digitization & audio restoration: audacity vs. for-pay software

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digitization & audio restoration: audacity vs. for-pay software
Posted on: 12.01.2012 by Ngan Ernestine
(OOPS, wrong sub. I wanted this is music production.)

So I wanna digitize and restore a bunch of vinyls and a few tapes. It's old stuff not available on CD or as a download. Quality of the analog material varies: many records are near mint, but a few are barely acceptable.

I want good results and recently upgraded my cartridge and invested in a phono preamp. In the past, I digitized records used audacity as my software.

Going forward, do you believe I should stick to audacity or should I invest in a for-pay software?

If you believe that audacity isn't good enough, please advise which software I should buy. Currently, I'm confused by all the options: Sound Forge, Wavelab, Audio Audition, izotope, ... It's okay if the software you recommend has a bit of a learning curve. It doesn't have to be two mouse clicks and done. But it shouldn't be rocket science, either. And I'd prefer purchasing a single product, I don't wanna have to buy a gazillion plug-ins.

I know this issue has been discussed many times elsewhere but I'm believeing I'll get better responses here on DJTT than on a vinyl community where people believe in audiophile voodoo.
Ngan Ernestine
13.01.2012		mostapha,

thanks, your thoughts are much appreciated!

Originally Posted by mostapha
vinyl kind of is a crap medium
Dorie Scelzo
12.01.2012		Audacity works for that as long as you have a decent preamp and sound card and can set levels.

As for quality
Ngan Ernestine
13.01.2012		mostapha,

thanks, your thoughts are much appreciated!

Originally Posted by mostapha
vinyl kind of is a crap medium
Dorie Scelzo
12.01.2012		Audacity works for that as long as you have a decent preamp and sound card and can set levels.

As for quality
Ngan Ernestine
13.01.2012		mostapha,

thanks, your thoughts are much appreciated!

Originally Posted by mostapha
vinyl kind of is a crap medium
Dorie Scelzo
12.01.2012		Audacity works for that as long as you have a decent preamp and sound card and can set levels.

As for quality
Ngan Ernestine
13.01.2012		mostapha,

thanks, your thoughts are much appreciated!

Originally Posted by mostapha
vinyl kind of is a crap medium
Dorie Scelzo
12.01.2012		Audacity works for that as long as you have a decent preamp and sound card and can set levels.

As for quality
Ngan Ernestine
13.01.2012		mostapha,

thanks, your thoughts are much appreciated!

Originally Posted by mostapha
vinyl kind of is a crap medium
Dorie Scelzo
12.01.2012		Audacity works for that as long as you have a decent preamp and sound card and can set levels.

As for quality
Ngan Ernestine
13.01.2012
Originally Posted by 3heads
Are you on a mac, rgtb?
i'm on a PC.
If so, Audiofile Engineering Wave Editor is supposedly not bad and only costs 79$ (opposed to the rather outrageous prices of the other competitors).
thanks, i'll check it out just to get an idea how it compares to audacity. and you're right that some competitors charge outrageous prices.

Originally Posted by mostapha
As far as I'm aware, those operations are just not that good. Once you damage vinyl, the restoration you can do tends to wind up very much a matter of deciding which crap sound is less crap, the damage or the fix.

But I could be wrong. There might be better tools available. And I'm very much out of my league, considering that you've tried everything I'd recommend.
makes sense. i mean, while i am asking a somewhat naive question (i haven't used anything but audacity in years), i don't expect that the available software tools can turn straw into gold an analogy from the digital domain might be the loss of information through clipping or lossy compression, where it is difficult or impossible to recover the information lost.

still, these expensive audio restoration packages exist. maybe i should just download the demos (except for the wavelab demo which seems to require a dongle to run). of course, if anyone else reading along has some insights, please consider sharing them
Dorie Scelzo
13.01.2012
Originally Posted by rgtb
i was unhappy with the options i had to denoise and declick in audacity. to me, it seems denoising in audacity is pretty destructive so i don't use it. i did manual declicking in audacity using "repair." that's all right if the record is in good shape and only a few single short clicks and pops have to be removed. but the manual de-clicking of beat-up records proved to be practically infeasible. if you have a region on the recording which contains dozens of clicks, it is too cumbersome to use "repair." but then, the available option in audacity is to run "click removal" over a region. and automatic click removal in audacity does not sound good to me. it seems it attenuates the volume a lot.
As far as I'm aware, those operations are just not that good. Once you damage vinyl, the restoration you can do tends to wind up very much a matter of deciding which crap sound is less crap, the damage or the fix.

But I could be wrong. There might be better tools available. And I'm very much out of my league, considering that you've tried everything I'd recommend.
Ngan Ernestine
13.01.2012		mostapha,

thanks, your thoughts are much appreciated!

Originally Posted by mostapha
vinyl kind of is a crap medium
Dorie Scelzo
12.01.2012		Audacity works for that as long as you have a decent preamp and sound card and can set levels.

As for quality
Ngan Ernestine
12.01.2012		(OOPS, wrong sub. I wanted this is music production.)

So I wanna digitize and restore a bunch of vinyls and a few tapes. It's old stuff not available on CD or as a download. Quality of the analog material varies: many records are near mint, but a few are barely acceptable.

I want good results and recently upgraded my cartridge and invested in a phono preamp. In the past, I digitized records used audacity as my software.

Going forward, do you believe I should stick to audacity or should I invest in a for-pay software?

If you believe that audacity isn't good enough, please advise which software I should buy. Currently, I'm confused by all the options: Sound Forge, Wavelab, Audio Audition, izotope, ... It's okay if the software you recommend has a bit of a learning curve. It doesn't have to be two mouse clicks and done. But it shouldn't be rocket science, either. And I'd prefer purchasing a single product, I don't wanna have to buy a gazillion plug-ins.

I know this issue has been discussed many times elsewhere but I'm believeing I'll get better responses here on DJTT than on a vinyl community where people believe in audiophile voodoo.
Ngan Ernestine
13.01.2012		one thing to add: it appears some of the professional software not only provides more functionality when it comes to restoration, but also when it comes to leveling/metering and mastering. is that something that would help me improve my results?
Ngan Ernestine
13.01.2012
Originally Posted by 3heads
Are you on a mac, rgtb?
i'm on a PC.
If so, Audiofile Engineering Wave Editor is supposedly not bad and only costs 79$ (opposed to the rather outrageous prices of the other competitors).
thanks, i'll check it out just to get an idea how it compares to audacity. and you're right that some competitors charge outrageous prices.

Originally Posted by mostapha
As far as I'm aware, those operations are just not that good. Once you damage vinyl, the restoration you can do tends to wind up very much a matter of deciding which crap sound is less crap, the damage or the fix.

But I could be wrong. There might be better tools available. And I'm very much out of my league, considering that you've tried everything I'd recommend.
makes sense. i mean, while i am asking a somewhat naive question (i haven't used anything but audacity in years), i don't expect that the available software tools can turn straw into gold an analogy from the digital domain might be the loss of information through clipping or lossy compression, where it is difficult or impossible to recover the information lost.

still, these expensive audio restoration packages exist. maybe i should just download the demos (except for the wavelab demo which seems to require a dongle to run). of course, if anyone else reading along has some insights, please consider sharing them
Dorie Scelzo
13.01.2012
Originally Posted by rgtb
i was unhappy with the options i had to denoise and declick in audacity. to me, it seems denoising in audacity is pretty destructive so i don't use it. i did manual declicking in audacity using "repair." that's all right if the record is in good shape and only a few single short clicks and pops have to be removed. but the manual de-clicking of beat-up records proved to be practically infeasible. if you have a region on the recording which contains dozens of clicks, it is too cumbersome to use "repair." but then, the available option in audacity is to run "click removal" over a region. and automatic click removal in audacity does not sound good to me. it seems it attenuates the volume a lot.
As far as I'm aware, those operations are just not that good. Once you damage vinyl, the restoration you can do tends to wind up very much a matter of deciding which crap sound is less crap, the damage or the fix.

But I could be wrong. There might be better tools available. And I'm very much out of my league, considering that you've tried everything I'd recommend.
Celestine Porebski
13.01.2012		Are you on a mac, rgtb? If so, Audiofile Engineering Wave Editor is supposedly not bad and only costs 79$ (opposed to the rather outrageous prices of the other competitors). Oh and there is a 15 day trial version without limitations...

http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/waveeditor/
Ngan Ernestine
13.01.2012		mostapha,

thanks, your thoughts are much appreciated!

Originally Posted by mostapha
vinyl kind of is a crap medium
Dorie Scelzo
12.01.2012		Audacity works for that as long as you have a decent preamp and sound card and can set levels.

As for quality

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