Improve the sound of dubbed records - this is how the restoration works
Digitized records often don't sound particularly good. We'll tell you how to improve the sound of dubbed records.
What you need for the restoration of your recordings
In this practical tip, we explain how to digitize records. In a few more steps you can improve the quality of the recording. Only freeware is used for this. You can put together your restoration system from a host software and a few plug-ins:
- If you haven't already, install "Audacity".
- Download the "Autogate / Expander" and unzip the archive in the plug-in folder of "Audacity".
- Do the same with the "Blood Overdrive".
- Also install the "Kjaerhus Audio Classics" and move the files from the "C: \ Program Files \ VST" folder to the "Audactiy" plug-ins folder.
Minimize the noise of digitized records
Recordings of records always contain some noise and sometimes even hum. With effects from "Audacity" and other free VST providers you can minimize these disturbances:
- Mark an area of the recording where there is only noise. Use the "Noise removal ..." effect to determine the noise profile and then lower it by 5 to 10 dB. The noise becomes quieter, but does not go away.
- If you perceive a mains hum, select the "Notch Filter ..." and remove with a Q-Gaktor of approx. 17 first 50 Hz, then 150, 250, 350 etc. until the mains hum has become significantly quieter.
- The "slim slow slider: Autogate Expander" gets the rest of the noise under control. Find an area where noise is almost exclusively heard and set the threshold so high that the noise is inaudible most of the time. You should adjust the attack time depending on the music. Beat-heavy music such as techno or dubstep tolerate much shorter times than flat music such as chamber music, ambient or jazz. Listen to the music a little bit with your settings and lower the threshold so that as much noise as possible disappears without the music passages sounding fragmented.
Remove occasional cracking and noise from recordings
If occasional noise or crackling occurs, you can specifically eliminate them with two means:
- "Repair" removes clicks, tones and noises in a small marked area if they do not match the surrounding sound.
- If you zoom in close enough to the spot with the sound error using the zoom tool (magnifying glass symbol), you can use the drawing tool (pencil symbol) to draw contours smoothly and thus remove crackling and crackling.
Regain brilliance and full sound
If the music has lost brilliance due to the noise reduction processes, you can artificially regain it. You can also increase the volume and richness of the sound with little effort:
- In "VST: Blood Overdrive" activate the "PreAmp" at a very low level and regulate "PreBand" and "Color" until you get a brighter, more natural sound.
- Select the preset "Mix Down" for the "Kjaerhus Audio: Classic Compressor". So the music sounds much fuller.
- Finally, go to "Normalize" and normalize the level of your music to -0 dB.
In the recently released "AudioDope" software, you can also load the VST plug-ins and restore your music. Professional software solutions such as "Steinberg Wavelab" offer the same functions with algorithms, some of which are clearly superior.