ClickRepair Best Settings

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by colby2415, Jul 17, 2017.

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  1. colby2415

    colby2415 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    I recently discovered this ClickRepair software and so far I am surprised with how quickly it works. Anyways, I noticed using the default setting of 50 for declick robbed my recording of a lot of bass, making it sound much more bright. I tried lowering it to about 12 and it seems to be less of an issue but the large pops are still audible (although much quieter than before). I left all the other settings alone. I am just curious what settings everyone else uses. I understand there must be a compromise somewhere. I am not 100% sold on the software as is, but I have 20 days to trial it. I am basically wondering what everyone's preferred settings are for this program.

    Thanks
     
  2. matthew2600

    matthew2600 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colorado
  3. colby2415

    colby2415 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    wow, I am gonna try for myself then. Thanks for the link, I kinda recall seeing that earlier but couldn't find it now that I went back haha.
     
  4. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    The best way to do it is by manually repairing the specific affected spots only, leaving the rest of the track untouched.

    It's obviously a lot more time-consuming but the benefits are obvious. Although I don't have personal experience with it, I do listen to needledrops made by acquaintances and that's what they describe as being the least invasive way (tonewise) to fix the problems.
     
    Dave likes this.
  5. colby2415

    colby2415 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    Agreed, but after spending a whole day trying to depop manually, I find the whole process very frustrating. This would definitely have the best results obviously, but if i spent all day and didn't declick a whole lp that is way too much work than I'm willing to put into this.
     
    beat_truck, Comet01 and Strat-Mangler like this.
  6. JohnO

    JohnO Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    There is another software you can download and trial. Spin It Again.
    Spin It Again | Convert vinyl LP or tape cassette to CD and MP3 | Acoustica

    It has several noise reduction presets which work in real time. Be careful of which you pick, or try each one. Many presets apply some equalization, a few do not. You can change any of the equalization settings or the declick sensitivity in the advanced settings for any preset, or you can build your own from the several noise reduction methods available and your own custom settings. The trial is not time limited, it is limited by letting you save only three recordings. But you can play anything through it without saving (unless they have changed and imposed a time limit).
     
  7. colby2415

    colby2415 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    didnt know of this sofware, will test it too. Have you used both? Which one in your opinion is better or what settings do you use?
     
  8. JohnO

    JohnO Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    I think I have tried Clickrepair. I have used Spin It Again. But I have other ways now. I like Spin It Again much better than Clickrepair. But different people make their own choice.
    Settings? Use one of the presets without EQ, and in advanced settings adjust decrackle and declick, independently, until it sounds best, and you can hear the change in nearly real time. Each record is different. Then, the active NR which decreases the highs and/or the noise based on level is many times audibly useful too, but maybe technically incorrect to purists. One thing though: less is better. Don't find a good audible setting for any of the processing types and go one click more, it would be better to go one click less.
     
  9. Samson7

    Samson7 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    I don't understand click repair software. I have manually declicked a couple of tracks before. It's time consuming but works way better than the software. I just don't get this because a click is a glaringly obvious anomaly in the waveform and all you have to do is smooth it out and the pops disappear. Why can't a program do this as effectively as someone doing this manually. A program that smooths out the waveform shouldn't be that hard.
     
    RhodesSupremacy likes this.
  10. TerryS

    TerryS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Peyton, Colorado
    I don't see how click repair can affect the bass. It only works on transients. The danger is that it might misidentify some music transients (such as percussion) as noise clicks or pops and affect them. I can't see that leaving it sounding 'bright'.
    The best method is (like pointed out above), to run it in a manual or semi-automatic mode, where click repair suggests a repair, but you decide on a case by case basis if the repair is actually a click or pop or if it is a music transient.
    But if you prefer a more automatic (set it and go) method, then you need to do a bit of experimentation. Set it to listen to just the noise, and if you can hear anything that sounds like the beat of the music, then you are affecting the music transients, and you need to lower the threshold. But the setting will be different from one album to the next and even one song to the next. In fact, I change mine throughout the song to get the best setting. Louder, more dynamic passages require a different setting than quiet passages.
    I generally run from a setting of 10 - 15 for passages with a lot of music transients to as high as 50 or 60.
    I set it to run in a semi-automatic mode where it stops on each place it identifies a click or pop. Then you can accept the repair it suggests, or if you think it is a music transient, you can ignore it (not apply the change). I change the threshold setting as I go through the track so that I don't get a huge number of 'false' detections, but still eliminate all of the clicks and pops that are audible.
    I will start the track with a high setting (like 60) and start processing. This gets rid of all of the 'static and pops' at the fade in. Then as the music starts, I will reduce the threshold as required. I keep it as high as possible without getting a whole lot of false detections. Remember I am deciding for each detection whether to accept it or not, so it isn't an issue of screwing up the music, it is just an issue of how much time I'm willing to spend sorting through all of the false detects. As I move through the track, I vary the threshold setting so that I stay as high as possible, but below the level that gives me too many false detections.
    This sounds harder than it is. With a little practice it isn't hard at all.
    But if that is too much work, then I suggest just starting at about 15 and just listen to the 'noise'. If it sounds at all like it has a beat like the song, then lower the threshold. If you still get some actually clicks and pops, then raise it.

    Keep in mind that click repair only affects the few samples around the transient it detects. It does not affect the vast majority of the music file. That's why I like to use it. I did quite a bit of experimentation when I first started using it to confirm that this is the case. If you have a music editor, you can take the file before and after processing through click repair and subtract them so you see only what click repair changed. All of the music is identical to the original file except a few samples either side of the click or pop.

    Terry
     
  11. colby2415

    colby2415 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    Interesting. Is it possible to see the changes in something like say, audition? I am just curious as I am doing quite a bit of experimentation.
     
  12. psulioninks

    psulioninks Forum Resident

    Location:
    KC Chiefs Kingdom
    I have done extensive testing using the various settings in ClickRepair. One of my favorite tests was to take final "clean" rips done by others and then send them thru ClickRepair using different DeClick levels. With a DeClick level set to "1", it is not uncommon to get no repairs at all or something like 43 in the left channel and 7 in the right per rip. This data and listening tests confirm that this low setting creates no degrading of the sound to my ears (using headphones and a head amp) in the automatic mode.

    If you take a raw rip and run in thru ClickRepair with a DeClick setting of 1, you will typically get anywhere from two to four thousand repairs for each side of an LP. Here is what a recent rip of Side A from Jethro Tull's Songs From The Wood looks like:

    Total Samples: 122,193,600 - Repaired: 1596 (left) 1690 (right) - (1/76562, 1/72304)

    Method: Simple
    Pitch Protection: On
    Reverse: On

    Once you run it thru with this setting, you will still have lots of other clicks to repair - but I prefer to do those manually with Izotope. But this low setting will correct a lot of clicks that would otherwise take a lot more time to do manually.
     
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2017
  13. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    The sweet spot I have found is 14 or 15, with 12 I had some ticks not removed.

    Best way for me is 14 pass in reverse, and another 14 in forward. That's right, two passes, first one with reverse checked, second without.

    Simple, decrackle off.

    Wonderful software!!!
     
  14. jmobrien68

    jmobrien68 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toms River, NJ
    Without being able to confirm (since I'm at work and my 'ripping' laptop is at home) I think this is pretty close to my settings... if I have a bad album, I might +1 and run a third pass in forward.
    Then I always open the file in iZotope RX and search for any pops or clicks that were missed and remove them manually.
     
    quicksrt likes this.
  15. missan

    missan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Stockholm
    Usually I do the repair manually in CR. You can then choose if you want to repair or not. If the record is very bad I run it automatically first at a very low setting, then run it manually.
     
  16. TerryS

    TerryS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Peyton, Colorado
    Any DAW software should be able to do the comparison. Take a track from the modified file (after click repair processing) and invert it. Then add it to the unmodified track (before click repair). If nothing is changed the result will be all zeros. Any changes will show up clearly.

    Terry
     
  17. TerryS

    TerryS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Peyton, Colorado

    Those numbers are a good example of how little click repair actually changes:
    Total Samples: 122,193,600 - Repaired: 1596 (left) 1690 (right) - (1/76562, 1/72304)
    means it changed about 17 milliseconds (0.017 seconds) of the left and right channels. The remainder of the 21 minute track was not affected at all. A comparison of the bits before and after processing would show no change.

    Terry
     
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  18. Hessian

    Hessian Active Member

    Location:
    USA
    I've done a lot of testing with CR as well. I find that at level 10-15 I generally can not detect any change in transients. Also many times I will compare the declicked CR version with the raw unprocessed rip by putting both files in Audacity and inverting one. Inverting one of the files allows me to hear just the clicks that have been removed. From there I can make a determination whether the declicking was too much and lower the setting or keep it as is. YMMV
     
  19. DirkGentlyUK

    DirkGentlyUK Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Marvellous software. Miraculous even. I've just finished doing all my needledrops and couldn't be happier. Default settings work perfectly for me, and i'm yet to notice any negative effects whatsoever! That said, the needledrops were all from Mint or Near Mint vinyl, but now they sound like CDs. Only better.
     
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  20. marcb

    marcb Senior Member

    Location:
    DC area
    ClickRepair shouldn't be appreciably affecting lower frequencies at all. If its effects can be heard, it's in quick peaks and transients. Think Led Zeppelin II and the quick taps in Ramble On and Moby Dick.

    I use a setting of 2 for about 90%+ of the stuff I do.
     
  21. marcb

    marcb Senior Member

    Location:
    DC area
    Why are you manually declicking? Just set it below 5 and do something else productive for the next 20 minutes.
     
  22. colby2415

    colby2415 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    20 Minutes? Either my computer is just that good, or something isn't right. One album only takes me about 2-3 minutes (max 5).
     
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  23. Yost

    Yost “It’s only impossible until it’s not”

    I use ClickRepair too, and with a setting of 40. I could hear some side effects with the default setting of 50. Moving down to 40 fixed that. I never tried something lower, but reading this thread I'm going to experiment more. Awesome software.

    PS. Processing a rip of one LP side takes about a minute on my MacBook.
     
    krisbee likes this.
  24. ghost rider

    ghost rider Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bentonville AR
    the default is way to high. I manually declick most records using RX6 but I use Click repair often on used records that have more noise. I use a setting of 2 and not higher than 5 and manually declick from there. Others over at the needledrop thread use higher settings without issues. Click Repair is fantastic software the most bang for the buck you will get.
     
    Stone Turntable likes this.
  25. Cast Iron Shore

    Cast Iron Shore Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    I have a friend who is using Clickrepair at a setting of 1, but the sound he's getting seems veiled. Is it possible to use it at such a low setting and get a processed sound?
     
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