Auto Scan not working

[rom661]

Hi. I've had this problem before.  Unfortunately I never figured it out and it "healed" itself at the time.  I'm not a power user, nor am I a newbie.  I've used the program to rip a couple of hundred LP's.  I rip at 24/192 and I never scan a whole side.  My LP's are generally in good shape and I use the scan function very selectively, especially on classical fare during very quiet sections. I typically highlight a pop or click and use the minimum setting to take care of it. If that's unsuccessful I do a manual repair and if that doesn't do it, a cut and splice.

I'm well aware that the program won't detect everything.  What's happening now is that when I highlight a distinct pop that should be easily detected, it doesn't see it.  I've done it on numerous ones and the same result.  If I do a whole side scan it will detect a couple but nothing like what is there.  It does seem that the last time it may have been limited to an album, which makes no sense to me.  I do not have the toggle that hides the corrections turned off. 

I'm visually impaired and losing my sight rapidly and trying to get my LP's ripped while I can still handle my table and expensive cartridge.  Any thoughts would be welcome.  If I'm doing something stupid, please tell me.  I will probably try to blame it on my vision :-) Thanks

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi,

What sounds like an obvious click (or, especially, pop) might not be detected by the click scanner.  The scanner detects high frequency transients and not all clicks exhibit this.

SO I would carry on as you were, using manual repairs when the click scanner fails.  That's really the only way to do it.

[rom661]

Yes, I know.  As I said, I've done a few hundred LP's.  That's not what is happening here.  It's what I was told the last time as well and was conclusively not the issue.  I know how to recognize and deal with that.  But thanks for the reply.

[mrmike_49@yahoo.com]

a lot of deep scratches produce a low frequency bump that the program ignores, look for a saw tooth wave

[rom661]

Yes, I know.  When I encounter them I try the short scan at Max, then a manual repair, then cut and splice if appropriate.  I don't seem to be making myself clear - these are obvious pops and clicks that the program normally sees easily.  I don't need a primer on the basics.  I know the basics very well.  Strangely enough I re-recorded the album and it did better at recognizing the same clicks.  I know what is normal for the program and this isn't it, although I've since done another, almost completely clean, but it picked up a couple of very minor things. 

By the way, sometimes those "bumps" that you refer to are on an LP with no associated scratches.  They're all but impossible to remove.  The program doesn't see them because their nature isn't recognized as a normal scratch or tick.  I suspect it's either imperfections in the vinyl itself or possibly a bit of warpage?  At any rate there's nothing I've found that will remove them.  Not as obtrusive as a big click but makes your woofers flutter and is audible.  Perhaps on a disk like that the rumble filter, which I've never used, would help.  Different subject, of course. 

Thanks for the suggestion.  This is now the third time it has happened on a particular album, which would be less weird if it didn't act normally when I rerecorded the album.  It's almost like I accidentally changed the scan sensitivity on one rip.  Weird.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

One thing that occurs to me is that you should make sure that the selection is big enough.  Allow a bit of 'padding' on either side of the region you want to scan as VinylStudio may not reliably detect clicks near the start and end of the selection.

[rom661]

Thanks, but that's not it.  I varied the size, did the whole album side, all of that.  I don't believe anyone knows what causes it but it's now gone.  I deleted that LP, ripped it again and it now works just like normal.  I had tried reverting the settings to factory defaults, rebooting, everything I could think of.  I know very well how it normally works.  It works that way again now. 

I'll list something I did notice while it was happening in a new post below.  Thanks for reaching out.

[rom661]

PROBLEM IS GONE - As I mentioned to someone, I deleted the album that the issue was happening on, rerecorded it and it was much closer to normal. Subsequent ones have been completely normal.  I've no idea what was going on or why it cleared.

However I did notice one thing - You could still do manual repairs, the scan just wouldn't pick up anything.  And yes, the show corrections toggle was on.  However when doing a manual correction instead of the area you'e correcting being light blue, it was violet.  Once I hit the correct button it turned to the normal blue.  No idea what that means but it quit doing that when the scan started working normally again.

Very strange.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi,

FYI, violet means 'Percussion Protection' - a would-be click that has not been corrected because VinylStudio thinks it's a percussion burst.

At the end of the scan, VinylStudio tells you how many of these it found, so you can check whether it seems excessive and rescan with different settings if so.

[rom661]

I understand the colors and what the scan box on the right shows.  But I've never seen this appear when doing a manual repair except during these two occurrences.  It may be unrelated, just weird coincidence. 

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

OK, next time it happens perhaps you could post a screenshot (or screenshots).

[rom661]

Yeah, not sure what to look for but others might.  I have another copy running on a second Mac and I compared settings and they were identical as far as I could tell.  In both cases it seemed to be album specific although it didn't seem possible, especially since it worked normally when I deleted the album and rerecorded it.  It's like the sensitivity settings changed dramatically on one LP, which makes zero sense to me. As I said, I have literally ripped over two hundred records, many of them classical where some judicious corrections really helps in the long, quiet passages. 

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

OK, well, let's see how you go.  If and when it happens again, a screenshot of the scan settings would be helpful.