Techniques for dealing with crackles and digital 'overs'?

Hi All

1.Wondering if anyone has any tips on removing minor crackles from a track. I've tried Sonic Foundry, Waves X-click and Soundsoap, but they all either degrade the sound overly, or don't remove the problems.

2. Is there any good way of dealing with digital overs, other than re-recording?

(This is for my father-in-law - he's a soon-to-be eighty year old jazz piano player, he just got into home recording, and he's sent me 15 tracks to 'master' and make a CD from. The occasional crackle from his fridge kicking in [or something similar], and the odd bit of nasty >0 DBFS distortion from a particularly dynamic passage is driving me nuts. I'd rather not ask him to do it again, the performance is wonderful!

I did try to replace the overs with another part of the recording, though the overs are on chords, he's playing jazz, and he never plays the same thing twice....

I tried replacing the channel which was over (LH) with an eq'd-to-match version of the other channel (RH), which was recorded lower level and is clean. The fix was too obvious, and getting even a loose match was extremely time consuming.

He appears to have recorded his Yamaha Grand at a decent enough level, the overs are only on 'crash' chords, but then he put the tracks onto CD for me at a fairly low level.

On the (low level) CD he gave me the overs are really only apparent with careful listening, it's when I bring the tracks back up to reasonable listening level they become intrusive. If I master the tracks to the correct level, I know he's going to think it was me who made it distort.)

Thanks for any help

other than re-recording?

No.

Here's an article I wrote that should explain the concept a little better. (Moderators, if this is not cool, please feel free to remove it.)

Why Fix It In The Mix Doesn't Work!



Brandon

I've noticed crackels when I try to record a decent level of audio from my midi instruments..I dont remember having that problem until recently

what is the best way to avoid it , and still get a good strong signal?

ORIGINAL: yep

ORIGINAL: rjchoice

I've noticed crackels when I try to record a decent level of audio from my midi instruments..I dont remember having that problem until recently

what is the best way to avoid it , and still get a good strong signal?

Does "crackles" mean digital overs? If so, turn down your record level. With 24 bit there is no reason to push your record levels close to zero. Just record with your peaks way under and then compress or limit in the computer if you want to loud them back up again. If you insist on recording a hot signal to the computer anyway, then put a limiter in front of the soundcard to prevent overs.

Cheers.

Ahh great.. youve actualy anwered both my questions... I only recently
decided to record above 16 bit, audio.. and that's why I dont remember having these problems.. strange though these overs are not "seen"
while recording or during playback.. just heard...yaknow?..no "clipping lights"
thanks again
pz
-Rob