Re: fixing hisses in audio recordings (idm)

From Che
Sent Thu, Feb 26th 1998, 10:51

On Mon, 23 Feb 1998 xxxxxxxx@xxx.xxxxxxx.xxx wrote:

> 
> 
> hi, i have a question about possible methods of reducing/eliminating the
> hiss which appears when vinyl-audio is recorded onto a hard drive for the
> purpose of digital storage/conversion...
> 
> i am primarily using soundedit 16 and was wondering if anyone knows where i
> can get the plug-ins which have such a "remove hiss" feature. i tried using
> the equalizer to minimize high range audio and that didn't quite work.
> 

I bought a copy of Raygun from Arboretum.  It's a Premier Plugin (works 
in DeckII, Logic Audio, Premier, others), though it comes with a 
standalone version that won't let you process regions.  It has hiss 
removal, pop removal, and rumble/50Hz/60Hz removal, minimal controls, 
all for $99.  I believe it's the "Easy Teenage New York Disco Version" 
(Zappa fans will understand this) of their Ionizer plugin.

In practice, it's ok, but leaves me wanting more powerful (ie more 
expensive) tools.  Its pop remover doesn't catch enough pops.  Its noise 
remover is too apt to remove music - for instance, I couldn't use it on 
the Gescom track, Sciew Spoc, I think, that has the breathy vocal pads 
because it removed the breathiness.  And the rumble remover tends to 
remove bass.  

To use it I copy the original stereo tracks, process the copies, invert 
them, and mix those with the originals & listen - what you're left with 
is _just_ the part that was removed.  Going between the mix, the 
original, and the processed version, I can get a feel for what's missing, 
and whether or not the music suffers for it.  Then I go through & clean 
up the worst pops by hand.  Manually scrubbing for pops is very time 
consuming and mind-numbing, so I've learned to live with some poppiness.

What I'd really like is a tool to remove pops that happen in square-wave 
peaks - they generate overflow errors in the DACs which cause all manner 
of nastiness in the sample.  It seems like such a simple thing to spot 
mathematically that I'm tempted to write one myself...

Not to start another flamewar, but after repeated close, close listenings
to vinyl records, I now think they sound even worse than I've said in the
past. Maybe Autechre thinks their music is "incomplete without surface
noise", but I for one don't appreciate it. 

Che