OFF: music A->D conversion and cleanup

[Paul Mather]

Steve Swann wrote:

=> What software are you guys using to record old LPs to CD, and
=> eliminate crackle/hiss?  And what are the pros and cons of the
=> software you've used?

SoundForge.

The thing is, most computer sound cards are total bunk for doing this
sort of thing.  For one, the noise inside a PC case is not conducive at
all to a good transfer.  So, if you're serious about sound quality,
you'll want (nay *need*) to invest in an *external* ADC converter, and
then get a decent PC card that does digital in *without* resampling.
(There is a cheap card that does bit-for-bit digital in---Zoltrix
Nightingale, ISTR, but I may be wrong.)

As for eliminating crackle and hiss, there are plugins for SoundForge
and CoolEdit that do this.  My advice is to be wary of using it, if you
don't want to annihilate the original recording.  I tried "cleaning up"
the _Atomhenge 76_ bootleg by Lone Wolf using CoolEdit, and even though
I didn't use a lot of noise reduction, the result left the original
robbed of noticeable ambience compared to the original (and that was
aside from the audible noise reduction artifacts that were added!).

I would be tempted to say forget crackle and noise reduction, if you are
concerned about sound quality.  Put a lot of effort into cleaning your
LPs before digitising them, instead. :-)  For any bad pops, you can
remove them individually "by hand".  That is much better than letting
some algorithm have at it.  _The Thing!_ that I sent to Brad for treeing
on BOC-L is obviously a vinyl boot transferred to CD.  You can hear the
occasional click and pop all the way through.  But is it a bad CD?  No
way!

Cheers,

Paul.

NP: Pink Floyd, Oakland Coliseum, 9th May 1977

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
 deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
        --- Frank Vincent Zappa