Flangy quality in recordings

[jfritz]

I have a lot of cds of blues originally recorded on 78s. A lot of them sound like there was no noise reduction done. Some of them, in addition to the regular pops, clicks, and hiss have a flange like sound. I've been fooling around with various combinations of filters and am getting nowhere. I've had the closest thing to success with averaging but I'm not happy. Am I wasting my time?

Thanks

[Craig Maier]

Hi jfritz -

It sounds like the flangey ones were subject to a very heavy hand by the re-mastering engineer. Usually, it indicates that the Continious Noise Filter was used much to aggressively (or a low quality one could have been used too). I do not know if you can correct it, but I would try using the Diamond Cut CNF filter in Normal CNF mode and Artifact suppression mode and you may be able to improve it a bit.

I have also had some CDs that I purchased with clicks and pops. Of course, it is harder to remove them after the mastering engineer did the post-processing. But, I have had some luck with some of those CDs using the impulse filters. It is worth a try - - - not much to loose. And of course, there is always the manual interpolator (the I key and its affiliates).

Craig

[jfritz]

There may have been some processing although it's not immediately obvious. The one I'm fooling with right now is on Document. Their stuff always sounds like direct dubs from 78s. It may be that they're going for authenticity. <g>

[Craig Maier]

Hi again,

If you are dealing with CDs of direct dubs from 78s, you should be in excellent shape. If the bandwidth runs the full range of the audio spectrum, the noise filters (EZ Impulse, etc) should work just fine. Let us know how you make out. Just rip the CD and treat the resultant wavefiles as if you had transferred them yourself.

Craig