Finding and fixing scuffs

[Jerrysnb]

Sometimes I run into a noise that I can't pin down. The sound is hard to describe. Perhaps if there were sand on the floor and you scuffed your shoe on it. The one I'm working on right now is on only one track.

Even at 500% vertical zoom, I can't find it in the waveform let alone fix it. I can't use a selection to track it down, because I can only roughly determine where it is. If the selection is too wide, I don't know where it is within the selection. If the selection is too narrow, I can't play it.

I narrowed it down by using the "play one second" tool, but I don't seen anything there.

Any thoughts?

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi,

Did you try Spectral View?  You might be able to see it in there.

Other than that, the '1' key is indeed the best tool for this.  Then perhaps try using Patch.  Initially, make it very wide and then narrow it and narrow it until you get it in exactly the right place.

[Jerrysnb]

Spectral View helped confirm where it was; it looked like a scattering of red dots up and down the spectrum. Playing the selection at reduced speed helped too. Even so, the waveform didn't really show anything.

There are actually two scratch repairs nearby (I mean less than .01 seconds apart), and I suspect they might be related. I tried playing that area without the scratch repairs, and I tried widening the scratch repairs. I also tried removing one of the repairs and widening the other to cover both areas. Neither did any good.

Slapping a huge patch over the area changed the sound to a tiny dropout, which to my ears seemed more annoying that a little scritch. I decided to leave it alone.

If you'd like a copy of the track, let me know.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Yes, please do send it:

p DOT sanders AT alpinesoft DOT co DOT uk

Thanks.

[bjornvinyl]

Hi, I think I have the same kind of faults as Jerrysnb on some of my recordings and I do agree that it is very hard to locate them by looking at the waveform. Also, the tick repair is not very effective, in this case, and also cannot "see" the fault. But, I have also noted that sometimes the fault is only in one channel. Is it possible to copy the sound from left to right or vice versa, making the recording effectively mono for a short while? If not possible today, would it be a good idea to include such a feature?

As a side note I applaud your move to create the PRO-version. In my view, VinylStudio has always been too cheap w.r.t. all the unique features it offers. I immediately upgraded! Keep up the good work.

Best regards

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi,

First of all thanks for the kind words and your order - much appreciated.

Yes, I agree that 'copy audio from one channel to the other' would be a useful feature.  We will put it on the list.

[Jerrysnb]

One clue that you're dealing with a scuff, rather than a scratch, is that it repeats over two or three revolutions of the disk.

It might be something other than a scuff: it might be a wrinkle in the vinyl. I've run into that on disks when I've tried to flatten out a warp. That usually lasts for many revolutions, though, and I doubt there's any way to fix it.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

OK, thanks.  VinylStudio does in fact have hotkeys '(' and ')' to advance or back up the cursor one disk revolution, if that helps at all.

[Jerrysnb]

That's what I used.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Did they help?

[Jerrysnb]

Yes. Since the scuffs were hard to spot, it was very handy to be able to jump to where the next one might be lurking.

[Jerrysnb]

Unfortunately, while I've grown adept at spotting the scuffs using the spectral view, I haven't figured out what to do about them. They're too long for patches (about half a second long).

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Are they in both channels?

[Jerrysnb]

Sometimes they're in both channels, but sometimes more prominent in one than the other. If you're thinking about some way to use one track to fix the other, that would work in quite a few cases.

I wish I could physically see on the vinyl what the problem is. It could be a dab of vegemite, for all I know.

Oh, well. Vinyl is vinyl, after all, not adamant.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

OK, thanks.  We'll look into copying audio from one channel to the other, which some other people have asked for.