removing pops from vinyl to digit transfers

Z

zepster

New Member
Hey,

I wasn't sure as to where I should address my post so I'll post it here, mods can eventually redirect it to its proper place.

I am looking for some professional software on which I can clean up/remove pops from transfers of my vinyl albums. Any advice what kind of tools I should use to remove them gently without disturbing existing audio?

Thx in advance
 
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I use Izotope RX.

If you want capable declicking/depopping, you definitely have to pay some serious money for it. Things like Audacity, Sony Audio Studio, and Goldwave will either be almost completely ineffective or will leave serious artifacts in your finished file.
 
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I use to dabble w/ that ... until I lost interest. Spent a good number of hours manually editing a Vinyl transfer of an Vg LP ... it turned out great :angel:

... then I came across a NM- copy in a record store a week later for less money than I paid for the Vg :rolleyes:.

Only do this on extremely rare occasions now for some Vinyl that never made it to Redbook CD.

Audacity is free (fun to use also) ... Click Repair was good on the paid side ... if you want a program to do all the work for you. Not sure how Click Repair is these days ... the Demo version I tried some years ago ... worked well.


Audacity Demonstration
 
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Vinyl Studio works well. The de-clicking program can be adjusted to have very minimal effect and impact for really clean albums or it can be adjusted to do a very nice job of cleaning up albums that have a lot of "issues". I've been using VS for over a year now and I like it. I haven't used it a lot, because I tend to listen to vinyl using a turntable, but for my favorites I like to digitize so that I can put them on my phone. Using the "default" de-clicking program is a bit too severe (but is highly effective), but with adjustments (easy to do- point and click) it can record your nice vinyl in high resolution (if you have an appropriate A/D) and de-click it to whatever extent you wish to.
 
I do it manually with Audacity. IMO, it's very effective but some problems just need personal attention- automatic routines only do part of the work. Problem is, it's time consuming. If there's an album I really want, I might spent 4-6 hours fixing it up. FWIW, I've found many albums where the result of a good LP transfer is better than a "remastered" commercial CD.
 
I second the vote for audacity. I clean my records, so the clicks and pops are not too many. The click remover is adjustable so you have to tweak it a bit, it is less than 1minute on a side to scan. It only gets the bad stuff, not perfect, but OK.
 
Poinzy said:
I use Izotope RX.

If you want capable declicking/depopping, you definitely have to pay some serious money for it. Things like Audacity, Sony Audio Studio, and Goldwave will either be almost completely ineffective or will leave serious artifacts in your finished file.
Click to expand...
Audacity ( free ) will work just fine, providing that each and every click is removed "manually" . This is the only way to
remove clicks that does not removes some other audio. Time-consuming but you do this only once.
 
With a really good setup, pops could be to a minimum. The more time I spend tweaking my TT/arm the sweeter it sounds. Not saying they are gone but, the music comes through more than any noise.
Getting all parameters tweaked is number one.
 
PDM4606,
You just said a mouthfull! Getting your arm and cartridge set properly, is an art. All the talk about, silabants and inner grove distortion are made much worse by errors in cartridge setup, even small ones. This is ignored by many because they do not understand the alienment proceedure and they say that is close enough. The Line Contact stylus makes it even more critical. Get EDUCATED it is not that hard.
 
Freddymac2 said:
PDM4606,
You just said a mouthfull! Getting your arm and cartridge set properly, is an art. All the talk about, silabants and inner grove distortion are made much worse by errors in cartridge setup, even small ones. This is ignored by many because they do not understand the alienment proceedure and they say that is close enough. The Line Contact stylus makes it even more critical. Get EDUCATED it is not that hard.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with you. Proper cartridge alignment makes a serious difference in sound. You can get a Mobile Fidelity Geo-Disc ($49) if you want easy.

https://www.amazon.com/Mobile-Fidel...e=UTF8&qid=1467645761&sr=8-1&keywords=geodisk

As for me, I use a DB Systems protractor I bought in the early 80's. For those who are bargain hunters you can download one of several available at vinyl engine. You have to register and sign in (free) to be able to download. I also strongly recommend a stylus pressure gauge. I used a Shure SFG-2 for years before buying an electronic scale from turntable needles for less than $30. It's the same scale Acoustic Sounds and Needle Doctor are selling for $50.
 
ConradH said:
I do it manually with Audacity. IMO, it's very effective but some problems just need personal attention- automatic routines only do part of the work. Problem is, it's time consuming. If there's an album I really want, I might spent 4-6 hours fixing it up. FWIW, I've found many albums where the result of a good LP transfer is better than a "remastered" commercial CD.
Click to expand...

Agreed. The automatic noise reduction is a poor compromise. I use Apple GarageBand. You can look at the waveform and remove problems by actually chopping out a segment of the music up to 20 mS and it will not be noticeable. Some percussion looks the same as pops or clicks and manual attention is needed to tell the difference.
 
Click Repair
http://www.clickrepair.net/noise/intermittent_noise.html
Is a great tool for removing the majority of the clicks and pops on an album. It allows for either fully automatic removal, or manual removal of clicks and pops. I use it in a semi-manual way that ensures that I am removing all audible clicks and pops, but not affecting the sound of the music. As with any click/pop removal software, it is possible to set the settings so aggressive that music transients are affected. Or set them so low that some clicks or pops remain undetected. The trick is to find the right setting for the album. It can vary quite a bit depending on the type of music. Click repair is not a filter. It does not affect the music except in the areas that it identifies as a click or pop. It then only changes those few samples required to remove the click. The settings just affect the detection threshold.
I use it in a semi-automatic way that allows me to change the threshold on the fly. On quiet passages, I increase the sensitivity to remove the clicks and pops. But on very dynamic passages, I decrease the sensitivity to prevent it falsely identifying fast music transients as clicks or pops. I also set it to show me what it thinks is a click or pop and let me decide to allow the software to fix it (or not). With a little practice you can pretty easily tell the difference between a real click and a music transient. Or you can try listening to what it identifies as a click and hear it with and without the click removed.
It takes a bit of work, but the result is a file that has all of the audible clicks and pops removed, while not affecting the music. If you are a bit less anal about it, the automatic processing works very well and is capable of removing most of the clicks and pops quickly and easily. If you use this method, I suggest that you listen to just the samples that are changed (the software allows you to listen to either the original, the repaired version, or just the changed samples). If you hear any trace of the original song beat in the changed samples, then the settings are too high and you are affecting the music transients. If it sounds just like random clicks and pops, then you are good.
I have verified that Click Repair only changes the few samples required to fix the click or pop. The vast majority of the file stays 'bit perfect' with the original.

Terry
 
Have you tried playing with the cartridge load? Maybe a lower resistor(if using an MM cart.) could help by reducing the high end
.
 
I have added a variable resistor pair to control some high end rattle from older LP's. A very slight adjustment of the VR makes an improvement. Depends on the LP and cart.
 
Two step approach usually. I do complete sides using a dbx SNR1 in line with the table to lower the noise floor, saving them to uncompressed WAV. Then I post process with software.

Why WAV? Because my copy of SoundForge is old enough that it doesn't do FLAC. It does however have one killer pop and click filter with various presets that work perfectly with different types and condition vinyls. Enough so that I set up my system to dual boot to XPsp3 because it won't run in W8.1 ...

Once I process the full sides in SoundForge, I import the file to Audacity to break it up into tracks and add tag info, then save those cuts to FLAC for the final copy.

PS ... Just using Audacity does a real decent job with most albums. As with everything, moderation is the key. Any automated routine will kill good music if overused - that's where the ability to manually edit the bad crunchies AFTER running the standard filter can work wonders.
 
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