Any Audio Repair Suggestions?

[EmpireStrikesBack198]

Hi, everyone. I have numerous music files that are just loaded with buzzing, clicks, garble, scratching.. just all the nasties that make our world more imperfect. I'm usually semi-successful in curing my music files, but I've been struggling to save some of my recent music files. The programs I usually use to fix corrupt music files are Adobe Audition and Sony Soundforge. If the noise reduction presets aren't successful in those programs, I will try some "inferior" programs such as Audacity and Goldwave, but I'm not having any luck with any those programs, either. The presets don't help that much and I don't have enough expertise to apply special techniques to these files. Some of the restoration presets actually made the music sound worse such as the click/pop eliminator in Audition. Below I pasted a link to an untouched sample music file. The noise isn't really that bad, but it could be better I imagine. The sample I provided sounds kind of like an old record, but the tools I'm using don't seem to "recognize" it as such. Could anyone pass along any suggestions or some help along my way? Thanks in advance for anything and everything you have to offer!

Sample Music File - 7MB

[Soopafresh]

It really doesn't sound that bad.

[redwudz]

You might look into some of the VST filters: http://freemusicsoftware.org/category/free-vst-effects-2/filter They are quite a bit more advanced than the simple filters most audio editors come with. I just experiment until I get what I want.

In my experience, any filtering will remove something, that's their purpose. The trick is not removing too much or the wrong thing and making the end result sound worse. Usually less is better, even if it's not perfect. JMO.

Even the freeware Audacity can use some sophisticated filter plugins: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Plug-ins

[Soopafresh]

There's a little bit of garbling between 20 and 23 seconds, but it isn't worth the effort.

[EmpireStrikesBack198]

Thanks for the replies. I'll give the VST filters a whirl. I've also been experimenting with DC6, but haven't seen much improvement. I think I'm being too picky at the moment and I shouldn't be. Like Soopafresh said, it isn't worth getting into a tizzy over. I have some clips that are worse.. and those mostly have garble noises. Any way to remove the garbling? I haven't seen any de-garble presets out there unless if it comes under a different name. Of course, I can remove all the noise if I wanted to be left with an extremely muffled and odd sounding clip. Thanks, again.

[Soopafresh]

No need to spend so much energy in trying to fix such a small error. It's like putting a tourniquet around your neck to stop a nosebleed.

The garbling sounds too much like the source for any program to identify it and filter it out. I've experimented with DC6. That product is designed for forensic voice restoration and isn't suited for the nuances of music.

VST plugins are superb for sound enhancement. The BetaBugs guys have a handful which are really good and free. The W1 Limiter is the best: http://www.betabugsaudio.com/plugs.php

So is the audio "exciter" plugin http://www.uv.es/~ruizcan/sintes/xcita_v12.zip . It's a copy of the great BBE Sonic Maximizer.

[EmpireStrikesBack198]

Thanks for the links. I finally got around to trying out some of the plug-ins. I imagine the random clicks and pops sound too much like the source music for a program to remove it, too. The clip sounds better after applying a couple of the filters and I'm a happy camper. I was actually satisfied with the music before I did any restoration. After hearing it for the 30th time I started to hear only the imperfections so I started to nitpick. Thanks, again.