Mac: Using Peak for vinyl transfers

[AudioEnz]

As a Mac user, my choices appear to be a little more limited than PC users for good audio programs for vinyl transfers. However I've found Peak very good for a lot of audio work.

What I'm looking for is suggestions for making the most of Peak for vinyl transfers. For example, is it possible to manually declick (and if so, how?) Is it possible to remove record rumble (I'm very susceptable to this - even from quality turntables such as a Well Tempered or VPI Scout).

Are there any good tutorials on using Peak for vinyl transfers available on the web?

Any help appreciated.

[Holy Zoo]

I've used Peak for about 4 (?) years, and really like it.

I use it to manually declick. I do not know of an on-line tutorial. There are plugins that will do auto-declicking. Raygun is one, I think. It'll also remove hiss (evil, don't use that feature, leave the hiss in!) and rumble (no experience there).

My mechanism for removing clicks is simple - I play the track and listen for a click that's annoying. I then hit pause (space) and go back a couple seconds to where it roughly lies. You can then use the audio-scrub (control click drag back and forth) feature to move back and forth till you find the click. I then select around it (while zoomed out somewhat) and then zoom in on it till I'm near the sample-level. Tip: the click usually is right before where you hear it using dynamic-scrub.

I then select just the affected area, and either declick (DSP->Repair Click) or remove the samples by hand (if it's really short). If you do the latter, select around the removed area and choose declick to make sure the wave ends smooth out.

Often-times, you'll spot it visually before you hear it while "scubbing" - they tend to stand out, such as you see here (step by step). Hmm.. I think I just made a tutorial! Well, for the easy case. :)

Zoomed out, click is easy to spot:
http://www.swingteam.com/sh_shared/peak1.gif

Select click:
http://www.swingteam.com/sh_shared/peak2.gif

Zoom in to the sample level (right arrow key a few times):
http://www.swingteam.com/sh_shared/peak3.gif

Select just the click:
http://www.swingteam.com/sh_shared/peak4.gif

Hit 'delete'
http://www.swingteam.com/sh_shared/peak5.gif

All done!

jeff

[David P. Hill]

Holy Zoo or AudioEnz,

What kind of device do you use to transfer the vinyl to Peak? Sound card, iMic, or MAudio component? I have a PowerMac G4 Dual 800. It doesn't have a input device that would accept the audio from the analog/digital transfer converter to a pre-amp/turntable. They left it off on my computer. Apple put a input device on the G5. Would the connector be USB or IE1394 to my computer? What sampling rate and bit do you set for the recording to Peak? Have you ever used CD Spin Doctor 2(Part of Toast 6)? After de-clicking and editing, do you change the sampling rate to 16/44.1 before you burn it to cd?
:cool:

[Holy Zoo]

Hi David,

I use a stand-alone CD writer (a Sony CDRW33 (http://www.american-digital.com/prodsite/product.asp?p=484&c=15&name=SonyCDRW33)), which is in my stereo cabinet, and then later rip it to my Mac.

I declick at 16/44. I do no other digital processing, so I feel there's no need to bump up to a higher sampling rate.

[AudioEnz]

Originally posted by David P. Hill
Holy Zoo or AudioEnz,

What kind of device do you use to transfer the vinyl to Peak? Sound card, iMic, or MAudio component?

I'm planning on obtaining a review sample of a M-Audio Audiophile USB device this week. This connects via USB.

I understand that with the Griffin iMic, the line input goes through the microphone pre circuitry, and only has a s/n ratio of 60 dB.

After de-clicking and editing, do you change the sampling rate to 16/44.1 before you burn it to cd?

You'd better - otherwise it won't play in your CD player!

[Casino]

SoundStudio is another good program for Mac audio work. De-click, fade in, fade out, resample, channel to mono, EQ, cross-fade, change volume etc, etc. Then you drag to Toast (or equivalent) for burning.

I do have audio-in on my G4, so I can go directly from my Nakamichi (or whatever) into the computer.