2025 Click + Pop removal question

[ManFromGlass]

The master tapes have disappeared many moons ago so I had to digitize my bands LP from 1978 last night. I had 3 unopened ones left. Very few clicks and pops and I am exploring current options for removal including Izotope RX, Sonnox, Click Repair, Waves, Audacity etc.
This is on a Mac.
I'm trying to be frugal so any additions to my list would be appreciated. So far it sounds like I should just go for RX but to get a good deal I think I have to purchase the version that doesn't do clicks and pops and then cheaply upgrade to the version that does. I'll continue the exploration but the braintrust here may have some options I haven't discovered yet.
I have also searched the forums and found suggestions but they are years old hence this post.

[Hugh Robjohns]

You could add Adobe Audition to your list as I think its de-clicking is marginally better than RX.

If you don't want to subscribe to the programme long term(and it is expensive, so why would you) you can download a 7-day free trial.

[adrian_k]

Since you have few clicks and pops, not vinyl crackles throughout, you might get away with the free Audacity tool.

https://support.audacityteam.org/repai ... licks-pops

Or if it really is only a few clicks, send them to me and I’ll do it with RX.

[James Perrett]

I'd agree with Hugh - the click and pop removal in my ancient copy of Audition is better than the one in RX (and I have the advanced edition of RX). Yes, RX will remove the clicks and pops but it will also remove more of the music than Audition does. Izotope also seem a little less generous with their special offers than they used to be when I first bought RX.

It may also be worth looking at Acon Acoustica or their restoration suite although I've not tested it thoroughly. Some people claim that it is better than RX although I'd suggest trying the demos of both to see for yourself.

[alexis]

... clicks and pops ...

Some DAWs let you zoom to the sample level of the audio and destructively address clicks there. Would that be an option for you?

Can do that in Cubase with the pencil tool, Dom Sigalas has a quick vid on how to do that.

[awjoe]

I'd agree with Hugh - the click and pop removal in my ancient copy of Audition is better than the one in RX...

Might I ask... how ancient? (I've got Au 3.0 in my software library.)

[BigRedX]

... clicks and pops ...

Some DAWs let you zoom to the sample level of the audio and destructively address clicks there. Would that be an option for you?

Can do that in Cubase with the pencil tool, Dom Sigalas has a quick vid on how to do that.

This is the method I have used for removing clicks and pops from any vinyl I have digitised. It might take a bit longer than one of the automated tools, but IME it's by far the least destructive overall.

[James Perrett]

I'd agree with Hugh - the click and pop removal in my ancient copy of Audition is better than the one in RX...

Might I ask... how ancient? (I've got Au 3.0 in my software library.)

3.01 is the version that I use. I usually let it do an automatic pass first (click the find all threshold levels button before running it) and then go through the file and use the "Fill Single Click Now" button on any clicks that remain. Once you've used the "Fill Single Click Now" button once, you just need to highlight the next click you want to remove and press F3. If, for some reason, you don't like the result, just press Ctrl-Z to undo, re-adjust the selection, and hit F3 again.

"Fill Single Click Now" is also a bit of a misnomer. Unlike RX's Interpolate or Spectral Repair, it works on clusters of multiple clicks too without messing up the audio between the clicks.

The only thing that confuses the Audition algorithm seems to be hard blown trumpets and saxes so, if you have to clean up a record with a horn section, you might want to split it into stems first as scratches tend to appear in the percussion stem.

[tacitus]

I give my records a good clean in an ultrasonic tank and even on new records, the difference is usually quite big. If you end up with few enough clicks then editing the waveform becomes feasible (technically, that is; I wouldn’t do it!).

[Hugh Robjohns]

...if you have to clean up a record with a horn section, you might want to split it into stems first as scratches tend to appear in the percussion stem.

That's a genius idea! I'll tuck that one away just in case, thanks.

[awjoe]

I'd agree with Hugh - the click and pop removal in my ancient copy of Audition is better than the one in RX...

Might I ask... how ancient? (I've got Au 3.0 in my software library.)

3.01 is the version that I use. I usually let it do an automatic pass first (click the find all threshold levels button before running it) and then go through the file and use the "Fill Single Click Now" button on any clicks that remain. Once you've used the "Fill Single Click Now" button once, you just need to highlight the next click you want to remove and press F3. If, for some reason, you don't like the result, just press Ctrl-Z to undo, re-adjust the selection, and hit F3 again.

"Fill Single Click Now" is also a bit of a misnomer. Unlike RX's Interpolate or Spectral Repair, it works on clusters of multiple clicks too without messing up the audio between the clicks.

PLUS tutorial! Thanks very much, James.

[Hugh Robjohns]

I give my records a good clean in an ultrasonic tank and even on new records, the difference is usually quite big.

I do the same, and it is remarkable how much of an improvement it can make in combination with a good Shibata or line contact stylus that tracks well down in the bottom of the groove.

[James Perrett]

PLUS tutorial! Thanks very much, James.

It took a similar post elsewhere to lead me to the F3 trick (after many years of using the long way with Cool Edit Pro and then Audition) so I guessed it would help to pass it on.

[James Perrett]

...if you have to clean up a record with a horn section, you might want to split it into stems first as scratches tend to appear in the percussion stem.

That's a genius idea! I'll tuck that one away just in case, thanks.

I'm really into splitting things into stems at the moment - it makes life much easier when things like scratches or record wear are apparent on only certain instruments.

[SafeandSound Mastering]

Adobe Audition occasionally takes over where RX leaves off here as well. Multiple times over many years AA has saved a stubborn click where RX left something worse than the click in its place or simply failed. I am amazed it installs with ease on Win 11, no issue at all.

I do not quite understand what is written about scratches on vinyl appearing only on percussion mics though ? I admit not reading the entire topic though.

[Hugh Robjohns]

I do not quite understand what is written about scratches on vinyl appearing only on percussion mics though ?

I believe James was explaining that where clicks are difficult to resolve in a full mix, passing that mix through a de-mixing program (to split out the various instrumental stems), invariably allocates the clicks to the drum/percussion stem. This makes it much easier to isolate and remove the clicks. The stems can then be recombined to recreate a click-free mix.

[SafeandSound Mastering]

That does sound like a unique solution. I do not do mega amounts of DSP 'stem' based adjustments in full mix downs (only when there is absolutely no recourse to a mix tweak which is often the case for ancient recordings) here, but always hear very quickly the swirliness factor of DSP when I do.

Often with only 1-2dB changes.I would have thought the remedy would be potentially replacing one issue with another.

If that works though and the client is happy, great.

[ManFromGlass]

Update - thanks all for the suggestions. In the end there were only about 7 pops that I needed to reduce the gain of within Logic. It was interesting to find the sweet spot for the pop reduction because sometimes a high frequency pop became a mid-range, more noticeable pop. Logic is good at finding zero crossings so I have no idea why that would happen.
There was a constant hum around 128Hz and down. (studio room tone?) Easy to roll that off because none of the instruments had frequencies that low. This was a 3rd pressing so the Masters were stored probably incorrectly for 4 years before that pressing as I could hear print through and possibly some really low level talking. (From the booth during the recording process? No idea) I left the low level crackles and quiet hiss untouched as a number of the instruments were in that range.
I found it interesting that pops and crackles were present from an LP that has been in shrink wrap since 1978 until the digitizing. The nature of the beast I assume. (Part of me wants to poke the bear and say - that’s why vinyl sounds better than digital, but I won’t say that, no, not I)

[James Perrett]

That does sound like a unique solution. I do not do mega amounts of DSP 'stem' based adjustments in full mix downs (only when there is absolutely no recourse to a mix tweak which is often the case for ancient recordings) here, but always hear very quickly the swirliness factor of DSP when I do.

As I'm only removing very short sections of a few mS, there's no way it will sound swirly. Spleeter (as used in most versions of RX) nulls completely with the original when all the tracks are re-combined. Demucs doesn't always quite null completely but, by manually creating the "other" track, you can make it null if needed.

[Tim Gillett]

The master tapes have disappeared many moons ago so I had to digitize my bands LP from 1978 last night. I had 3 unopened ones left.

Assuming the disc process was good, having 3 unopened vinyl pressings is a boon. Obviously not as good as a clean master tape but not bad.

The other analog aspect is the playback which shouldnt skimped on if you want an excellent result. Good low noise turntable, arm, cartridge and stylus and all set up nicely.

There was a constant hum around 128Hz and down. (studio room tone?) Easy to roll that off because none of the instruments had frequencies that low.

The better the turntable, generally the quieter the low frequency added noise. For a mono disc such as many pre stereo discs, where we capture in stereo but master to mono - we can get away with a noisier turntable but stereo presentation more severely reveals turntable rumble. We may think there is nothing around 128 Hz or below but if there is some content there and it's being masked by turntable rumble, how can we be sure it's not there until we remove or minimise the masking band to listen out for it?

Disc mastering engineers were careful to reduce the level low frequencies but not necessarily to completely remove them. It was a tradeoff. With a low noise transfer, that may even leave open the possibility of actually boosting in post what weak lows may be there.

[R_A]

As I'm only removing very short sections of a few mS, there's no way it will sound swirly. Spleeter (as used in most versions of RX) nulls completely with the original when all the tracks are re-combined. Demucs doesn't always quite null completely but, by manually creating the "other" track, you can make it null if needed.

That's exactly how I've been using this technology - in mS!

[SafeandSound Mastering]

That does sound like a unique solution. I do not do mega amounts of DSP 'stem' based adjustments in full mix downs (only when there is absolutely no recourse to a mix tweak which is often the case for ancient recordings) here, but always hear very quickly the swirliness factor of DSP when I do.

As I'm only removing very short sections of a few mS, there's no way it will sound swirly. Spleeter (as used in most versions of RX) nulls completely with the original when all the tracks are re-combined. Demucs doesn't always quite null completely but, by manually creating the "other" track, you can make it null if needed.

What I am still not understanding is the DSP splits (it guesses quite well usually, by calculation from an algo) the stems. That is where the swirliness comes in on those individual stems. I only use a plug in for a vocal /instrument tweak here once every now and then, as such have never gone into DSP stem splitting deeply. I just use a common plug in with the faders for each available stem (bass, guitars, piano, vocal, drums etc.).

Once you have used DSP any artifacts are surely in the DSP extracted stems ?

So recombining them you will be recombining the stems + artifacts only as good as the DSP extrapolation allowed. Unless this is now 100pct transparent and I have missed something, which is possible as I rarely use it.

I imagine it works something like this... stereo track, other stereo tracks (possibly with mono or dual mono content) with DSP extracted stems playing in sync, de-click the percussion stem (as the click is within as suggested) then edit 80ms across all stems say... for example 6 stems (sum them) and use that super short stem section (declicked) edited into the edited stereo file (with 80ms removed where said click was) then export. It's the workflow I am not understanding.

I tend to think of "stem" as in the word stem, as for entire track lengths.

I suppose the short question is, does it do 100pct correct isolation of every source, is it 100pct artifact free ? I can understand if you were treating just a few ms it would be inaudible but I cannot understand how you are extrapolating just a few millisconds of audio with a stem tool de-clicking one stem and recombining.

Not arguing by the way merely trying to understand it, it is exceptionally rare to not get a click from stereo 99pct of the time fortunately. Maybe there have been a couple over 15 years. I suspect if I just tried this the missing workflow answer would be quite easy.

I do virtually none of this as my main bulk of work is traditional mastering (and the routine de-clicking/pops etc that requires), less so full restoration etc.

[James Perrett]

Once you have used DSP any artifacts are surely in the DSP extracted stems ?

So recombining them you will be recombining the stems + artifacts only as good as the DSP extrapolation allowed. Unless this is now 100pct transparent and I have missed something, which is possible as I rarely use it.

The bit that you are missing is that the "other" stem is just all the separations of parts that it knows about (bass, drums, vocals etc) subtracted from the original track. So adding them all together gives you back the original track.

I imagine it works something like this... stereo track, other stereo tracks (possibly with mono or dual mono content) with DSP extracted stems playing in sync, de-click the percussion stem (as the click is within as suggested) then edit 80ms across all stems say... for example 6 stems (sum them) and use that super short stem section (declicked) edited into the edited stereo file (with 80ms removed where said click was) then export. It's the workflow I am not understanding.

Since the combined stems null exactly with the original, there is no need to edit the new part back into the original. Just use the stems for the whole song. Use Audition's "Fill Single Click Now" (or RX's interpolate if you don't have Audition) on the section of the single stem that contains the click you want to remove. There is no need to edit all the stems, just the one containing the click and only at the point where the click occurs. I think you are possibly imagining that this is more difficult than it actually is - though maybe it depends on what software you use.

[Tim Gillett]

It's easy to find a Declick tool. They're mature technology and are now very cheap. Used within their natural limits they work really well.

But Depop?

[Sam Spoons]

But Depop?

I misread that as "Debop"... I'm guessing that would turn a Mingus recording into something more like James Last?