Congratulations, Rick Barber!

[Craig Maier]

Congratulations Rick. You have won the Audio Restoration contest! Please contact me at dctools@aol.com so that we can arrange to send out your prizes! We are curious, in general. Did we make the contest too difficult? We are looking for an explaination for the low (understatement!) participation rate. At any rate, I recommend that folks listen to Ricks work. He did a very nice job on the restorations. It may help provide a template for others who are learning the Audio Restoration process. Thanks again to Rick and Congratulations! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[Rick Barber]

Re: Congratulations, Rick Barber!

First, I want to thank Craig, Rick and Doug for a very good challenge. For those of you that don't know, Doug was the person that collected the example files and helped set this competition up.

Two of the examples were fairly easy to restore. The other two? Well lets say that it took a fair amount of effort to find solutions that did a decent job. Quite frankly I started over on both the Robert Frost and the Tiger Hunt snippet at least 5 times each. And I had difficulties keeping track of which filter and what settings I used to clean them.

I finally found a method of remembering the settings and filters. My method of creating a multi filter was to try a filter to see what it would do. After changing settings if the result was cleaner than the start point, I then named the setting something that related to the particular file and then immediately saved it in a multi filter also named something similar. This process was not a short one. One thing I did learn out of this exercise was the value of the spectrum analyzer. It was that tool that allowed me to isolate the screech in the background of the Robert Frost piece. Once I had the frequency isolated I then used the next filter to remove that frequency. (This was the first time I tried it.)

I truly appreciate winning this contest. It disturbs me to know that more people chose not to participate. I noticed while I am posting this that there have been 20 people that have read this thread. I have also been told that around 800 downloads were made on the starting files. If even one of you had posted you multi filters I probably wouldn't be writing this. The idea of this "contest" was to provide examples of how people go about cleaning up audio. So its a shame that our hosts here did not get more participation. While I truly appreciate winning this, it is a hollow victory.

Thanks again Craig and Rick. You products are second to none. They are also are a joy to use. I have had experience using other products and they didn't hold a candle to DC5. And now DC6 is better.

If this kind of opportunity is ever offered in the future I hope more people take advantage of it.

Thanks again
Rick Barber

[Dan McDonald]

Re: Congratulations, Rick Barber!

Hey Rick -

I think people had intentions of entering, but (like me) got so busy with other things that they didn't have a chance to actually prepare the entry. Of course, I'm not much of an example - I didn't even submit the raw sound samples when I have so much horrible stuff laying around, I could have done that easily!


In any event, don't think of this as a hollow victory - I think that your entries should be preserved on this website with the starting and ending files, as examples for people to see what can be done with the software.

Also, just the fact that you finished the work is a testament to your tenacity - I probably started working on them a couple of times, and never was satisfied enough with results before I had to go do something else, so I think just the fact that you finished indicates a high level of talent and ability.

Congratulations!

Dan

[Doug]

Re: Congratulations, Rick Barber!

Congratulations Rick,
I'm not entirely sure what happened, but maybe Dan is correct in that the samples may have been a little difficult...but you persisted in trying to restore them and as a result will be strongly rewarded for your efforts.

Many thanks Rick for your effort and I'm sure you'll enjoy the prize

[Rick Barber]

Re: Congratulations, Rick Barber!

The wonderful prise arrived today. I'm like a kid in a candy store! (Or a Harley rider in a dealership with $10,000.00 to spend on goodies!)

Thanks again to Craig and Rick for running this contest. I'm gonna load the forensics software right now. And I probably will be listening to some of the cd's while I load it.

[DJBohn]

Re: Congratulations, Rick Barber!

Nice going Rick! Like so many others I couldn't get my entrys done in time either. Between preparing for a permenant physical move to another location, other restorations on hold, car problems, computer problems, etc, (I know - excuses, excuses!) Next year will be different... Anyway, congratulations to you Rick. I will be downloading your settings to check out - at least I still have the sample recordings to play with.