Why restore your old vinyl..?
Are you like me and have a ton of old vinyl singles and LP’s stashed away up your loft never to be seen again? It’s a shame really; it is now hard to imagine that theses thin black pieces of plastic used to have a life and were looked after for many years. Then in 1983 we saw the birth of the Compact Disc it was only a matter of time before you would turn your back on your beloved vinyl and go the Compact Disc Digital Audio route.
With most of you’re vinyl classics now available on CD, why bother to restore your old vinyl you may ask? Well, the first thing it that it is simple and fun to do, and secondly, there may be some of your records that are impossible to buy on CD in the shops, I know many of mine are not available so I think it’s wise decision to do it yourself.
So one day I decided to climb up my loft and bring my old vinyl back to life with the help of the digital era of course. Why wait till all these vinyl classics are realised on CD when it is just as easy to do it yourself with the help of your pc and the right software?
Getting the vinyl onto your PC...
The first thing you have to think about when you have decided to restore your vinyl collection is how the hell to get it onto your pc in the first place, well…there are two ways to do this, they are the old traditional way and the more advanced way, they are as follows.
Method1 The first way is the traditional analogue way by where you connect your turntable/record player to the phono inputs of an analogue amplifier then connect the amplifier to your soundcards line input via the amplifiers tape out, line out, aux out. See the illustration below.
Method2 this method is the way in which I got my vinyl onto my pc as I find is far better but it does involve you having to purchase a piece of hardware that is also supplied with vinyl restoration software, but I find that the included software is not up to much for the restoration process, I only use the supplied software for the recording process then leave all the editing and click/pop removal to Adobe Audition v1.5.
The program called Steinberg Clean Plus v5.0, the plus meaning that the software is provided with a phono pre-amp that you will need for the recording process.
Which ever option you choose, once you have got your vinyl onto your pc it is just a case of opening up the wave file in Adobe Audition and letting the magic begin, here is how it is done…read on.
Ok, so you have got your vinyl down from your loft, now what? Well the first thing to do is to clean the vinyl first with warm soapy water and a soft, preferably natural sponge. Even though the vinyl has been in its sleeve for many years you will be surprised at how much dust and dirt it can gather, so my advice to you is to clean and dry it thoughly using a soft cloth.
1, Load Adobe Audition then import the file into Audition.
2, If the file has any noise, hiss or crackle before it actually starts to play then I always leave that noise intact so I can then capture a profile from it later after using the Audition Click/Pop Eliminator Filter. See Illustration bellow for description.
3, Make sure that you are fully zoomed back on the waveform, This is done by choosing the Zoom Out Full Both Axis command from the Zoom Toolbox that is located bottom left of the Audition window. Then make sure the waveform is a light green colour sitting on top of a black background, this can be done just by clicking on the waveform once or twice.
4,Click the effects tab on the left hand side of the Audition window, click on the noise reduction category, then double click on the Click/pop Eliminator. In the window that appears just ignore all the settings; all you need to do here is click the Auto Find Levels button. Audition will than scan the file for clicks and pops etc. once the scanning is complete just click on the ok button in the Click/Pop Eliminator window, Audition will then remove all clicks and pops within that file automatically, it may take a while depending on the speed of your pc. See image below.
5, Now play back your file, you should straight away here a huge difference in the playback, all, or most of crackle/pops etc should be now removed.
6,
Now let’s capture a noise profile from the very beginning on the waveform to remove any unwanted hiss or any clicks and pops that may still remain.
Make a selection at the very beginning of the waveform by clicking and dragging one out, then zoom in on that selection by pressing the Zoom In To Left Edge Of Selection command from the Zoom Toolbox that is located at the bottom left of the Audition window. See image below for illustration of Zoom Toolbox.
Once you are happy with your selection, click on the Effects Tab to the left of the Audition window, then click Noise Reduction, then double click the Noise Reduction Filter.
8, In the new window that appears click on the Capture Profile button at the top right of it, this tells Audition to take a profile of the selection, essentially taking an FFT snap shot of just the noise. Once the scan is complete, click the close button.
9, Now zoom back full so you can see all of the waveform, again this is done by clicking the Zoom Out Full Both Axis from the zoom toolbox that is located bottom left of the Audition window. Now click on the waveform once so that the wave turns green on a black background.
10, Now go back to the Effects Tab then double click Noise Reduction Filter again. In the window that appears click on the Preview Button at the bottom right of the window, you will now here the waveform play. Move the Noise Reduction Level Slider up to about 75% to 90% you will instantly here a huge difference in the playback of the wave, all noise should now be removed. See illustration of noise reduction window below for information.
Please note: This percentage of 75% to 90% will vary on different waveforms, on some waveforms you may notice audible artefacts, if this is the case just reduce the percentage of the noise reduction level.
