Brickwalled masterings that have been drastically improved by Audacity Clip Fix

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Solace, May 10, 2017.

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  1. Solace

    Solace Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brussels, Belgium
    I've used Audacity Clip on many digital recordings, always on the default setting of 95%, and a few have turned out really well:

    Blur - Think Tank
    Beth Orton Trailer Park (2009 remaster)
    Rodriguez - Coming from Reality (2009 remaster)
    The Good, the Bad and the Queen - S/T
    Laura Marling - I speak because I can
    The National - High Violet
    Talking Heads - Naked (Hi-Res from 2005 remaster)
    Willard Grant Conspiracy - Regard the End

    I'll be getting into vinyl over the next few months and many of these albums are high on my 'to-get' list. I'll be interested to see how they compare.

    Do you have any to share?
     
  2. Masza

    Masza Forum Resident

    Location:
    Finland
  3. Davey

    Davey NP: Hania Rani/Dobrawa Czocher ~ Inner Symphonies

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    Love that WGC CD, always been a big favorite. I've been meaning to order the new vinyl that Loose released last year, should be nice. If you get a chance to check out Ghost Republic, that's a really nice recording, CD or vinyl, music is more experimental so won't appeal to as many, but it's still pretty special ... Willard Grant Conspiracy

    Loose | Willard Grant Conspiracy’s Regard The End, Available on Vinyl For The First Time
     
    Last edited: May 10, 2017
  4. Solace

    Solace Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brussels, Belgium
    Thom Yorke - The Eraser
     
  5. Solace

    Solace Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brussels, Belgium
    Thom Yorke - Tomorrow's Modern Boxes
     
  6. Stephen J

    Stephen J Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    I just addressed the 1998 CD remaster of Billy Joel's Glass Houses. In its natural form, this disc is DR 10 with min 9/max 11.

    I used your method, and ended up with disc DR 14, min 13/max 15, very comparable to original 1980s versions of this disc.

    Awesome result. :righton:
     
  7. Kevin In Choconut Center

    Kevin In Choconut Center Offensive Coordinator

    Here's another vote, as it were, for the "ReLife" plugin. Terry West made a lot of VST plugins, all of which are very nicely done. Relife has done wonders on some tracks I've either ripped from compact disc, or purchased as downloads.

    But he's done nothing new for some time. I can't confirm this, but I believe that he stopped working on things after his wife died. That's something I can understand and accept, given the loss of my own wife several years ago.
     
  8. Scott Davies

    Scott Davies Forum Resident

    Sorry to burst the bubble but brickwalling cannot actually be repaired. You can create the false appearance of returned dynamics with a few tricks but the audible side effects of brickwalling (diffused drum beats or distortions, for example) still remain. I can run a simple subsonic filter across a brickwalled track that's been pulled down numerous DB and it appears to rebuild the dynamics, but it's only a visual trick.
     
    ClausH, Jimi Floyd, nosliw and 8 others like this.
  9. Solace

    Solace Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brussels, Belgium
    True. Personally I'm only interested if it sounds better. Some attempts with Clip Fix do, others don't.
     
    George P and Grant like this.
  10. MichaelXX2

    MichaelXX2 Dictator perpetuo

    Location:
    United States
    I personally don't believe a computer program can meaningfully reconstruct something that isn't there. You're just replacing clipping distortion with a different kind of distortion.
     
    Grant, nosliw and Dave like this.
  11. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    I've heard it referred to as trying to reconstruct a cow from ground beef.
     
  12. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    It does trick such programs as DR+ dynamic range filter, etc. as well into making a DR7 into a DR12.
     
  13. DiabloG

    DiabloG City Pop, Rock, and anything 80s til I die

    Location:
    United States
    I tried it with Rush - Vapor Trails, Depeche Mode - Playing the Angel, and some of the Judas Priest remasters. There weren't any audible improvements on any of these CDs.
     
    nosliw and Dave like this.
  14. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    Tried it. Not impressed.
     
  15. Stephen J

    Stephen J Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    Van Halen "A Different Kind of Truth" :

    Original CD: DR5, min 5/max 6.

    Audacity Clip-fixed: DR 12, min 11/max 14.

    Big improvement to the ears, not just stats!
     
    George P likes this.
  16. colinu

    colinu I'm not lazy, I'm energy saving!

    I had previously used the Izotope Declipper function, but decided to give ReLife a try. It does a much better job than Izotope - no weird artifacts. It cannot work miracles, but does make a marked improvement.
     
  17. motionoftheocean

    motionoftheocean Senior Member

    Location:
    Circus Maximus
    unfortunately, this isn't really doing anything more than softening the volume of a poorly mastered album. as others have rightly alluded to, when you're dealing with an already-mastered and mixed recording, you're constrained by what's already been done to. to use another simile than others have said here, it's like taken a 128kbps MP3, re-encoding as a FLAC, and expecting it sound better. the damage has already been done digitally - there's no undoing it unless you have access to the stems and can remaster the recording yourself.
     
    Strat-Mangler and nosliw like this.
  18. colinu

    colinu I'm not lazy, I'm energy saving!

    In most of my cases I am talking a recording from 20+ years ago that has been remastered to today's sound. The original master tape was not overly compressed. Whenever possible I do source earlier editions that haven't been mangled.
     
  19. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    Clip fix + a home brew EQ, to (somewhat) match my TT's sound.

    I'm working on "Sleep Well Beast" right now, before I head out.
     
  20. nosliw

    nosliw Delivering parcels throughout Teyvat! Meow~!

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON, Canada
    Some of those albums have dedicated vinyl LP masters, mainly The National, Laura Marling, The Good, the Bad and the Queen, and Talking Heads.

    Be aware that the Rodriguez album is a needledrop of the original LP as the master tape is missing. The Beth Orton LP by Plain Recordings should be avoided at all costs.
     
  21. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I'm with both of you. In some cases, de-clipping can work. In other cases, it's worthless. It is one of of a few techniques, (including downward expansion) one can use to improve the sound of a brickwalled file, but it cannot restore it back to what it once was. I don't think anyone is claiming that it can.

    I use the one in either RX or Audition.
     
    shaboo and Solace like this.
  22. Isn't Audacity an mp3-only program? I only do .wav recordings using my DAK programs @ 32/48 and all sound as good if not better than the vinyl itself.
     
  23. qrarolu

    qrarolu Forum Resident

    Location:
    Stockholm, Sweden
    I use Audacity for both WAV and Flac files.
     
    George P likes this.
  24. marcb

    marcb Senior Member

    Location:
    DC area
    No. It handles up to 32/192 on a Mac (not sure about PC).
     
  25. I am unfamiliar with Mac. I have to use the world business standard PC format in my work. All of my business connections request or require Windows XP operating system. The closest thing I have to a Mac is an iPod that a friend gave me for allowing him access to my CD collection.
     
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