[78-L] 78s To Computers.

[Chris Zwarg]

>editing the pops 'n' clicks the software
>doesn't get (and there are usually several) by hand--either
>highlight-and-delete, or in some cases re-drawing the waveform.

MUCH better option: Use the manual declicking options offered by CoolEdit / Adobe Audition - the built-in Click/Pop Eliminator (which is rather useless in its automatic setting) has a "Fill Single Click Now" setting which FFT-filters the highlighted area to match the surrounding sound, and the freeware plugin ClickFix for CoolEdit has a "Force Fix" setting which replaces the highlighted area by repeating a segment left of it, fitted in automatically in the correct phase, so no new clicks ensue even with complex waveforms. The latter will also fill in dropouts in tape or optical-film recordings.

I would think that pricier and newer audio editors (not to mention dedicated 78 restoration software like DCArt, which I have never felt a need to buy and use myself) would have even more efficient and comfortable ways of retouching momentary defects, and I am surprised that anybody is still using stone-age methods like actually CUTTING OUT a piece from the waveform, which produces an ugly jump-cut that distorts the musical timing, apart from the fact that the joint is rarely smooth, and the click turns into a "thud" only slightly less disturbing! Even with strictly amateur ambitions, disfiguring my recordings like this would be the last thing I do; audible clicks are far less distracting than an "off-centre" rhythm and tempo because of bits and pieces snipped in odd places. Yet, even "highbrow" companies like Marston and Symposium are doing this occasionally - why???!

Manually re-drawing the waveform isn't very practical unless you can work in the spectral domain (like you can in more recent versions of Adobe Audition), otherwise what you do will mostly be no better than guesswork - in the waveform view it is often not clear at all what is musical sound and what is noise, especially with clicks embedded in complex sounds like a full orchestra, where the "good" waveform itself looks like a series of all sorts of irregular spikes and odd shapes.

Chris Zwarg