hallucienate wrote:just out of interest what software do you use to clean up songs, and what settings ?
could be a good way to use some of my PC's idle time...
Soundforge, with some graphic equaliser settings I worked out myself.
Also I recently discovered it's paragraphic equaliser has a setting called "fletcher munson curve" that's bloody good for getting rid of hiss.
Theres also a program called groove mechanic I use to get rid of hiss (a friend recorded That Guitarist at York Barfly on minidisc but his levels were wrong and there was lots of hiss. I had to process it twice as the first time it didn't get rid of much hiss. It also seems to be able to get rid of hiss without making the recording sound "dull", but only works on a certain type of hiss.)
Anyway, back to soundforge, theres lots of settings but I find my custom equaliser settings and fletcher munson curve are the only ones I use. Sometimes I use both equaliser and fletcher munson curve, and sometimes one or the other. Sometimes processing can make the sound a bit dull sounding, as you sometimes lose the high end, like the cymbals, but in the end it's a trade-off between whether you want a sh!tty recording with a huge amount of hiss or do you want it a little dull but otherwise sounding good. Sometimes it's best just to remove some of the hiss, but not all.
Getting rid of clicks is another thing entirely. Groove mechanic has a setting to "de-click" a recording. This is only good for recordings from old vinyl where theres lots of clicks, although it's never 100% successful. I've only used it once, and that was for a tape of a Sisters gig that was from vinyl. One side of the record was good sound, the other side was quiet and scratched to f*ck. After processing I can't tell which side was the scratched one.
To get rid of the occasional click you hear in recordings requires you to zoom in on that part of the waveform, and you can either simply cut out that part (as it's so short you won't notice), or you can re-draw the waveform. There's a preview function so you can preview the edit before you do it so make sure it sounds ok. When editing the waveform you've gotta make sure the sound wave stays in a sine wave, so if the wave is coming down from a peak, after the edit you have to make sure the wave carries on in the same direction, or if you cut it so it moves down and then suddenly moves up sharply again you'll get a click which is what you wanna avoid.
It's also got many other nice features, such as crossfade, so where you turned the tape over during a gig you just overlap the 2 ends slightly for a seamless edit.
sorry, i am not into torrents and stuff...aould be very grateful to get it through a direct link or wetransfer upload. i shared the live at "eissporthalle" halle/saale (germany) december 17, 1993 for free. thank you very much !!!