I too gad some old blues recordings that were 78s but my albums were on vinyl fir the transcription.
In addition to using Audacity I used Brian Davies’ tools.
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Click Repair to get rid of the clicks and pops - see this sticky thread: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/click-pop-removal-clickrepair-software/1933/1
I had already purchased this for my other vinyl transfers. -
Then I went to work on them with his DeNoise: http://www.clickrepair.net/software_info/denoise.html
As I only had 2 LPs to process I did all the work within the 14-day free-trial that Brian allows.
DeNoise is much harder to use tha ClickRepair you have to fiddle with the settings mor to get a good result;
Plus I found that as they had all come from differen 78s’ I had to work on each song on the LPs separately.
But the great thing about Brian’s applications is that you can monitor:
a) the input raw signal
b) the output processed signal
c) the “noise” that is being removed.
And note you can switch between these modes while the audio is being processed, very useful that is.
c) is very useful as it enables you to make sure you are not removing too much music with the “noise”
See this wotkflow on 78s transcription: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/recording_78_rpm_records.html
obviously only part of it will apply to you with the recording you already have on CD.
Do let us know how you get on …
WC