Steve would you comment on Noise Reduction with Compression added to it?

Cool Edit 2000 is like the son, and Cool Edit Pro is like the dad. If you get 2000, you will have to buy the plug-ins to de-click, de-clip, EQ, and all sorts of stuff that is standard in the pro version. Also, the pro version has a 128 track studio! The multitrack comes in handy for some restoration and assembly stuff. Also, you can use the free CD-R burning plug-in with the pro version. There are more specialized configurations for all aspects of the pro version.

 

In other words Grant says :

TERRY go with Cool Edit Pro! Yeah. that's the ticket!!

 

Not slashing, Grant. Yikes. Are we talking about the same thing here? Just some light NR if it can be done without audible artifacts. It all depends on the type of music, how loud the music is relative to the noise, and whether or not any trade-offs (if they're audible) are considered acceptable. I've never used NR on an entire track from start to finish and I never use any at all for my own personal listening. Also if I use the "Keep Noise Only" option in Cool Edit and there's some music being "kept" I take it to mean something's wrong and it's back to messing with the variables. And, yes, don't ever use computer speakers.

Matt

 

Matt, I misunderstood you other post.

Anyway, I will typically NR the whole track. If I can't NR the whole thing I don't do it at all. As you say, on some material there is a tradeoff, and I will not bother to do it on most traditional jazz and classical albums.

One method I discovered to de-click is to split the frequency bands of a track, de-click the worst ones, then mix it all back together, This way, tou don't risk hitting certain transients, and preserve the top end more. But, I on;y do this in the extreme cases. Or, I will use the Younglove method, or some variation of it.

 

Ummmmmm Grant what exactly do you mean when saying you use THE YOUNGLOVE method as well as any variations of it!

God see my mind goes right in the Gutter!

 

No problem.

That one line should've read: "And I've never used NR across the whole frequency band on an entire track from start to finish (who would?) and I never use any at all for my own personal listening." The LPs I've transferred for myself have, thankfully, not needed any. I should never type on an empty stomach.

Splitting the frequency bands. Hmm, I've never tried that before as part of the de-clicking process. Thanks for the tip. Yes, the Younglove method (de-crackling) works very well especially if it's used after doing a normal de-clicking. With some persistence you can end up with nothing but the original tape hiss. Oh, and the music.

Matt

 

Wow so what us older guys need is to get some De-Crackling.....

Yeah Yeah Yeah, YEAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

 

The Younglove method was developed by a guy named David (Younglove) on the Syntrillium Cool Edit Forum. It is an involved method of stripping away the clicks and crackle in a recording and leaving everything else intact.

 

One other thing to add about CE2K vs CEP: The latest version of CEP (2.1) has a "spectral decay" parameter to the NR that results in much less artifacting -- but you can still make things sound pretty horrible with it.

This, along with better XP support, is what convinced me to upgrade from CE2K to CEP.

 

Thanks Grant, as I was just joking as it sounded funny to me De-Crack-ling

I was a gigging musician way to long. So it sort of reminded me of a Chinese chick with a nice butt at a club I used to play at in Boston.

 

Oh, I know! I thought it was funny!

 

Thanks to all you guys on the insight on some of this stuff. And Grant I was looking a Soundblaster Platinuim 2 sound card. It seems to have most of the good specs that you spoke of. Let me know on that if you are familiar with that one.

 

Uh, no. Don't get that card. They sound nice, but they are not built for recording. They also do not record 24-bit. Creative is quite "creative" about their specs, and they give so little of them.

In fact, stay away from anything by Creative if you are serious about doing music. There are certainly better cards out there that are much cheaper too.

 

Grant Wow it did say in the specs that it did do 24 bit?? Ok so if you have any links or suggestions to point me in the right direction for a new Sound Card. Leave them here for me or PM me! Thanks!!

 

Thanks to Grant, i may check out Cool Edit Pro. I've been very disappointed with my Sonic Foundry programs (Sound Forge and Vegas... upgrades have been geared more towards video than audio).

For soundcards, check out the Audiophile from M-Audio:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/audiophile.php

 

Keith,
Thanks for that link, I will have to check it out when I have some more free time and I'm wide awake.

 

So what's the breakout cable on the card for?

 

If I'm not mistaken (I own the Delta 1010, not this one), it's for MIDI IN/OUT and SPDIF.

 

Correct. I own one and that's exactly what the cable is for.

 

Here is some info on the Creative Audigy 2 Platinum Soundcard,

So hope this clears up why it's not ideal for Recording Purposes, Thanks to Grant and other's I would have bought the wrong card. Basically the last line in the review just about says as to why! Although it's a good card for gamer's or for playing sound but not recording it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Compared with earlier Audigy drivers releases, Audigy 2’s proved to be more competent from the beginning. SoundFont support is greatly improved via several bug fixes, Dolby Digital decoding from external sources is supported plus the decoder itself offer more features. OpenAL drivers are included as well.
I should also bring up that with the latest drivers ASIO 2 support has been added. There is some confusion regarding 24-bit/96 kHz recording capabilities with ASIO 2 and the Audigy 2, to clear things up Harvey Fong of Creative posted the following:

The Audigy 2 & Audigy 2 Platinum models that are currently available support ASIO 2 Direct Monitoring. These Audigy products do not support ASIO 2 Word Clock that is necessary for 24/96 recording. This level of support requires a different level of hardware that will be available when the Audigy 2 Platinum EX makes it's debut

Please note that this is for ASIO 2 and would not be related to other applications that may indeed record at 24/96 levels

 

However Audigy 2 Platinum EX is now out

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/audigy2_platinum_ex/

I'd appreciate it if Grant or Graham would take a look at this and tell me how this card would now be. Actually this was in fact the model I had originally been talking about. As my son works at our local Circuit City and this was the one he had shown me recently.

 

Well, if you're looking to record 61., it's only going to be at 16-bit/44.1:

*Please note that 6.1 recording using ASIO is at 16-bit/48kHz only.

They list a couple of playback specs, but absolutely nothing about the RECORDING specs! Typical... It looks very good for features, but how do the recordings sound?

I would look for some independant tests of this card first to see how it stacks up against other cards first. www.pcavtech.com

The card we're talking about isn't listed here, but it gives you a very good place to start.

http://www.pcavtech.com/soundcards/compare/index.htm

BTW, I use the Turtle beach Santa Cruz card...

 

But isn't that like saying you have a way of having natural sugar in a recipe while using NutraSweet? It's the real thing or it isn't. It's been put through NR or it hasn't.

 

NR can be used to varying degrees; it's not an on or off switch. CEP allows you to denoise only by a certain percentage, lower noise by any given amount, or denoise only certain parts of the frequency spectrum.

For example, I have used NR for removing 60 or 120 cycle hum on a few records... it's much more forgiving than notching out the frequencies with EQ.

 

Beagle, here is your answer: