Clicks and pops elimiation

leewatkins wrote on 8/29/2011, 6:39 AM

I had to buy the ACL 17 version to replace my old 3.0 because my old computer crashed and I had to buy a new one with Windows 7 and found 3.0 would not work with it. I LOVED the old version but think you made many mistakes by changing things as much as you have in the 17.

Anyway, the OLD version was great at eliminating clicks from old LPs.--even fairly loud pops. The current version is lousy!! I have had to individually excise even the smallest click which takes an inordinate amount of time. I DO set the "cog" to the maximum setting for clicking removal. Am I (!!) doing something wrong? Is there something else I could do?/ The 17 deluxe IS much better at reducing or eliminating 60 ctyclehum

Also: within the last couple of weeks I have asked for help on another matter. I have never received any helpful solution. I will try again. When I first started to use the 17 version I was able to do what I was used to; namely, press the "l" key and have a menu drop down showing all the track numbers where I could name or edit track names. Then, suddenly, I can no longer do that. This is a function I would like to have again--not some way to get around using THAT approach. What do you think has gone wrong/ Did I hit some sequence of keys accidently that deactivated it? If so, how do I undo the mistake?

Lee Watkins

Comments

john-auvil wrote on 8/29/2011, 10:17 AM

All I can tell you is that the software has gone through major evolutions (some appreciative, some mind boggling), so the features that you had in version 3 may still be there, and work as you remember them... some might have moved or been eliminated.

This is not always due to the manufacture changing things though, sometimes these are mandates from the Operating System (Microsoft Windows) or in some cases there a function capability like (CDDB) which was licensed is no longer available and therefore that functionality has been removed.

I use the ACL (Audio Cleaning Lab) 17 Deluxe but I started using ACL with version 1 (back in 2000). I can remove pops, hissing, clicks, and hum with ease using the wizards, presets, or manually. Here are some things about audio processing that might be helpful to know though.

When you use a cleaning or mastering feature in ACL, you are affecting the over all audio, not just the pop or click, so each time you whittle away at the overall quality. This is over processing (such as adding is all the cleaning functions) and can lead to no sound or new anomalies, which would require additional corrections, and that starts the snowball effect.

I primarily do LP recordings so there is DeClicker, DeCrackler, DeNoiser added to these, this helps in the elimination of the unwanted sounds. Because these are in real time, I can play back the audio and add in the effect I want.

In severe cases... like a pop that I can visually see in the display area, I will use the cut edit mouse tool and place a cut in the center of that pop, this does a cross fade on the cut, which 90% of the time eliminates the pop.

In the issue of track window displaying... (L) does open that up, like you explained. It could be that maybe it was altered somehow, I am not sure. In addition, you can use the "CD/DVD" drop down menu and select "CD Track List" from there, but it seems like that is not an option your willing to use so... use the reset for the program in the second illustration (drop down menu "Help" reset) and see if that helps.

I hope that does help.

leewatkins wrote on 8/29/2011, 2:51 PM

to continue, John:

You wrote the following, and I have walked the same walk. The “deClicker” worked quite well in 3.0 but doesn't seem to do a “blooming” thing in 17. I also “cut out” the clicks which is time consuming; and considering that the deClicker doesn't even get rid of little “ticks,” I waste an inordinate amount of time.

I primarily do LP recordings so there is DeClicker, DeCrackler, DeNoiser added to these, this helps in the elimination of the unwanted sounds. Because these are in real time, I can play back the audio and add in the effect I want.
In severe cases... like a pop that I can visually see in the display area, I will use the cut edit mouse tool and place a cut in the center of that pop, this does a cross fade on the cut, which 90% of the time eliminates the pop.
In the issue of track window displaying... (L) does open that up, like you explained. It could be that maybe it was altered somehow, I am not sure. In addition, you can use the "CD/DVD" drop down menu and select "CD Track List" from there, but it seems like that is not an option your willing to use so... use the reset for the program in the second illustration (drop down menu "Help" reset) and see if that helps.