Noise Reduction

[AndaBien]

I'm trying to clean up some recording from the '30s. I can eliminate scratch sounds, but that also looses some other parts of the sound that should be kept. I wind up with a recording that seems to have been recorded in a barrel.

I would like to know any techniques you know to eliminate noise. Also, would you prefer to dance to scratchy music or non-scratchy music that had reduced sound quality.

 

[bastet]

I'm trying to clean up some recording from the '30s. I can eliminate scratch sounds, but that also looses some other parts of the sound that should be kept. I wind up with a recording that seems to have been recorded in a barrel.

I would like to know any techniques you know to eliminate noise. Also, would you prefer to dance to scratchy music or non-scratchy music that had reduced sound quality.

A little scratch has some charm...and we try to put sets together such that if one is scratchy, they all will be at least a little. We tend to not play the ones with too much scratch.

But too much loss of sound quality is bad, IMO. We had something like that at a milonga once. The sound of the music that had been recorded for the evening was so off and flat, that someone else plugged in their iPod and jettisoned the original DJ music after about an hour.

 

[Tenehill]

I'm trying to clean up some recording from the '30s. I can eliminate scratch sounds, but that also looses some other parts of the sound that should be kept. I wind up with a recording that seems to have been recorded in a barrel.

I would like to know any techniques you know to eliminate noise. Also, would you prefer to dance to scratchy music or non-scratchy music that had reduced sound quality.

There is a free software called audacity. It has options "Noise removal", "Click removal", "Repair".

 

[dchester]

I'm trying to clean up some recording from the '30s. I can eliminate scratch sounds, but that also looses some other parts of the sound that should be kept. I wind up with a recording that seems to have been recorded in a barrel.

I would like to know any techniques you know to eliminate noise. Also, would you prefer to dance to scratchy music or non-scratchy music that had reduced sound quality.

The only way that actually seems to work (without really reducing the sound), is painstakingly slow. You need an application that displays the actual waves, and then you edit the wave where the pop occurs. Unless you're a fanatic, it's more trouble than it's worth. If you come across a tool that automatically does it, without screwing up what is left, let me know (but I've given up looking for one).

 

[AndaBien]

There is a free software called audacity. It has options "Noise removal", "Click removal", "Repair".

Yes, I'm using Audacity. The Noise Removal works very well in certain circumstances, but it can also remove music.

 

[AndaBien]

The only way that actually seems to work (without really reducing the sound), is painstakingly slow. You need an application that displays the actual waves, and then you edit the wave where the pop occurs. Unless you're a fanatic, it's more trouble than it's worth. If you come across a tool that automatically does it, without screwing up what is left, let me know (but I've given up looking for one).

As far as I know (AFAIK?), that sums it up. I can remove pops by just deleting them, if there are not too many. Getting the scratches out is, as you said, too much trouble.

My old record albums had inter-track spaces which gave a good sampling of scratches and no music. That was helpful for the above mentioned noise reduction. My CDs don't provide that.

 

[bordertangoman]

I'm trying to clean up some recording from the '30s. I can eliminate scratch sounds, but that also looses some other parts of the sound that should be kept. I wind up with a recording that seems to have been recorded in a barrel.

I would like to know any techniques you know to eliminate noise. Also, would you prefer to dance to scratchy music or non-scratchy music that had reduced sound quality.

Chuck your recordings in the bin and hire a band.

 

[AndaBien]

This makes it worth it http://tinyurl.com/poemarestored

Yes! That's a lovely and emotion evoking tune. I think it's beginning to get overplayed, but that's not the tunes fault. I still love.

 

[Zoopsia59]

I'm trying to clean up some recording from the '30s. I can eliminate scratch sounds, but that also looses some other parts of the sound that should be kept. I wind up with a recording that seems to have been recorded in a barrel.

I would like to know any techniques you know to eliminate noise. Also, would you prefer to dance to scratchy music or non-scratchy music that had reduced sound quality.

Well, if money is no object, I'd say take the stuff you REALLY have trouble with to a proffesional recording studio or audio company. They will have better equipment than you have and a will be more experienced to do it faster and effectively. You should be able to play the pieces for them, explain what you want and how you DON'T want to lose your high end, and get an idea before the work is done how much it will cost. If the place does this sort of thing regularly, they should be able to play a similar "before" and after track so you can judge whether they will perform the work to your satisfaction or take the easy way out by merely cutting out all your high end harmonics so that it sounds like they just threw a blanket over it.

 

[bafonso]

iZotope RX.