On my Mac I’ve been working on digitizing some 78s of varying conditions using Audacity, and on a few less stellar discs I can’t get rid of some crackle that seems to sound more prominent after cleaning up the noise. Reducing the treble helps a bit. Per the manual I tried Goldwave for the first time which got rid of the crackles but also got artifacts. Worth playing with a little, but now that I’m gradually getting the hang of Audacity I’m wondering if it’s possible to use both apps on one song and what would be the procedure (how do you first save it, which would you use first, etc.). I’m using the web platform for Goldwave. I realize there’s only so much you can do with some 78s but want to give it a shot. Thanks for any suggestions.
I’m a long-time GoldWave user!
Your choice of application doesn’t affect recording quality (assuming no "problems’). The software just has to capture the digital audio stream from Windows and the drivers and send it to the hard drive.
But any processing, effects, or filtering, etc., will be different.
There are lots of specialized programs for cleaning-up digitized vinyl (and shellac 
). Wave Corrector is now FREE. I’ve used it a couple of times and I’ve had Wave Repair ($30 USD) for many years. Wave Repair is “manual” so it’s time-consuming and it’s better for individual clicks and pops than for continuous crackle. (It can do an audibly perfect job on most, but not all, clicks & pops.)
…But I’ve never digitized a '78.
Since 78’s are generally mono the noise is theoretically reduced by -3dB when left & right are combined, or if one side is better than the other you can choose the best side.
See this suggested workflow in the Audacity manual:
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/recording_78_rpm_records.html
Peter
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