Software plug ins you'd wish for.

OK, this is software, rather than hardware, but this seemed like the best place to put it.

Another thread started me down this road. Someone mentioned wishing for a plug in to remove the effects of groove wear.

Here are some things I'd like, how about you? (I know there are expensive versions of at least one of these, but they all have to be "affordable" (OK, I'm cheap!))

1. Affordable wow/flutter remover, which could also track and correct for speed changes over a long file. Great for dubbing those old tapes made with little 3" rim-drive tape recorders! Be handy if it could lock onto a noise signal (hum, maybe) to use for a frequency reference.

2. Affordable phase matching - something that would take two tracks (i.e. two different mixes of the same tune) and match them up phase coherently, so that you'd be able to do things like (a) get real, un-wobbly stereo out of them (I'm thinking of some old RCA recordings, where two completely different equipment chains were used, including the mikes, feeding two cutting lathes on the same performance, or early experimental attempts at stereo with dual disks, etc. - also staggered-head reel tapes or tapes that have deformed so the azimuth wanders); (b) subtract them from each other so that only the differences remained (just think: If you had the multitracks and single master for I am the Walrus you could fiddle about until you could subtract the radio noise, then do a proper full stereo all-the-way-through mix with the radio noise included. Which would then be roundly criticized here, but never mind....) or (c) just compare and contrast, like having Komm, Gib Mir Diene Hand on the left and I Want To Hold Your Hand on the right, without the stuff in the middle wandering around.

3. Affordable plug in to take a print of noise, such as loud lighting buzz, and automatically construct *fixed* filters to notch it out.

4. Affordable plug in to analyze spectrum of one cut then apply *fixed* equalization to a second cut to match. A secondary function might be to scan a problem track, one that someone has applied horrible EQ to, and suggest an EQ curve to fix it -- could be a nice time-saver.

(I've seen plug ins that do 3 & 4, but they do dynamic eq, no good - too much like the dread noise-reduction effects.)

5. Decoding plug ins for taking a Dolby-B or dbx-encoded recording and decoding it in the digital domain. The Dolby function should be able to make an intelligent guess about the correct Dolby level, and compensate for misadjusted encoders, so that, at the very least, the left and right channels decode similarly (no platform motion on sibilance, etc.) The dbx should be able to do both type I and II decoding. (Additional decoders for other Dolby types also welcome.)

Dreaming on....

 

I wish there were a true sound isolator. One that could truely pick out any sound and only that sound, Then, let you delete, shape, or process that sound without affect any other sounds in a recording.

One that isolates the sound and all of its semi tones and overtones relative to that individual sound.

And so I dream on...

 

This is along the lines of something I've been dreaming of for years: to be able to do vinyl restoration through channel mixing. You would take two copies of the same record, and simply keep the signals that were common to both. The problems I forsee are as follows:

- You would need a turntable with very accurate pitch. I don't know if even the best available would be suitable.

- You would need two copies of the record that were pressed from the same stamper. For a lot of the stuff I currently do, it's difficult enough finding one copy!

 

I wish more companies would make an EQ-matching plug-in at a good price. I had Free Filter a couple of years back before I got Sound Forge, and it wouldn't work with Cool Edit.

Besides, I didn't like the interface of FF.

 

I wish there was software that would synchronize two signals together. It would compare and analyze the time and pitch of one signal to match with the other.

 

1a. In the same league as wow/flutter removal, how about an "off-center vinyl pitch-adjuster, deluxe model." Someone sent me a CD he made, using one of those stand-alone CD decks, dubbing 45s. One has a badly off-center hole, and just listening to this track makes me cringe!

I can manually do this on the turntable, but it's painstaking work. I put the single on the turntable, remove the adapter, then gently nudge the single until I get it as centered as I can.

Nakamichi actually made a Dragon turntable that would set the stylus in the final locking groove on a record, and then automagically center it. Apparently that model didn't stay on the market very long.

And blame me for starting the "groove wear filter" idea.... I'm off to start a new thread of my own, in fact.