Loud passage distortion

[weskola]

I am recording an old Ed Ames album for my mother-in-law. I plan to transfer it to CD for her as a Christmas present. The clicks and pops shouldn't present much of a problem.

In the first track of the album, for approximately the first half of the song, when the singer's voice reaches a loud passage, it has a tendency to break up or distort. Kind of like the TV set when you turn it up too loud. It sounds almost like a crackling sound.

Any recommendations on how to handle this kind of distortion?

The album is done in mono and is dated 1967. Any suggestions for converting to stereo, if possible?

I am using DC-Art 32 version 3.09. I like it a lot and I have tried other products such as xxxx and xxxxyyyy.

Thank you for any suggestions you may have to offer.

[Craig Maier]

Re: Loud passage distortion

The solution to your problem is pretty straightforward. Set the threshold control to its minimum value. Set the Size control to about 12 or 13. Set the mode to Vinyl LP. Now, using preview mode, adjust the tracking control slowly upwards until the distortion disappears and only the clicks are removed. Once you have found the correct tracking value, run the filter.

Craig

[DougMac]

Re: Loud passage distortion

There seems to be a balancing act between distortion and click removal. If I put the settings low enough to prevent distortion, sometimes I still have clicks remaining. Reversing the file and running it through the impulse noise filter helps. You can make the destination the source and run the file through several times. Each pass will help a little more. If there are a few stubborn clicks, don't forget the interpolate filter. You can remove clicks from each channel seperately. This is helpful, since some scratches are diagonal to the grooves and the click on one groove is not at the same time as the other. This allows you to select fewer samples to interpolate. One final note. You might want to put Millenium on your Christmas wish list. I find it has several new features, including a new click removal algorithm, that makes it worth the price of the upgrade. Good Luck!

[weskola]

Re: Loud passage distortion

Thanks for the tips. I'll give it a try.

[weskola]

Re: Loud passage distortion

As a follow up to this issue I would like to know if anyone would have any recommendations as to the recording process.

I have a Bang and Olufsen Beogram RX2 turntable with an MMC 4 cartridge. Are there differences in the way albums were recorded in the 60s in which different cartridges would sound better on certain albums than they would on others? Is it possible that if I were to use a different cartridge the album in question would sound better? I don't even know if my turntable can use different cartridges.

[DougMac]

Re: Loud passage distortion

Perhaps none of us asked the right questions to begin with. I was assuming you were hearing the distortion after applying the impulse noise filter. It now sounds like you're getting distortion from the record itself. I don't know of any program (including DCArt) that can help much with worn out grooves. How old is the stylus you are using? Maybe your stylus is worn. Also, it will be hard to discuss "sounding better" without a better idea of your setup (are you feeding your turntable straight into your computer or using a preamp, how are you monitoring the output,etc.) Feel free to email me with particulars and I'll share my suggestions. Good luck!
Doug

[aldclive]

enhancing Voice signals

Can anybody clean up a 5o min lecture recording for me of room effect and make the voice more intelligible??????...as of now the source is far from mic.....so words tend to be low in clarity....need smartfill by a brian to make it undersatndable....can anyone guide me how to do it in DC live 6 and/or forensics...

[Craig Maier]

Send a 10 second sample of the raw unprocessed audio to me and I will take a shot at it.

Send it to :

dctools@aol.com

thanks,

Craig