Handy wave tool for pops, clicks, etc.
I often get that “just right” vocal performance recorded only to find that there is an unwanted noise, such as a click caused by saliva, present in the audio. This is particularly true with a condenser microphone that has very good transient response. Or, I may want to edit out a single word or cough. I have been using Goldwave which will edit down to the sample level, but have found another program that takes the “wave repair” function to an even higher level of detail. It is called Wave Repair and is available from http://www.waverepair.com as a shareware download. After the demo period it costs $30US.
Wave Repair allows you to redraw the waveform, replace a damaged cycle of the waveform with another similar, but good, one, smooth a clicked portion of a wave, interpolate over a click, adjust volume, equalize, noise filter, etc. In other words, when you have a good wave recording except for a pop, click or other “damage” to the waveform, Wave Repair does a good job. I like the Spectral Replacement feature which replaces a bad wave section with a similar section from nearby.
Wave Repair hasn’t replaced GoldWave as my main mastering editor, but it certainly is a good utility to add to the toolbox. And, no I am not in any way associated with Wave Repair. I just find it useful and wanted to share that with you.
That looks like a nice tool, I have been using audacity and sound forge, and even recently I have done some work in Multitrack studios, and it has a build in feature where you can highlight an area like a cough or back gound noise between verses or something and just hightlight and hit cut and it is gone, you can even drag the highlighted area if you missed a part of thenoise, very handy.
| Quote (vivona @ Jan. 19 2005,22:53) |
| I like the Spectral Replacement feature which replaces a bad wave section with a similar section from nearby. |
It does that automatically?
| Quote (Tom @ Jan. 20 2005,03:44) |
| It does that automatically? |
In order to do a spectural replacement, you highlight the section of the wave that has the pop or click you want to remove. If the surrounding wave is very similar, such as white noise or tone, then selecting spectural replacement will replace the hightlighted section with a waveform generated to match the surrounding audio. Of course, if the surrounding audio is complex or changing, such as part of a sung word, then you may hear a stutter in the word. For complex waveform repair, you zoom into the pop or click and either redraw the waveform, or highlight major cycle of the waveform and use the feature that will copy another similar waveform in its place, often a cycle immediately nearby.
Since the program has a free 30-day trial, you may want to try it out to see if you like it.
| Quote (Robomusic @ Jan. 20 2005,00:53) |
| That looks like a nice tool, I have been using audacity and sound forge, and even recently I have done some work in Multitrack studios, and it has a build in feature where you can highlight an area like a cough or back gound noise between verses or something and just hightlight and hit cut and it is gone, you can even drag the highlighted area if you missed a part of thenoise, very handy. |
Merely cutting out a noise, like a cough, creates a disruption in the other sound in the background. If the cough is in a silent area, then any program, even n-Track, has the ability to highlight and cut and that is the best way to eliminate the cough. But if there is other sound present you need to preserve that sound and that's where more complex wave repair work is needed.
Any time you do a cut, be sure you zoom in and start and end the cut where the waveform crosses zero or you may end up with a clicking sound where the waveform changes abruptly.
vivona, n-Track has a “snap to zero” option to do this automatically.