Is it ok to leave sensitivity at 0?
Is setting the DBs at 4 too low?
I also do not using high or low pass filter, I don’t really hear anything that needs to be corrected.
Windows 7 user.
Technics 1200 to ART Phono Plus to PC using Audacity 2.0.5
TT and cart all set up properly, all vinyl in EX or better condition.
You have to do it experimentally case-by-case. Some records may require different settings from others. You often have to compromise between maximum noise reduction and minimum artifacts.
For clicks & pops, try the Click Removal effect or look for special-purpose vinyl clean-up software.
Is it ok to leave sensitivity at 0?
The manual says zero is “off”, so at zero nothing should happen.
I use clickrepair. I love it.
Not sure what happens when sensitivity is kept at 0, but something definitely does. I wave file visibly changes once I run it through.
Pretty sure it’s fine, I’m really conservative with the tweaks, I just don’t know if I grasp what exactly is going on with the sensitivity thing.
Thanks for the reply.
Just read this:
----New method sensitivity
This control determines (does not equal) the multiple of the mean power of each frequency band of the noise profile that is used as a threshold in discrimination. The default value is 6 when advanced controls are hidden.
The intention is that the setting approximates the negative of the base ten logarithm of the probability that a band of a window of noise will exceed the threshold and so remain as a “tinklebell” visible as a spot in the spectrogram. Thus the default setting is meant to correspond to 1 in 1 million. At the usual sampling rate of 44100 Hz and window size of 2048 and four steps per window, there are 1025 bands per window and 86.133 windows per second; a miss rate of one in a million should therefore mean approximately one such bell every 11 seconds (1000000 / (1025 * 86.133)), though not always at an audible frequency.----
Say what?
Is sensitivity at 0 too low?
Should I update Audacity to the 2.1?
FWIW, I use a low pass filter to taste, but always use a high pass to eliminate inaudible low frequency rumble. Firstly, if untreated it can damage speakers in the wrong circumstances, and more importantly it tends to tighten up the definition of low frequencies/bass within the audible range.
That was written by a developer, hence the obscure technical language about “mean power of each frequency band” et al.
The old “Noise Removal” effect has been replaced by a new “Noise Reduction” effect in the current version of Audacity. The interface of the new version is quite similar to the old version, but the required settings have changed. The new version should perform better than the old version, but you will need different settings for it to do so.
In the new version, sensitivity at 0 is too low - it will not reduce the noise level at all.
Sensitivity should normally be about 6.
Frequency smoothing should usually be a small value greater than 0. Try setting it to 1. Increase it a little (perhaps up to 3) if there are noticeable “tinkles” after processing.
The noise reduction amount should be the lowest that gives an adequate amount of noise reduction. Try starting with the default (12) then try it at a lower setting - look for the lowest setting that reduces the noise enough.
Thanks.
What would be good very conservative high pass settings?
My ART Phono Plus interface has a ‘low cut filter’, is that the same?
I guess I’ll download the new Audacity.
Thanks
Audicity recommends 24dB rolloff and 20-30hz cutoff.
Can someone explain to me what this means? What happens when the rolloff is higher? Or the cutoff?
And why does the cutoff go in the 1000s? When would that ever be used (obviously not for vinyl recording, but still)
I’m not sure there is a one size fits all answer to this, and would imagine it depends on the mastering of your vinyl source, and the ability of your deck to reproduce meaningful low frequency content. FWIW I use a Technics 1210 which tends to be fairly good in that department, and I mainly rip dance/disco/funk 12" singles which often have a lot of low frequency content, so I usually set the high pass filter to 27hz with a 12dB/octave roll off to retain as much of that as possible.
For me that tends to be effective in eliminating the unwanted stuff from my system I can see on the spectrogram around 10-18hz (looks like a big hump on the raw rip). I would try to examine the spectrograms from a couple of your rips and proceed accordingly, but I guess the parameters I mentioned should probably be treated as close to the minimum.
My ART Phono Plus interface has a ‘low cut filter’, is that the same?
Not sure, but a digital filter should be be more transparent in every sense.
The filter will act from 30 Hz down. There’s no audio there, but rumble from the record, from the turntable motor and bearing.
A 24 dB rolloff is the steepness of the filter. Back in analog days, 6 or 12 was usually the choice. 18 or 24 was much harder. In the digital world, it doesn’t matter.
What it means is that at half the cut-off frequency, the signal will be 24 dB lower. So 30 Hz is -3 dB, 15 Hz is -24 dB and lower frequencies are even lower level. A typical steep rumble filter.
And why does the cutoff go in the 1000s? When would that ever be used (obviously not for vinyl recording, but still)
There are low-pass and high-pass filters. A typical example of the high-pass is the rumble filter that eliminates almost everything under 30 Hz. A typical low-pass filter is an FM-radio filter, that passes everything under 15 KHz because typical FM stereo radio doesn’t allow for anything higher.
Obviously, for a low-pass filter, you need to set the cut-off high enough or you’ll cut away almost everything. That’s a quite common mistake. I always have to think about the meaning of low-pass and high-pass. It doesn’t compute easiliy 
Always try to prevent the signal from entering the preamp if you can.
I don’t know the rumble filter on the ART, but usually these guys know what they’re doing, so I presume it’s an analog filter at the input. If no mess goes in, the preamp can use it’s entire dynamic range for the music. And analog filters can be pretty clean too, if not to steep and well-designed.
While digital filters mostly are very clean, the preamp (microphone or RIAA) is your main worry. It’s limited in a lot of ways and nothing should be wasted. Once you’re up to line level, or in the digital realm, you can waste all you like. At that level, signal-to-noise ratio and distortion can be forgotten.
A mic or RIAA preamp has to be able to take a 1 millivolt signal to 1,000 millivolt, ideally. That’s a lot of gain. And doing that without hissing and puffing, can’t be done by a lot of the lesser preamps. If you feed those a good signal, it’ll work. But if you feed those a weak signal, polluted with rumble and noise, they will add noise and distortion and what comes out isn’t usable anymore.
Well no, actually. Perhaps counterintuitively, with pass filters the cut-off is the frequency where 3dB of attenuation has already occurred.
A 24 dB rolloff is the steepness of the filter. Back in analog days, 6 or 12 was usually the choice. 18 or 24 was much harder. In the digital world, it doesn’t matter.
Hmmm. Not even digital filters are perfect, and as a general rule the steeper the roll off the more unwanted artifacts are produced. There is also a negative psychoacoustic effect of steep filters, although I will grant you that could well not be an issue with subsonic frequencies, hard to test experimentally, however, given you would need en enormous PA sound system!
A mic or RIAA preamp has to be able to take a 1 millivolt signal to 1,000 millivolt, ideally. That’s a lot of gain. And doing that without hissing and puffing, can’t be done by a lot of the lesser preamps. If you feed those a good signal, it’ll work. But if you feed those a weak signal, polluted with rumble and noise, they will add noise and distortion and what comes out isn’t usable anymore.
Are you sure about that or do you have any kind of supporting link? I have to tell you, when I read that passage the flashing sirens and alarm bells were going into overdrive on my bullshit detector!
I’m going to use the low cut filter on my ART interface instead of any audacity filters.
In case anyone wanted to know.
The Low Cut on the Art interface does the same job, and will save you time and effort. Unfortunately the Art manual does not say what the cut-off frequency is, or how fast it rolls off low frequencies, but as this interface is designed for phono input, it will hopefully be around 20 Hz cut-off and steep enough to be effective. The important thing to check is that it does not reduce bass in the music.
No bass reduction at all. And to be honest, I can’t tell anything really (Not that you can tell when subsonics are removed).
All I know is what’s left is a nice clean recording with tight bass (depending on the record, of course).
Look at the meters when the needle is in a silent groove…
Alternatively, switch to spectral view and try to grok the picture. Use a not-so-good record, fi one that has a badly centered hole or is a bit warped.
