[sdiy] Build a board to restore audio

[Seb Francis]

Richard Wentk wrote:

> At 07:53 28/11/2002 -0800, you wrote:
> >     This is a task that is probably best accomplished in the digital
> >domain.  I have not actually tried any of the programs that remove
> >"noises" from records, but a friend who has tried a couple told me to
> >save my money.  He felt that they made the recordings sound muddy.
> >Removing big scratches is fairly easy, however, but it is time
> >consuming.  I just use Cool Edit.  A scratch is generally only a couple
> >of samples long.  I just grab the peak and drag it back in line.
>
> Cool Edit Pro has some *excellent* automated click 'n sizzle noise
> reduction tools. I use it to get rid of pops and glitches for mastering
> CDs. No mud at all. Doesn't seem to screw up the transients either. It's a
> bit more expensive than the other products, but it's still going to be
> cheaper than trying to build something as good in hardware.
>
> Obviously if you're trying to pull audio out of vinyl that's seriously
> fried, it's going to be hard to do that without some processing artefacts.
> If the information is lost, it's pretty damn hard to recover it. But if you
> have mud, you can always add some sparkle back with an exciter. BBE are
> doing a plug-in version of their Maximiser now. It works pretty well.

BTW, you can get vinyl cleaned with a special machine - I had this done once when putting together a compilation CD and one of the artists had lost the original DAT master.  This helped a lot to reduce noise .. but it obviously won't help scratches in the vinyl.

Seb