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#1
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fix distortion in audio restoration project?
Hey all,
I've got an audio restoration gig, consisting of cleaning up several precious old out-of-print classical records. One in particular has brief moments of distortion at loud peaks. It is clean except for these peaks. This is not digital clipping, but rather an analog distortion present on the source. We've even been able to examined more than one (identical) LP pressings, and the distortion is present in the same spots on all. How to fix? My best solution - so far - is to use Izotope RX to manually select and lower the gain of the tiny bits of distortion, often working the frequencies in-between the music when possible. Sometimes this kinda sorta works... Help!
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Desktop build: PT 2020.5 / Win 11 / i9-11900K @ 5.1GHz / 64GB / 4TB NVMe PCIe 4 / Gigabyte Z590 Vision D / PreSonus 2626 Laptop: PT 2020.5 / Win 11 / i5-12500H / 16GB / 1TB NVMe / Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Pro / U-PHORIA UMC1820 Ancient/Legacy (still works!): PT 5 & 6 / OS9 & OSX / Mac G4 / DIGI 001 Click for audio/video demo Click for resume |
#2
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Re: fix distortion in audio restoration project?
That would have been my suggestion too. Maybe check their website and look for some tutorial videos on that function? Then there are some other plugins that are worth a demo:
https://accusonus.com/products/audio...era-de-clipper http://www.perfectdeclipper.com/
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HP Z4 workstation, Mbox Studio https://www.facebook.com/search/top/...0sound%20works The better I drink, the more I mix BTW, my name is Dave, but most people call me.........................Dave |
#3
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Re: fix distortion in audio restoration project?
Thnx I'll check those out
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Desktop build: PT 2020.5 / Win 11 / i9-11900K @ 5.1GHz / 64GB / 4TB NVMe PCIe 4 / Gigabyte Z590 Vision D / PreSonus 2626 Laptop: PT 2020.5 / Win 11 / i5-12500H / 16GB / 1TB NVMe / Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Pro / U-PHORIA UMC1820 Ancient/Legacy (still works!): PT 5 & 6 / OS9 & OSX / Mac G4 / DIGI 001 Click for audio/video demo Click for resume |
#4
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Re: fix distortion in audio restoration project?
First, congrats! That's a cool gig.
Second, if the distortion was electronic, that's a tough problem, especially if it was transistor breakup. Almost intractable in some cases. Zoom in to the detailed waveform level and see where the discontinuities lie. If they're restricted to the high amplitude portion of the waveform, that's easier to deal with. If they lie along the ramp up or down, several dB below the peaks, then digging out between the overtones may be the best strategy. If it was mechanical distortion during pressing, which is more similar to clipping, that can sometimes be moderated with the De-clip module of RX. Zoom in and adjust the threshold until it's catching most of the discontinuities. You'll lose some high end detail, but it can be an overall improvement. Don't forget to try Interpolate and the various Spectral Repair modes. Sometimes they'll surprise you.
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David J. Finnamore PT 2023.12 Ultimate | Clarett+ 8Pre | macOS 13.6.3 on a MacBook Pro M1 Max PT 2023.12 | Saffire Pro 40 | Win10 latest, HP Z440 64GB |
#5
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Re: fix distortion in audio restoration project?
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Something to think about is it might just be an instrument or instruments played a bit too forcefully and they just got blatty. Or a mic just got overdriven (thinking ribbon mic here). |
#6
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Re: fix distortion in audio restoration project?
Question... how does RX do with clipped vocals? I have a project where the singer is recording remotely from her home and sometimes the vocal files she sends me are squared off at the top and there’s various degrees of distortion in the louder parts.
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#7
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Re: fix distortion in audio restoration project?
RX De-clip module pretty hit or miss for me. Sometimes I am amazed with the results, and sometimes no matter what I do it only sounds the same or worse. It really depends on the source material, and it definitely requires a lot of trial and error with adjusting settings and re-rendering (from the raw audio). Anything that is severely distorted will never sound pristine, but De-Clip can improve things, sometimes significantly, many times marginally.
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Scott Gatteño |
#8
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Re: fix distortion in audio restoration project?
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#9
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Re: fix distortion in audio restoration project?
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Custom i9-12900K, 64GB RAM, W10 Pro, PT Ultimate 2024.03, HD Native, OMNI, Digi 192, UAD-2 Octo; Mac Pro 12-core 3.46, 64GB RAM, Mojave, Logic Pro 10.5.1, Apogee Rosetta 800, UAD-2 Quad, MOTU 2408 Mk II: MBP mid-2012, 16GB RAM, Mojave, MOTU 8-Pre-ES, Pro Tools 2021.7 |
#10
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Re: fix distortion in audio restoration project?
Bingo.
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David J. Finnamore PT 2023.12 Ultimate | Clarett+ 8Pre | macOS 13.6.3 on a MacBook Pro M1 Max PT 2023.12 | Saffire Pro 40 | Win10 latest, HP Z440 64GB |
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