Digital restoration software for 78s

Basic editing tools include the ability to cut, copy, paste, fade, resample and save in different audio format. Most of the software packages to be found from an internet search should have these functions. For restoration of noise removal the additional tools needed are: scratch and click removal, decrackle, noise reduction and equalisation.

There are several packages which will remove impulsive noise (clicks, scratches and cracks) and wide band noise. Some examples are listed below. For the process of digital restoration described on these pages a combination of Cool Edit (or Adobe Audition) and Virtos was used but good results may be obtained from other packages too.

Until recently Cool Edit 2000 cost about $69 from Syntrillium at www.syntrillium.com. A plug-in module costing about $40 was required for the removal of clicks, scratches and other noise. An equalisation plug at about the same price in provided a flexible graphic equalizer, a parametric equaliser and many useful scientific filters, the whole making an excellent audio processing package. Unfortunately this company no longer trades under the name of Syntrillium. Adobe Systems Incorporated acquired the technology assets of Syntrillium Software in May 2003. On August 18th, 2003 Adobe released a re-branded version of Cool Edit Pro 2.1 as Adobe Audition™ software. You can purchase Adobe Audition, which is now up to version 3.0, for although an upgrade is much less expensive. Third-party plug-ins are also available, with the very useful Clickfix obtainable from Jeffery Klein and the equally impressive ClickRepair from Brian Davies.

Cool Edit 2000 also supported DirectX plug-ins such as the excellent Virtos GmbH collection of cleaning and enhancement modules. The de-crackle algorithm is particularly useful. These can be downloaded from http://www-en.virtos.info/. The current version is 1.1 which is somewhat of a refinement over Virtos 1.0 which was used for the some of the audio samples on this website.

There is also some very good open source software from Audacity, a a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems..

Magix are producing some good quality products at very reasonable prices. Their latest is MAGIX audio cleaning lab 12 deLuxe at around £30. It is excellent for vinyl restoration and for compiling and burning CDs but was not designed with restoration of shellac 78s primarily in mind. However it does support DirectX plugins such as Virtos Denoiser.

The UK company et cetera provides a lot of digital audio products, including sound cards and other hardware in addition to software such as Cool Edit Pro and DCArt. They can be found at www.etcetera.co.uk and supply their products through a network of local agents across the UK.

There are some very much more expensive products also available, intended for professional use rather than for the home enthusiast. One of the best known is Cedar for Windows, which can de-click, de-noise, de-hiss and render nearly perfect in real-time using a combination of hardware and software.

HitSquad Musician Network has links to a comprehensive range of shareware and freeware digital enhancement software, most of which may be downloaded for a free trial. You can expect to spend a great deal of time experimenting with the software collected here.