OFF: music A->D conversion and cleanup

[Paul Mather]

On Sat, 16 Sep 2000, Denis Regenbrecht wrote:

=> Really?
=> I use Cool Edit and never had any such problems. A while ago I cleaned up a
=> live-tape from the ASAM-Tour. The results I got were really impressive
=> compared to the original recording. I could reduce most of the tape-hiss
=> and other annoying stuff without suffering too much loss.

"Too much loss:" aye, there's the rub.  It's all relative.  What sounds
good to you might not sound good to me.  I have been told I am too picky
in this regard, and that my ears are too discerning for their own good.
I can hear diginoise from 20 paces. ;-)

Given that Steve was unhappy with the Sonic Solutions "noise reduction"
of the EMI Remasters, I just *know* he'll be fidgety with the noise
reduction plugins for CoolEdit et al (unless he has been replaced by an
alien impostor since last we saw him)... ;-)

=> >(and that was aside from the audible noise reduction artifacts that were
=> >added!).
=>
=> Added artifacts? I never encountered them before. What kind of artifacts?
=> Do you have the demo-version of the CE audio-cleaning plugin? The
=> demo-versions adds random bell-like sounds.

No, it wasn't the "buy me" sounds added on purpose. ;-)  I gave away my
"processed" version of _Atomhenge 76_, so I can't really remember it to
describe it.  But, it is described in the help file for CoolEdit96,
which was the version I used.  And, it was very minor, but, like I said,
I know Steve can be quite picky, so I thought I should mention it.

I'm not saying the result was awful.  Not by any means.  If you'd never
heard the original, you'd say my "processed" version was great.  But, if
you *had* heard the original, you'd probably be wishing for a happy
medium between the two.  *That* is the hard thing to achieve, IMHO.

Part of the problem is the original source material wasn't so hot.  (I
was cleaning up an existing bootleg CD.)  It's better to get a good
transfer in the first place (good levels, for one!), and then tinker
with that, than try to resurrect a lost cause. :-)

=> And a good record-player with a new needle (I hope it's called the same in
=> English than in German) isn't bad either.

Or, at the very least, clean your existing stylus (needle).  (I had
"sonic attack" cleaner at one time.:)  Invest in a carbon-fibre cleaning
brush for your LPs.  Use plastic inner sleeves instead of paper
ones.  Be true to your LPs and they'll be true to you... :-)

Cheers,

Paul.

NP: CSNY, MCI Centre, Washington, DC, 6th April, 2000

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