundbooth. Click Repair has an option to let you accept or reject repairs manually, but you don't get to hear them in context as you can in Amadeus or Soundbooth.

Click Repair is a really powerful program, but it has it's limits. When I first tried it I was amazed at how much noise it was scrubbing out of my LP recordings. I had no idea my records were so noisy! And certainly when I listened to the noise output, everything the program was repairing sounded like surface noise. Then I noticed that the resulting files sounded strangely lifeless. Out of curiosity I ran some CD tracks through with the wavelet filter at the LP default of 50. The result? CR "repaired" nearly 14,000 separate "clicks" on a 3:00 CD track. Reducing the sensitivity will give less aggressive results, but it also increases the chances of leaving actual clicks in.

Separating clicks from music is a really computationally difficult task. Differentiating a hand clap or snare crack from a pop or click can sometimes be difficult for the human ear, let alone for an algorithm. The author of CR is very upfront about these limitations and the impossibility of definitively distinguishing music from damage.

CR is a great tool for cleaning up really noisy recordings, but for an average LP in good condition, I find I get better results just taking out the worst clicks and pops by ear and not fretting too much about noise that is inaudible behind the music.

Any method of click removal involves trade offs. Doing it by ear takes a long time, but in my experience it gives the best results. I do recommend trying the demo of Click Repair, because for cleaning up really noisy recordings it is great. Your mileage may vary, etc.

[Werner]

How CR acts depends entirely on how you set it up.

I use it in a semi-automatic mode with very mild processing. Tiny clicks are done automatically, and bigger ones interactively. This allows me to process an LP in about 15 minutes.

The results are, in the context of my system, rather stunning. And the workflow beats fully-manual click hunting in Adobe Audition.


You know, about two years ago I grew so dissatisfied with the Audition flow that I embarked on my own development of click detection and (eventually) repair routines. I threw all that out of the window when I discovered CR.

[floweringtoilet]

I don't doubt that excellent results can be achieved with CR, and that they very much depend on how the user sets up the program. I just want people to understand that there is no "free lunch" when it comes to noise removal. Doing it right takes some work.

[JaS]

I just want people to understand that there is no "free lunch" when it comes to noise removal. Doing it right takes some work.

I'll go with that. The first time I converted an LP I used every tool in my hiss/click/pop removal arsenal and it was only when I sat back to listen to the finished article that I realised something was amiss. Doing an A/B with the original file showed just how badly I'd got it wrong

My current workflow is time consuming but doesn't take the life out of the music for the sake of the odd click/pop. Having said that, I might trial Click Repair next time I fire up my ADC to see if it can save some time.

Regards,
JaS

[ripblade]

I've been needle-dropping (ripping vinyl) for several years and recommend WaveCorrector for de-click work. It only supports 16/44 or 48 but that is enough for the car. Simple and easy to use, it enables archive level repair, and the spectrogram makes finding missed clicks quite a bit easier.

http://www.wavecor.co.uk/

Vinyl sounds pretty good if it's recorded well. Avoid filters and eqs and give the record a good bath instead. It's too easy to fall to the misbelief that digital filters will fix what is wrong with an already superior format.

[punkyuk]

I don't doubt that excellent results can be achieved with CR, and that they very much depend on how the user sets up the program. I just want people to understand that there is no "free lunch" when it comes to noise removal. Doing it right takes some work.

I am finding this to be very true as i attempt to clean up a copy of "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" by Genesis.

I wouldn't mind but it aint that bad a copy either


Still its fun learning to use the software (Audacity) and i like the results so far.

yours punkyuk

[michaelevans60]

Audacity works fine for me - very well actually - when I first started needleripping I played with the auto de-clicking and clean up but it always seemed to take the vinyl "life" out of the rip. Now I leave it alone unless I know of a particular click or scratch and zoom in as close as I can to supress it.