Audacity Forum

Hi,

I use Audacity for toying around only, but is there a way to make cristal clear tracks sound like crackled vinyl-tracks, just for effect? I remember being able to do that with Audacity, but I can't seem to find the option anymore...? I can only find how to remove them...

Thanks

Yes. Most people want to remove noise, but a subset of production folks need to go the other way. One of the most popular technologies on the video web sites is how to make crystal clear video look like old film.

I don't remember anything like that coming with a normal install of Audacity, but could it have been a plugin?

http://audacityteam.org/download/nyquistplugins

It's not just pops, of course, it's also groove noise and slightly reduced frequency response depending on year.

Koz

Yeah, I might have confused it with a simple feedback increase..
I'll just download the plug-in then? If there is any plug-in to do this?

Thanks

<<<If there is any plug-in to do this?>>>

Yes. If there is. Don't download it if you can't find one.

You gotta do the legwork. I think most VST plugins and some Nyquist work.

You might also need the "VST Bridge" software, but that might be a Mac thing.

Here it is:

http://audacityteam.org/help/faq?s=inst ... st-enabler

Koz

Found an effective VST plug-in here:
http://www.izotope.com/

It's pretty neat, I'd say.. thanks again!

Another way would be to find an older LP with lots of crackles and pops. Retain this original recording - on a copy of the recording do your crackle/pop removal by any preferred method. Now subtract the cleaned up recording from the original - and you shold be left with a "hoise" track. You can then mix this noise track with any future recordings that you want to make noisy.

WC

<<<find an older LP >>>

Or any of my LPs.

But this is the desperation method when all else fails. Simple mixing doesn't work perfectly for audio noise and it doesn't work for film dirt very well, either. Film dirt creates an optical "crater" around each particle and each particle is completely opaque. The real thing just looks different than when when you try to mix dirty, clear film with your clean show. I spent hours in an edit bay trying to make that look right.

Similarly, record noise burns itself into the music, it doesn't just lay on top. When the needle smacks into a cat hair, it lifts off the record for a milisecond or two and distorts the sound before and after. Very different sound. But if that's what you got, then that's what you got. If you do everything else right, sometimes you can get the audience to go along with you. Nobody listening to a "Prairie Home Companion" thinks that an actual phone call is being made on the show, but several million people go along with the skit anyway.

Koz

That's too complex a method for me anyway