Audacity Forum

With my LP conversions I always do click removal as the first process immediately after record/capture - and amplification is always the last step prior to export to production WAV files. I used to do click removal by hand - using the draw tool in 1.2.x - and in 1.3 using the Repair effect. But a couple of years ago I bought a copy of Brian Davies' excellent ClickRepair software - see this sticky thread: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1994

What I do in outline is:
record one side of an LP (Audacity set to 32-bit float 44.1kHz)
Export to a 32-bit WAV file
Process this through ClickRepair to produce a cleaned 32-bit WAV
re-import this into Audacity
Label songs and clean inter-track gaps
Export multiple WAVs downsampling to 16-bit 44.1kHz

I note your comment about batch processing for click removal - Brian's ClickRepair can be set up to work in batch mode if that is required.

WC

Thanks Waxy,
I had not heard of ClickRepair before. Also, thanks for sharing your workflow routine.

waxcylinder wrote:if you have a multi-track project that you wish to preserve, then saving the project is the easiest way to back it it. Easiest but still not the safest - cautious people with such projects will export each track as a separate WAV file

Are you saying that if I have a project with 20+ tracks, then every time I want to save that project, I should individually save each of those 20+ tracks as a .WAV file, and then import them back into Audacity one at a time every time I'm ready to resume working on the project again?

Or am I hearing you wrong?

Rorser:

I downloaded all of Brian Davies' apps about a month ago. The ones you might need are ClickRepair and DeNoise. You can use them for 21 days at no charge. They are $40 each thereafter.

After evaluation, my opinion is that ClickRepair is excellent and a timesaver. I will likely buy it. It works very well at default settings and can process a 3 minute song in a few seconds.

DeNoise is different. It is actually 2 application: DeNoise and DeNoise LF (which stands for low frequency). DeNoise does not seem to be an improvement on Audacity Noise Removal and in fact is harder to use because you cannot zoom into the waveform and grab the sample noise with the mouse as easily. DeNoise LF is excellent at what it does (primarily reduce very low frequencies as from turntable rumble)--but I think you can do that with Audacity High Pass filter. For those reasons, I will pass on DeNoise/Denoise LF.

The batch functions in Davies' applications are superb. You can load a bunch of songs into the ClickRepair and process them all at once--either with identical settings or with individual settings.

The general recommended workflow is:

derumble, declick, decrackle, debuzz, dehiss

In Davies-land, that would mean DeNoise LF for derumble, ClickRepair for declick, decrackle, debuzz, and lastly DeNoise for dehiss.

Decrackle (sounds like frying bacon) and debuzz are usually associated with 78 rpm shellac discs and likely would not apply to your situation---leaving you with derumble, declick, dehiss.

You can try derumbling with either DeNoise LF or Audacity High Pass, but you may not detect any change--depending on whatever turntable you may have used. So you may in reality be down to needing only declick and denoise.

Wax Cylinder's settings in ClickRepair are:

DeClick=30, DeCrackle=off, Pitch Protection=on, Reverse=on, Method=Wavelet.

I think the Davies default on Declick is 50.

Here are some comments I have saved from 2 forum members on the Davies apps:


Following from PDX:

I regularly use all three of Brian Davies' tools. My usual workflow is export each LP side from Audacity as 32bit WAV (for further processing) and as a FLAC for archiving the raw recording. Once I have the WAVs out of Audacity, I run them through deNoiseLF, ClickRepair, and deNoise (in that order). I'll them get back into Audacity and import the final WAV from deNoise for any manual cleanup as needed and for track splitting and final export of individual songs into MP3 or AACs (depending on destination.)

I generally haven't had a problem in deNoise selecting a bit of the recording's lead-in between the 'startup' distortion of setting the needle down or starting the TT and the beginning of the real 'show'. However, one trick that I have used (very) occasionally is to select and export the bit of lead-in audio from the raw Audacity recording where it's easy to zoom in. Export it in the same format and bit depth as the real LP side. (Don't forget to call it something different. Now, in deNoise, first open the lead-in WAV and use that to sample the noise. Then open the real show and process it without changing the sampling, which will remain 'sticky' from the short selection.

I'm not sure if deNoise is any better than the current Audacity noise removal, but I really do like the workflow better. What's great about deNoise is that you can listen to noise only, input , or output while it's processing. You can also change the settings on the fly and listen to the effect. Once you've got the settings you like for that one WAV, then click Abort, and Restart from the Beginning (or whatever that button label is). Turn off all sound for the final processing and it zips through pretty fast. Specifically what I do after doing the noise sample, is turn noise-only sound on, crank the output volume way up, and restart deNoise. I listen for anything musical or rhythmic mixed in with the noise, and adjust the noise-floor slider until I can barely hear any noise. I'll check what's getting removed visually by pausing the tool and looking at the display. You really have to read and understand the deNoise manual to make sense of the display. Once I'm satisfied with the settings, I restart the tools without changing any settings. Throughout, I almost always have "Limit Reduction" slider at 9 dB (default was 12 IIRC)

I usually run my needledrops through deNoiseLF and ClickRepair in batch mode (as long as everything in the batch was from similarly produced records and that I recorded similarly with Audacity.) I've never run anything through deNoise in batch, because the noise characteristics always seem a bit different, even the 2 sides of a single record (maybe one side got played a lot more.)

One note on my noise sampling 'trick'. Always put the noise sample WAV through the same processing that you do on the real show. In other words, I would deNoiseLF and ClickRepair the noise WAV before using it to sample in deNoise. You want the sample to be an extension of the real recording.

From BillW58

DeNoiseLF uses a completely different method for noise removal than DeNoise. Like others here, I've found that it's a toss-up between DeNoise and Audacity's noise removal. But DeNoiseLF is a completely different story. It can remove noise elements below 200 Hz much more effectively, and with minimal damage to the real audio, than DeNoise or Audacity. For that reason alone, I bought a licence for DeNoise, just to get DeNoiseLF

ignatz wrote:Rorser:

I downloaded all of Brian Davies' apps about a month ago. The ones you might need are ClickRepair and DeNoise. You can use them for 21 days at no charge. They are $40 each thereafter.

Thank you for the thorough discussion of Davies' apps. Sounds like surely some of these belong in my "toolbox".
Gratefully,
R

chillowack wrote:

waxcylinder wrote:if you have a multi-track project that you wish to preserve, then saving the project is the easiest way to back it it. Easiest but still not the safest - cautious people with such projects will export each track as a separate WAV file

Are you saying that if I have a project with 20+ tracks, then every time I want to save that project, I should individually save each of those 20+ tracks as a .WAV file, and then import them back into Audacity one at a time every time I'm ready to resume working on the project again?

Or am I hearing you wrong?

No I'm not saying that every time you Save a project that you should do that - regular Saving while you are actively working on a project is aa good and recommended thing

What I am saying is that if you want to (possibly at various stages in the project) create a set of files that are more stable and transportable than an Audacity project (which is avery complex set of interlinked files and can, depending on your Preferences settings, also be referencing external audio files) then you should Export a WAV file for each track.

WC

Got it, thanks for clarifying.