Customers and Testimonials

Here is a brief list of just some of our customers for DC Forensics Products

• NTSB
• FAA
• FBI
• CIA
• DEA
• State Department
• NSA
• ICE
• Secret Service
• Naval Intelligence
• US Marines
• State Police in most States
• City Police in all large cities in the US

It is also used in similar agencies in other parts of the world.

Customer Testimonials

Donald Bohn

  Most of you folks out there are probably very aware of the powerful tools Diamond Cut has available for the restoration of your old and worn phonograph records. Myself included. But this message isn’t for you.

  I want to talk to all of you that are NEW to vinyl. Please take this warning from an old school audiophile such as myself seriously. Your phonograph cartridge is going to destroy your new vinyl Lp’s and there is nothing you can do to stop it. It doesn’t matter how properly you set up your cartridge and table, and it doesn’t even matter how expensive your cartridge is. It’s going to happen so get used to it. Let me explain why.

  Back in the early 80’s, the audio industry was experimenting with 4 channel recordings. One of the formats was called CD-4. What they did was they used a frequency multiplier & divider circuit in the phono preamp to place the other 2 channels above 20kHz in the region of sound you can’t hear anyway. It was a slick idea, but there was a problem. After only about 10 plays or so of the new LP, people were experiencing their CD-4 decoder couldn’t maintain a lock anymore resulting in the rear channels cutting in and out. The format only lasted a couple of years then died off. Now mind you these people were using some of the world’s finest cartridges just for that box to work. But we all learned real quick even though a new LP can have some good high frequency musical content, the very high frequencies employ so little vinyl “meat” in the groves,  that every pass of the stylus rips it away.

  So now what do you do? This is why Diamond Cut tools are so important for you as well, and I will explain how to do it.

NECESSARY EQUIPMENT

  Purchase as expensive of a cartridge you can afford, preferably one with a Fine Line or a Shibata stylus tip as they make contact with more of the groove wall surface. Very good carts are available in the $300 to $500 range and would be a good investment in the long run. A cheaper cart with a basic elliptical tip, especially one that only goes out to 20 or 25kHz will probably rip out those super high frequencies on the first pass of your new LP. Note if you go with a moving coil you will need a special preamp for it.

  Also, if you don’t already have good sound card or computer audio interface, you should get one that can handle 24bit/192kHz, but 24bit/96kHz will work just as well.

PROCEDURE

1. . Have as close of a direct connection of your phono preamp to your audio interface as possible.
2. Clean your vinyl LP even though it is new. There can be dust from the sleeve or even debris from the pressing that can cause noise in the groves. It’s just a good idea and your cartridge will last longer.
3. Install Diamond Cut Tools and open its record feature. When set up properly, the sound quality of this recording device will outperform any consumer tape deck ever made!
4. You are now ready to record your LP. Be prepared and only set the needle down just once on each side. Be sure and set the needle down as far to the outside of the lead-in groove as possible. This will help to insure the record maintains the least amount of generated noise just prior to the start of the music.
5. You now have a High Definition recording of your new LP,  but we’re not done yet. Listen very carefully to your recording for any little ticks or pops that can happen with even new vinyl. You will be able to easily remove them with Diamond Cut’s Interpolate feature. You have now made your new recording cleaner!
6. Next, you will need to open Diamond Cut’s Continuous Noise Filter and take a sample of some record surface noise between 2 songs near the middle of the record. When designing the filter signature, add extra points if necessary to make your filter line appear as close as possible to the noise line, then move the entire line down to where it is just above the noise line. Highlight the entire album and apply. Your High Def recording now has a better Signal to Noise ratio than your phono playback system could do by itself.
7. Go to the beginning of each album side & trim it down so you have about a 2 seconds prior to the start of the song. Open Diamond Cut’s Fade-in feature, select Logarithmic, highlight just that 2 seconds and apply. Now your High Def recording will seem like it’s starting out of dead silence! Do the same procedure at the end of each album side, but this time select Linear in the Fade-out feature.
8. Place a marker about 1 1/2 to 2 seconds before each of the subsequent songs (or where most logical), Quantize, and split the tracks.
9. You can now save the original WAV files, or save them in some lossless format like FLAC to save space – already in Diamond Cut for your needs. Most new cars and home theater systems will play that format through a simple zip drive.  Or maybe you like MP3’s. Diamond Cut has that ability as well. And your homemade HD to MP3’s could be true 48kHz files – better responses than a CD – out to about 22kHz!
10. Now put your finished record away in a cool dry location and don’t touch it ever again! Keep a log of all the minutes and hours the cartridge has been played and limit its use to about 200 hours – this should allow you to record 300 to 400 new LP’s in all their splendor, before you need a new stylus or cartridge replacement. Also avoid setting the needle down between tracks as they will create permanent noise on the LP. Have a lower cost cartridge mounted for use with your older records.

  I guess to simply put it, Diamond Cut tools is not just for the restoration of old music. It is also for the enhancement of your listening experience, but more importantly it is an invaluable tool for the preservation of your expensive new LP investments.

Happy listening everyone!

Donald Bohn

Dan McDonald

Some thoughts on Diamond Cut

I have used Diamond Cut software for about 20 years now. I started with the most basic version, and am now using the Forensics version. I have tried a number of other audio restoration and audio enhancement types of software, and nothing comes close.

As a university professor, I taught a history class that included a great deal of what students would consider ancient audio recordings. With Diamond Cut, I was able to clean up and enhance those recordings to make them useful for classroom use.

As a hobbyist, I have enjoyed restoring cylinder, disc, wire, and tape recordings to quality levels I never thought possible. Problems that seem impossible, such as multiple generation tapes, wavering speeds, and extreme noise can be handled easily. In one case, I had a wire recording made on a military (WWII) device. I was able to record it by playing it backward on a home wire recorder. With Diamond Cut, The recording was easily flipped, and, to describe the personal touch that Craig and Rick at Diamond Cut provide, they worked with me to figure out the correct speed and equalization needed.

Several members of my family are musicians, and I’ve also used it to tweak professional recordings of family members, most recently during the covid pandemic, when a quality recording hall is simply not available.

The personal touch that Craig and Rick provide is extraordinary. Through the user forum, they are there to answer questions, and they are always ready to tackle intractable problems, either through advice on ways to use the software, or, if there is no easy solution, developing something that will help, and incorporating that into the next version of the software.

The user forum is also very welcoming to newcomers, and is a continual source of new information and techniques from people who are experimenting and learning.

Diamond Cut has always been an innovator, and I’ve noticed a lot of techniques they have developed become part of many other software programs a year or two after Diamond Cut has them. If you’re reading this and haven’t given Diamond Cut a try, download the demo and you will see what can be done.

Dan McDonald
Emeritus Professor
The Ohio State University

A Milestone and Kudos
John Ford – 07-12-2020

So, I hit a milestone last week. For a long time now, I have been working to digitize all my record albums and audio cassettes. I have a collection of about 1500 albums and 800 cassettes (some commercially purchased, some recordings of albums I’ve made over the years, and some recordings from the radio). Well, last week, I have captured my very last album and cassette. Everything is on a computer hard disk now, and all albums have had an initial scrubbing using Diamond Cut. Now I have to do the work of cleaning up any extraneous noise between the tracks (I mute the silence between the tracks and fade in/fade out the tails of the previous/next track. I have already done about half of my collection, so I’m actually well on my way.

I then rip everything to 320 kbps MP3 files, which I can play on other devices, and especially in my vehicle, where these days it seems I do most of my listening, or in my travel trailer for when we go camping.

I could never had done any of this without Diamond Cut. I’ve tried other audio editing programs, but nothing compares to Diamond Cut for its ease of use and its quality filtering results. My friends are amazed at the quality of the audio, especially for a lot of content that otherwise would have been lost to the annals of time.

I also have about 2000 CDs that I am in the process of ripping, also (again, about halfway through), and a number of MP3 albums I have purchased from Amazon, so in the end, I’ll have a digitized collection of about 5000 volumes/albums.

Thank you, Craig and Rick, for your great product. I have been a fan since I started back with DCArt3 (that I got for free with a “Smart And Friendly” CD writer I bought some 20 years ago). I have upgraded to every version since then, and it just keeps getting better.

As to my process, before starting this journey, I created a spreadsheet to track my progress. it lists every album, along with information about each album (label, release date, etc). It tracks when I have transferred the album to my hard drive and when I have “cleaned up” any extraneous noise on the album. I took a picture of every album cover, so the resulting MP3 file will show “my album” (scuffs on the cover and any writing and all). After using DC to split the album into tracks, I create a Nero NRG virtual CD image (which, by the way, is mountable as a virtual CD drive on my computer, so i can listen that way as well). I then use a very old copy of Nero (Nero 8) to keep a database of all the CD images and the tracks on each album and then rip to both a 128 kbps (for transfer to my smart phone to maximize quantity) and a 320 kbps MP3 file (for listening on my home stereo). I then use MediaMonkey Gold to complete the tagging of the MP3 files, including inserting the album cover image and other album-related information. I also have a little text file for each album that lists every track on each album. it has been a labor of love over several years now, and i expect to finish probably by the end of 2021. I have ripped approximately 30,00 of the ultimate 50,000 tracks I will have at the end.

Of course, once I finish all that, then there’s the matter of my 94 year old father’s record collection, which will be like starting all over again. But it’s something I love doing.

So, thanks again, and keep up with this awesome program that no one else can hold a candle to…

Marc Hildebrant

     I have used Diamond Cut Production software products since DCart was sold on two 3.5-inch floppy discs. My first use for the product was to just record music so that I would have the sound preserved in a digital format. As time went on, I was able to gradually add to restoration of the music as I used more and more features within the software. I have found over many years and thousands of applications of the software that I am still finding additional methods to improve the sound of the music I have recorded since the software is continuously improved in new releases. The Diamond Cut Software has a large body of useful tools that provide the user with unique adjustability to process the music.

    While a single “button” to press to “clean up the music” may appeal to the casual user, having complete adjustability to the processing of the software (Diamond Cut Software Provides this) is the only method that is correct for serious restoration.

    While the software does have a learning curve , the result of your time spend is rewarded with excellent results. In addition, the price for all of this computing power is very low.

Marc Hildebrant

Doug Carner CPP/CHS-III  forensicprotection.com

I am passionate about digital forensics and my specialty, audio-video.  While no solution can be a magic bullet, Diamond Cut’s “Forensics” has earned respect as my go-to tool when I need to recover speech under the harshest conditions.  Beyond its dozens of well thought out filters, my favorite feature is the multi-filter where I can create a custom filter chain, immediately test the results, and make any changes with a simple mouse movement.  I can even save my custom presets and share them with my peers, or copy them to my client’s case file.

Version 10 was just released and it significantly expands my forensic toolbox well beyond audio enhancement.  For example, the new Subsonic Explorer analyzes the frequencies below audible levels to detects stop-start editing, and splicing from different recordings.  In fact, all of their new authentication tools are included without any extra charge.  This is in addition to all the new filters, including the one that can amplify whispers far above other volume levels.

My only complaints have been the program’s steep learning curve and a rather dated interface.  While the interface remains remnant of Windows XP, I would much rather have sheer performance over style, and can overlook this.  Besides, this software isn’t meant to be seen by my clients.  With regards to the steep learning curve, I am a nerd and appreciate having the ability to tweak their hundreds of settings.  However, this can easily overwhelm the new or occasional user.  Version 10 resolves this with a new task bar that automatically loads the correct filter and settings for the requested task.  This, along with all of the clearly named presets means that even the most novice user can easily achieve great results without any fumbling or training.  These improvements will increase your workflow efficiency and results.  If you were ever put off by a prior version, version 10 worthy of another 30-day free trial.

Paul Ginsberg

When I first became a forensic audio engineer I started with racks of equipment. There were filters, compressors, equalizers, etc. Now, each of those boxes has become an icon on my computer screen in Diamond Cut Productions software (ie. DCForensics10)…and they perform so much better. There’s no hum from interconnecting wires, and there are no limitations of analog filters. It’s magic. Ever so often I go back and listen to recordings that were noisy then to see how much clearer they have become with DCForensics10 Live’s state-of-the-art algorithms. The results are amazing…. Thank you Diamond Cut Productions, Inc.  My lab is now my storage room…

Over the last 40 years, as a forensic audio engineer, I have enhanced recordings from 9/11 World Trade Center, the White House, O.J. Simpson trial, Branch Davidian trials, aircraft black boxes, police Dashcams, and hundreds from all Federal law enforcement agencies. I can say without reservation that Diamond Cut Productions forensics audio software produces the absolute best in Forensic Enhancement. DC Live is so intuitive, and the results are truly amazing. If you need to clean up recordings, whether music or recorded evidence. DC Audio Restoration tools will do the trick

I love how responsive the engineers are at Diamond Cut. As a forensic audio expert,  I have come across recordings that needed specialized processing techniques. The engineers, on more than one occasion worked on the problem, developed the specialized filter, and included it in the next version of D.C. Live Forensics …. I’d venture to say that you won’t find that anywhere else.

They advance the state of the art every day.

Thank you Diamond Cut Productions.

Paul Ginsberg, President
Professional Audio Laboratories, Inc.