Wave Corrector - (Vinyl Rip restoration software)

[AlexM]

Hi,

I'm sure that many of you have some cherished LPs that you want to digitize, and you require some software that will allow you fine-grained click removal and noise reduction.

I wanted to recommend wave corrector (http://www.wavecor.co.uk/index.html), which I have been using for some time, and ask what others are using. It was written by some ex-BT researchers, who developed some very sophisticated signal processing methods that they have applied to vinyl ripping, editting and restoration.

The reason that I like this so much is that it allows full manual adjustment of the click correction, almost down to the sample level. It's automated identification and correction functionality works very well, but as an intermittent OCD sufferer I like to optimise each correction to get the best fit to the undistorted waveform, as shown below.

It also provides for track detection, meta data input, configurable rumble/hiss filters, graphic equalisation, channel balance and normalisation amongst other things.

http://www.wavecor.co.uk/images/screen.png

The current version allows work with up to 24bit/96khz files wav files, and can export to OGG, WAV or FLAC formats.

I have used audacity and some other packages, but tend to find that the click reduction has too much of an effect on detail, or is ineffective.

Wave Corrector's click detection and correction generation algorithms are very sophisticated, and with full manual adjustment the results can be very, very good indeed. I find that even noisy records can be restored very effectively - it just take more time..

And best of all, it is quite cheap!.

What do you use? I'd be interested to know what others have found to be effective and easy to use.

Regards,
Alex

[lovejoy]

Thanks for the heads up Alex. That does look really good. I've been itching to get back into doing some decent vinyl recordings, but I have one concern:



The current version allows work with up to 24bit/96khz files wav files, and can export to OGG, WAV or FLAC formats.


But on the FAQ of their webpage I can see:



When will Wave Corrector provide support for 24-bit/96KHz sampling?

Unfortunately, 16-bit processing is embedded deeply in the Wave Corrector code and it would require an almost total re-write for 24-bit to be supported. Therefore, it is unlikely that this will ever be available.


Is this outdated information?

[Beechwoods]

Nice that it works under Wine. That means it'll run on my Mac as well as Linux :)

[AlexM]

Lovejoy,

Yes, the FAQ is out of date. I rip my Vinyl as 24/96 wavs in Audacity, and then process them inside Wave Corrector.

Regards,
Alex

[Slippershod]

looks very good - thanks for posting about it.

[WAD62]

looks very good - thanks for posting about it.

+1

Looks interesting Alex...

[Slippershod]

oh. my. g**.

Alex - thank you again for highlighting this software.

purchased - tried it on a mac - 'winebottler' let's it run, but I couldn't register it (this for the above poster who mentioned mac compatibility). I guess if you're au fait with terminal and Wine 'proper', it might not have this hitch...

anyhow - installed it on my pc laptop - no hitches.
and - it's incredible. To be fair, I'm certainly out of touch with this kind of software - when I last looked a couple of years back or so, the cheap stuff was not very good, and the expensive stuff, well, expensive, and forbiddingly technical. But even so, for the price, I can't believe there's much to match it ...?

I've just tried it on automatic with a Peter Pears classical song recital - a used copy which, while not terrible, had enough of the expected crackle and noice (hiss too infact) to be an uncomfortable listen really...

I've put it through both as 'vinyl' (for crackle and clicks) and as a 'tape' for hiss, and the result is stunning - and I'm sure it could have been better if I were more experienced with the programme - quite apart from the manual control that Alex extols ...

honestly - this should make a lot of my lps that there was really little point in listening to / ripping, quite the opposite.


maybe I shouldn't be going on so enthusiastically, given such little experience with it, but given that, it really does seem fab.


I should say, of course, that this could be beginner's luck, and that other kinds of recordings/ music might not be so straightforward - so anyone interested - do demo to your own satisfaction.

[AlexM]

That's excellent - very glad your test worked well for you.

I tend to find that if the correction threshold is set too low, Wave Corrector fixes clicks that aren't really audible anyway, or gets too many false positives with some music. The indication of over-processing is a softening of transients and treble reduction, so listening/comparing is the best final check.

I tend to adjust the settings so that I end up with 500-1000 corrections per LP (or more if it is a very noisy LP). You can easily re-scan for clicks varying the settings to get the right balance. If you are getting tens of thousands then the levels are probably set too high.

When I am being really fussy, I zoom the waveform to 50 samples/division and scroll through the list of corrections to check and adjust the corrections. This allows me set correction width and position to the waveform to get the audible artifacts as low as possible (best possible fit to the visible waveform). With practice it is very easy to distinguish between music and noise, and often even very severe clicks can be edited out and rendered completely inaudible.

Once I have added fade-out to tracks that need it, it is almost impossible to tell that the source is a sometimes grotty vinyl disk (in a good way).

Regards,
Alex

[kml]

I use VinylStudio 'cause it's idiot proof, and I'm on the left hand side of the IQ bell curve.

:):):)

http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/


cheers
ken

[AlexM]

Ken,

That looks like a good package too. Does it do 24/96? not clear from their website.

On my wishlist for the next WaveCorrector release would be FreeCDDB integration, richer metadata handling (i.e. Album Art), but it does what I need very well.

Regards,
Alex

[kml]

Ken,
Does it do 24/96?

Regards,
Alex

32bit 192khz WAV file is the max.

cheers
ken

[Slippershod]

I use VinylStudio 'cause it's idiot proof, and I'm on the left hand side of the IQ bell curve.

:):):)

http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/


cheers
ken

thanks Ken. I'll give this one a go too (particularly as I can't, currently, register wave corrector on my mac - it seems to have registered itself to 'fanny fanlight' - anti-piracy measure? I'll contact the authors).

software for this purpose really does seem to have come on very well.

I think it's 'time' that's the issue now - I'm not sure I'd want to spend as long as Alex implies he does (on occasion)... the whole ripping thing from vinyl is costly enough in terms of this already.

I tried 'automatic' settings with WC on a mono bach guitar recital yesterday. While I have a 'proper' mono cartridge, this recording was made with a stereo pickup - so very revealing of noise.
the programme faired very well in terms of clicks (this record is pretty bad in that respect), but I had to dispense with 'hiss' removal as it was clearly degrading the sound at even the lowest 'auto' setting.

even so - the result was very much more listenable than without such processing.

[Canetoad]

How does this compare to ClickRepair? Anybody tried both? :scratch:

[AlexM]

Hi,

I have, and find that Wave Corrector is far superior at detecting clicks and repairing them without too many side effects. I suggest you download the trial and give it a try for yourself.

Although they all essentially do the same thing, Wave Corrector uses some very clever algorithms that are more effective than anything I have tried.

Regards,
Alex

[Slippershod]

h'ok ... just put through the bach recording with vinyl studio - with a quite wonderful result ...

the interface is, arguably, better than WC -although this will partly be my using it on a proper desktop etc, etc I guess. And possibly a wider range of options - but not a great difference either way.

I got a better result this time by making a more effective 'noise level' sample between tracks for the 'hiss' tool to do it's thang.

but it was the use of the EQ function globally that made the result more than acceptable. Not the approach for those with the energy and understanding such as Alex - but, in this instance at least, the end result is really superb. In other words, I've boosted the top end with a curve - giving back a 'semblance' of the sound that the 'cleaning' had degraded.
As I say - not an approach for the purists, but as the gains hugely outweigh the losses, it's certainly good enough for me this time...

a classical guitar recital is not, however, the most challenging of material (no real bass etc, etc) I suspect.

Alex is right of course: ultimately it's the excellence of the these programmes' noise removal algorithms that really counts and I can't judge comparatively at this point.

at a similar price, they would both seem to represent extraordinary quality and value for money, as far as I'm any judge.


sincere thanks again to Alex for bringing this topic up.

[Canetoad]

Hi,

I have, and find that Wave Corrector is far superior at detecting clicks and repairing them without too many side effects. I suggest you download the trial and give it a try for yourself.

Although they all essentially do the same thing, Wave Corrector uses some very clever algorithms that are more effective than anything I have tried.

Regards,
Alex

Thanks Alex, I'll give it a go.

[Slippershod]

I should say, btw, that Wave Corrector have been very good in trying to sort out my Mac registration problems.

I suspect the problem lies in my having used 'winebottler' rather than 'wine' properly, etc, etc. - if you know what you're doing with Wine I doubt there'd be any issue.

** - turned out to be no more complicated than uninstalling the programme (using winebottler) and reinstalling. I think it's fair to say that if I can install it successfully on a mac, anyone can...

[Beechwoods]

Have you tried 'Wine' proper? It (Wine) was an easy install for me and I run Foobar2000 on my Mac quite happily within it :)

[Slippershod]

no, Nick, as it looked, um..., a bit complicated :scratch: ... :o

it's fine now anyhow - just needed to be reinstalled, and registered when first opened.

I really am knocked out by the results I'm getting with these progs ... discs I'd pretty much given up on are becoming joyful listens ... :)

[Slippershod]

well, I guess I'm banging on about this a bit - but I have no vested interest other than as a user for whom the quality of these programmes is an absolute revelation... :wow:


it's no exaggeration to say that at about £60 for both Wave Corrector and Vinyl studio, I'm getting just about everything and rather more than ever I've been trying to get from endless changes in analogue hardware... :doh:


in a way, and up to a point, I guess the results may simply be telling me how relatively poor all the low to mid end equipment I've been footling around with has been - but I doubt that's the whole story, as I'm a great believer in the medium (i.e. vinyl) being the main limitation.

the way these progs strip away the hash to lay bear the true quality of the analogue sound (er... digitised I appreciate -;)) is quite something.

True, as I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm using these softwares 'heavy-handedly' I suspect, and if one's system is extremely, forensically, revealing, the process may seem rather more double-edged than it does to me (I process using headphones - the results certainly sound more 'musical' out loud on my main system where any introduced artifacts or remaining 'noise' are largely imperceptible).



having said all this, you might wonder why I don't just buy cds / Hd d/loads - but here's the rub:

to my ears I'm getting, even as digitised files, the best of vinyl with it's nasties largely removed.
case in point: one of my fave lps is 'english folk songs' - a 60s recording by the Purcell singers of Vaughan Williams arrangements / settings.
I have 3 copies of it, as you do, - with the best of them still listenable, but playing back with a great deal of wear in it's natural form.

The album is available as mp3 d/loads and CD , but, while cleaner in terms of b/ground noise of course, what I've heard of these didn't get close to the vinyl at it's best (there is quite a bit of a capella singing on the record which is quite wonderful in it's 'thereness') ... :).
I put the vinyl through the progs last night and listened to the results where were, thankfully, absolutely spell-binding. It's like I've just got hold of an extremely well-pressed and cleaned copy really, and then some.



anyhow - the results have been encouraging me to start trawling through my 'classical' discs (I love 'small group' and vocal / instrumental recital stuff) with sound quality I'm generally finding jaw-dropping.

time-consuming stuff for sure, however.


a little less indulgently (not to say repetitively ;)), I'll just add that I'm using both programmes for 'the full effect with the hump', as the good inspector put it to Kato ...

I do main processing with vinyl studio, and then batch process the resulting tracks through Wave Corrector. :cool: