Click removal ignores some clicks

[theSeaHawk]

MacBook 1.83 Ghz, 2 gb RAM, OS X 10.4.11.
Audacity 1.2.5

I recorded an LP with some fairly pronounced clicks. When I highlight the waveform over them and select Effect > Click removal, the click removal dialog box opens. Whether I have the sliders in the middle, or move them to either side, when I click "remove clicks" it has no effect on the click at all. Some of these clicks go all the way up and down on the waveform.

Am I doing something wrong? what is the best setting for medium to high click forms? or do I need to "draw" those out?

thanks

[kozikowski]

Click and pop removal is always a juggling act. Remove the pops without removing the percussion.

<<<I do capture, then click removal is my very first processing step (I use Brian Davies' ClickRepair tool).>>>

That's the current tool of choice. It's money-based software, but it supposed to be terrific at it.

http://www.macmusic.org/software/view.p ... lickRepair

Koz

[theSeaHawk]

Thanks, Koz

Can you explain what the two sliders do in the "click and pop removal" dialog box?

1. "Select threshold (lower is more sensitive)"
Does this refer to the vertical height of a click spike? Would setting the slider lower (to the left) target clicks with shorter spikes as well as the tall ones?

2. "Max spike width (higher is more sensitive)"
Does this refer to the horizontal spread of a spike on the waveform?

In your workflow do you break the captured audio into tracks before click repair?

[waxcylinder]

See also this sticky thread: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1994

What I do is: capture, then click/pop removal with ClickRepair as the first bit of processing, the other editing including breaking up the audio into tracks and cleaning up the inter-track gaps - finally I use Effect >Amplify to bring the level up to -1 to -0.6 dB - and then Export.

WC

[theSeaHawk]

What I do is: capture, then click/pop removal with ClickRepair as the first bit of processing, the other editing including breaking up the audio into tracks and cleaning up the inter-track gaps - finally I use Effect >Amplify to bring the level up to -1 to -0.6 dB - and then Export.

WC

Following capture in Audacity, you export the whole lp side as a single aiff or wav and then do click/pop removal with CR on that exported file?

Can Audacity then do the remaining steps on the aiff file or does it need to be brought back into audacity and saved as a new project in .aup?

[waxcylinder]

1) I capture side<n> in Audacity with Audacity set at 44.1kHz 32-bit floating (the default).

2) I mark the approximate label points as I record - place cursor at point required and click CTRL+B

3) I export a single WAV for side<n> at 32-bit float

4) I leave the Audacity project open

5) I pass this file through the ClickRepair software, it returns a 32-bit float WAV file with cr appended to its file name (e.g. side<n>cr.WAV

6) I return to the Audacity project and then Import the clickrepaired WAV file back into the open project.

7) I delete the originally recorded track (use the X in the top left hand corner of the track)

8) Click and drag the label track to below the clickrepaired track

9) Carry on with remaining editing in Audacity: cleaning inter-track gaps, adjust label positions, possible fade-ins/outs etc.

10) Edit the labels for songnames (I use 01 <songname-1>, 02 <songname-2> etc. as this helps keep them in the right order for CD production or loading into iTunes)

11) I normally Use Effect > Amplify as my last editing step to bring the amplitude up to -1dB

12) Export multiple, downsampling, to produce a set of WAVs at 44.1kHz 16-bit PCM stereo files

13) Repeat for next side of LP

AFAIK you can work in AIFF rather than WAV with the ClickRepair software but I haven't tested this.

WC

You have prompted me to get on with a task I have had on my to-do list for a while: I will get on with working up a more detailed version of this sketch workflow as a tutorial for the Audacity Manual.

[theSeaHawk]

Glad to nudge
In the meantime I followed pretty much that same workflow, working one side at a time and exporting to AIFF when it went to CR. I may try the step of keeping the original project open then importing the CR'd file back into it, though I tend to keep a complete copy at each major step that I can roll back to if needed.

Now I have to decide whether to reverse the RIAA EQ on my early 50s LPs and 78s before or after doing the CR....

[waxcylinder]

Now I have to decide whether to reverse the RIAA EQ on my early 50s LPs and 78s before or after doing the CR....

Yes you should do the reverse RIAA and then apply the proper EQ for each particular recording. See this tutorial I worked up recently (with a lot of help from previous posts on the forum): http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... pm_records

WC

[waxcylinder]

Following SeaHawk's nudge - I have today put up a draft of my LP digitization workflow process as a tutorial page in the manual - see: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... gitization

Feedback and comments welcomed ...

WC

[theSeaHawk]

Thanks for the tutorial. I will provide comments in due time as I absorb and learn more as I go.

One thing I have noticed, when I export an LP side from Audacity as AIFF it will prompt me to fill in metadata for the file. I do that with just the name of the artist and the name of the LP, and any comments that apply to the whole LP. I find that when I bring that AIFF back into Audacity to split out the tracks, EQ, etc., that the information above is retained and the track metadata is therefore pre-populated. Then instead of manually naming each track with a number, use the track numbering in Audacity metadata and/or iTunes. This will force iTunes to recognize the LP running order, instead of cluttering up the song titles with numbers. I don't believe WAV carries metadata.

Thanks again for all your help!