Declickers for Cool Edit

[metalbob]

Has anyone tried an alternate declicker than the one included with Cool Edit Pro? I downloaded this one to try it out:

http://www.jdklein.com/clickfix/index.htm

[-=Rudy=-]

If you can use DirectX, I think you can use Sonic Foundry's "noise reduction" plugin which includes a declicker. Does nice work!

[Grant]

Yes, Cool Edit does accept Direct-X. I use both ClickFix and SF NR along with Cool Edit's declicker.

[metalbob]

Which do you prefer and for what reasons?

[Grant]

I like all of them.

CLICKFIX-Good for very light jobs where the preservation of transients is important. Otherwise, not that effective on heavier work.

COOL EDIT-Can do fantastic work, except that it is the hardest to configure, requires lots of trial, can be slow if configured as such, and better if not used on a whole file at once.

SOUND FORGE NR-It will destroy transients to a degree if you want it to be of any use at all. It is the best of the three at tackling crackle.

[metalbob]

I tried the ClickFix and it did a pretty good job. I tried a suggestion on their website called LP Polish. I checked the spots where the clicks were and it seemed like it was actually fixing music instead of clicks. But, on playback, I didn't notice any distortion. There were literally only a few spots it fixed, so maybe it is better? I have one crackly record I need test it out on that is pretty mellow on the volume side, so I might a get a good chance at checking it out.

[Grant]

Metalbob,

Can you or anyone else provide a link to Jeffery Klein's website? I lost or can't find mine. I'd like to check out this LP Polish.

[jkerr]

Originally posted by Grant
Metalbob,

Can you or anyone else provide a link to Jeffery Klein's website? I lost or can't find mine. I'd like to check out this LP Polish.

here it is:

http://www.jdklein.com/clickfix/index.htm

Myself I only use ClickFix. I'm not that fussy about de-clicking because my vinyl xfers are mainly just to make cdrs for convenience. So this meets my requirements perfectly.

[Grant]

I don't see any links to anything called LP polish...

[metalbob]

Originally posted by Grant
I don't see any links to anything called LP polish...

I think it is in the Tips and Tricks section. You must download the full version to try it out.

BOB

[Grant]

Oh, I thought you meant that it was a software program.

[Chris R]

Think I'll try these alternate de-clickers for my next project, a mono MMT vinyl rip.

I mastered my old warn Canadian mono Sgt. Pepper (first pressing, black rainbow Capitol) yesterday. I got tired of staring at those expensive auctions of eBay everyday. :rolleyes:

The "Click Pop Eliminator" feature in Cool Edit Pro worked magic on this album. There are still some clicks that even manually I couldn't remove, but overall the de-clicker (and I) removed about 95% of the pops and crackles. The overall result is obviously not as good as a mint U.K. mono LP would produce, since there is some deep groove damage from the early years of our Sears record player back home, but then again, I didn't have to shell out $350. Canadian either. :)

As mentioned my mono MMT is up next. I'm probably going to make a twofer CD-R with some bonus tracks such as the mono It's All Too Much and Only A Northern Song.

[metalbob]

Originally posted by miike
Think I'll try these alternate de-clickers for my next project, a mono MMT vinyl rip.

I mastered my old warn Canadian mono Sgt. Pepper (first pressing, black rainbow Capitol) yesterday. I got tired of staring at those expensive auctions of eBay everyday. :rolleyes:

The "Click Pop Eliminator" feature in Cool Edit Pro worked magic on this album. There are still some clicks that even manually I couldn't remove, but overall the de-clicker (and I) removed about 95% of the pops and crackles. The overall result is obviously not as good as a mint U.K. mono LP would produce, since there is some deep groove damage from the early years of our Sears record player back home, but then again, I didn't have to shell out $350. Canadian either. :)

As mentioned my mono MMT is up next. I'm probably going to make a twofer CD-R with some bonus tracks such as the mono It's All Too Much and Only A Northern Song.

I just did a UK Blue box needle drop on a bunch of them and did Sgt. Pepper in stereo with the 4 tracks from Yellow Submarine as a bonus. I started doing 2-fers, but decided to do separate records with corresponding singles and b-sides as bonus cuts.

If you have some minor groove wear, you can zoom in and some times see little jagged marks on the soundwave and you can click-fill them that way. It would take quite a bit of time if you had a lot though.

I am going to test out Click Fix on another project this week. I tested it a bit last night and in most cases it worked well. If you do it lightly and it appears to have fixed a non-click, maybe you can silence the non-clicks and copy the file and INVERT PASTE over the original? That would work I think.

[Chris R]

Just re-ripped a very click laden "Only A Northern Song" which I did yesterday. Much better results with "Click Fix". It worked about 10 times as fast too. Very impressed.

Thanks MetalBob! :)

[metalbob]

Originally posted by Grant
I don't see any links to anything called LP polish...

I finally purchased the full software after trying out the demo again all these months later. I must say, this thing works like a charm. Where Cool Edit's declicker was actually taking days off of my life because it was so slow, this thing is very quick.

The LP Polish in the Tips and Tricks sections needs to be tweaked slightly. If you use all the specs except lower the Minimize/Maximize fader down to 25-20, it works great. I was stunned at how clean my recordings became.

[Paul C.]

Regarding manually declicking...how do you best do this in CoolEdit? I have tried myself, and could not figure out how to do it. I had some tracks that were from a good LP which had just a few odd loud clicks here and there. I zoomed right in to the portion of the track where they were located, but I couldn't figure out how to manipulate the wave form.

In the end I did a cut and paste from an adjacent part of the waveform to eliminate the click - seemed to work fine and was inaudible. But I thought there must be a better way.

[Grant]

Paul, just find the click, zoom in on it, using the spectral view if you have to, highlight JUST the click with a small amount of space around it, then hit the "Fill Single Click" button.

I have been favoring an FFT setting of 250 lately. It takes a bit longer, but it is more transparent than the default of 32.

For zapping thuds, the "Fill Single Click" button in the ClickFix plug-in works wonders!

[metalbob]

Originally posted by Paul Christie
Regarding manually declicking...how do you best do this in CoolEdit? I have tried myself, and could not figure out how to do it. I had some tracks that were from a good LP which had just a few odd loud clicks here and there. I zoomed right in to the portion of the track where they were located, but I couldn't figure out how to manipulate the wave form.

In the end I did a cut and paste from an adjacent part of the waveform to eliminate the click - seemed to work fine and was inaudible. But I thought there must be a better way.

If you are having trouble finding it, use Spectral View and you can usually spot it because it will be a very thin line on the wave form. With viewing it as wave, you can usually see that the click is jagged, while the rest of the wave is relatively smooth. Some smaller clicks are harder to see but, after doing it enough, you will be able to spot them like nothing.