ClickRepair Best Settings

Sorry. I totally forgot to mention that.. I did run both reverse+forward and forward/reverse on it's own. I'm hoping it is something simple to solve.. but I dunno. The best results seemed to be run in forward till 0 repairs made, and then backwards until 0 repairs made, but even then it's only a marginal difference. Sorta have to decide between using a higher setting and dealing with the transients or just leave it as is.

I thought of this too but nothing I'm doing is less than VG+ and FWIW the issue comes up on new vinyl too. (just did a van morrison lp I bought on first place and same issue is there).

 

Oh, and if your record is in too poor of condition, then it's not going to turn it into mint condition no matter what.

 

Could memory be tapped out on pc and it just draws a blank brain stutter on some of them?

 

Interesting thought... could be that as sometimes I play a game or do some other work at the same time while the processing happens. Didn't monitor the memory usage but I could try that tomorrow and see if I can learn anything else. It doesn't throw any errors or anything, but that doesn't mean it's not getting hung up half way and I don't notice the delay. I do have 16gb of memory but I am not a java program expert and I dunno what the highest amount of RAM that can be utilized by java programs.

 

Also, not sure if this is worth mentioning but depending on the lp I get up to 60-80k samples repaired. I guess in the grand scheme of things that's not much as I am recording in 96/24 anyways.

 

Just did some digging in the CR manual and there is something about a buffer size in the preferences.. maybe I should try messing with that too.

 

Decided I couldn't wait till tomorrow and did some more screwing around... sadly nothing has changed and there is definitely no memory issues. Let me know if you think of anything else I could perhaps try. Worried that I am in an impossible situation.

 

Have you examined the waveforms of your needledrops for clipping or overloads? CR will go nuts on sections that are clipped and probably will make those sections sound even worse, and that is not CR's fault. The top part of the screen uses some kind of auto level control for its waveform display, and a sea of red there is not processed like what that seems to look like, particularly for the leadin and leadout of the side. The actual processing is not using an auto level control for its output.

But you don't have to get it down to zero clicks removed. Simpler is better. One pass with Reverse checked and the two sliders set best (manually by ear) at that time should do it. Try 10 and 10 and Reverse checked and Automatic All and plain Wavelet for reasonably clean records recorded at a good level without clipping. Just one pass. That's all. Just do that and play back and enjoy. It's only supposed to make things much more listenable, not reach "perfection" of zero click count.

 

I usually set it at either 25 or 30 on simple declick. Decrackle I never use. Pitch protection messes with the high shelf most of the time, I never use it anymore. Not sure about the reverse setting, have never messed with it. Pretty neat program/algorithm. Works pretty good. If all else fails edit the pops and clicks manually in a Program like Audacity.

 

I think your record is an impossible situation, perhaps trashed beyond anything known to be salvageable?

If the click is buried deep into the music and is fainter than the music, yes it could get over-looked pretty easily.

 

Send me the file and ill take a swing at it.

 

Why not just get LPs in far better condition? All this time and effort could be far better spent in listening to music, IMHO.

 

For normal records I just use CR setting 3. No pitch protection, no reverse. The result is sort of about as good as it gets with CR usually. It will sound like this:
Dropbox - 180517_0239.wav
Dropbox - 180517_0239-cr.wav

 

I wonder how you can get as good as it gets with a 3 setting??? When the settings goes to what 100???

I've seen 14 work out just about everything when 13 or 13 didn't. So I can't see how a 3 can cut.

 

Fair enough... it does seem to be SLIGHTLY worse in the lesser condition lp's, but I'm starting to think those quiet clicks buried deep in the music may just be part of my static problem as the hidden pops show up more regularly.

Full file is big, and I don't wanna get into any trouble with copyright. I can send you a few excerpts of the pops that I cannot get rid of, if you'd like. Just let me know.

Interesting about the pitch protection. I'm gonna try messing with the settings and combining the different declick methods and see if that gets me a better result.

 

I could be wrong, but from what I´ve seen and heard, setting 3 will take care of most clicks. Here are a couple of plots, with click and after run through setting 3.

 

Get a 10$ device to measure humidity levels. With respect, I personally find the degree of effort and time you use to do and research all this stuff while constantly worrying about the slightest imperfection to be utterly wasted. Maybe vinyl just isn't the music medium for you.

Before I do any tinkering, I always mentally calculate the time it'd take to do so. If it's more than a little bit, I say "screw it" and just spend that time listening to music instead. The benefit has to seriously outweigh the effort and time.

In your case, I'd say either buy NM or mint LPs, play it on great equipment, and enjoy. Or, switch to CDs which can also sound great when used with great equipment. Lots of people have flocked back after experimenting with vinyl for a while. No shame in that whatsoever.

 

I think sometimes it's best not to completely give up if the results aren't good, but to merely take a break from whatever it is. I found this "vinyl ocd" seems to come up from time to time. I just think its best to take a break from the hobby at these points. This does seem to happen every few months to me where I worry needlessly about this stuff, and I find taking a brief break from vinyl gets me out of that "hole" so to speak. On one hand I totally agree with you that it's not worth spending too much time tinkering and just enjoy the music, but on the other hand I think it's just a part of the hobby. I just find it funny how many vinyl audiophiles seem to have some kind of form of ocd.

In this case though I totally agree with you. I'm not going to spend hours screwing with click removal. Vinyl needs to be about the music, and not worrying about getting a 100% perfect clean transfer. Nothing's perfect (even digital audio).

Thanks for your insight

 

I have decided that I'm not gonna keep chasing perfection with this. Based on all the reading on settings I found the general consensus is somewhere in the 12-18 range depending on the condition. I find it funny that when listening to an LP the pops,clicks and surface noise aren't as noticeable as when you transfer it over to digital.

 

I just did a 5LP box set last night. Ravel's Orchestral Works cond. by Jean Martinon, with Pearlman. Stunning sound from 1975 on German pressed EMI SQ quad. 10 sides came out squeaky clean on 15 setting, reverse and then forward. I did the CR on each side before breaking them into tracks. Computer with 16Gs of memory went through the sides like a hot knife in butter.

I never liked the sound of the material on CD, so this is one I wanted from the first pressing import vinyl. Very 3D sounding recording.

 

While I don't like wasting too much time, there is the escape from life's stresses while I do a good needle drop with color scanned cover and labels, and sound is better than a CD. I enjoy a job well done. I get to enjoy the work for many years hopefully.

 

Working to escape stress? That doesn't ring true to me but do whatever works for you.

 

It's not work when you have firey passion about your records. It's called passionate for a reason. It's just not work when you love doing it. It helps when you have a large collection and much of it never got a good CD release.

 

I'm passionate about guitar but performing modifications and setting them up isn't my idea of fun nor is relaxing. I'd rather spend that time playing. Different strokes.

 

I just updated to Apple's new operating system, had to redownload JAVA, and now I can't find where ClickRepair is saving the files. I'm taking the raw file off my desktop, and running it. Before it would make a new file for the repaired track, also on my desktop. Now it runs, but I have no idea where it goes and a full "Search" of the hard drive did not find a new file anywhere. I had to leave for work before I could really delve into it, but has anyone else experienced this?