Just looking for any recommendations for restoration software? I've a bunch of reel to reel recordings from the 70's and 80's that could do with a little attention. Mainly noise but a few clicks and hums hear and there. Everything has been transferred to pro tools so it would be best to run it within pro tools I think rather than stand alone, unless that's the only option.

I don't really want to spend a fortune on this, I probably won't use it again and this isn't a money maker. Any suggestions?

Izotope RX2 is among the best, though not the cheapest; £160 from Dolphin for the standard version.

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/article/4584-izotope-rx2-complete-audio-repa ir.html
http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/rx/

+1 on Izotope. The only thing better is from CEDAR's and that costs 20 times as much!

hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

Quote Hugh Robjohns:

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+1 on Izotope. The only thing better is from CEDAR's and that costs 20 times as much!

hugh

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+1 on that +1!

If you are only going to use it once, well, try the free trail. Who knows, you might use it again and want to pay for it! As H. says, the only thing out there that is better is Cedar.

Just remember to keep the tails filled with the noises on their own, so that sampling and subtraction is possible.

Another vote for Rx2.
As others have said, there is a generous trial period.
You may, however, decide to keep it.
It will do straightforward things right out of the box.
Spending substantial creative time with it will lead to some amazing accomplishments.
Many of its features, such as clip repair, can be used creatively for other tasks.
It also includes extra's, such as a very good EQ module.
It's well implemented compare function makes tweaking fast and painless.
One thing that is often not noticed is how good the user interface is-it's so good it's not noticed!

And-customer support is superb! It's an extraordinarily well thought out product.

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking RX would be a contender but great to see so many recommendations. Its the clear winner. Am downloading a trial now. Thanks!

Oh poo - I didn't get the chance to add my +1 to the proceedings

Yep, iZotope RX 2 is what I use as well, and every time I need to clean something up I try at least two or three alternative products and RX 2 almost always gives me the best result


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

Quote BJG145:

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Izotope RX2 is among the best, though not the cheapest; £160 from Dolphin for the standard version.

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/article/4584-izotope-rx2-complete-audio-repa ir.html
http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/rx/

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How did you get that price? It was £225 when I looked just now.

James.

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JRP Music - Audio Mastering and Restoration.
http://www.jrpmusic.net

Quote James Perrett:

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Quote BJG145:

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Izotope RX2 is among the best, though not the cheapest; £160 from Dolphin for the standard version.

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/article/4584-izotope-rx2-complete-audio-repa ir.html
http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/rx/

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How did you get that price? It was £225 when I looked just now.

James.

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I usually buy my software via ebay. Its available for around £150. Of course you are just buying a serial but its legit and legal. That's where I'll be buying RX.

I often spend many many hours remastering old tat off cassette, and I've been using Izotope Rx2 as my tool of choice now for several years.

Prior to that I was mostly trying to do it with Waves' de-hiss and de-hum tools, and RX2's de-hiss plugin gives noticeably fewer artifacts.

The de-humming plugin can sometimes make things "ring" a little (i.e. if your feed a sharp drum hit into it) - I guess that's what inevitably happens when you fire a transient at extremely sharp notch filters...

The de-clicker sometimes misbehaves with its latency compensation in my Reaper, but I raised a bug with Izotope and they did issue an update which cured this a bit.

I particularly like the spectral display where you can lasso little noises and attenuate them on their own.

With all these types of plugins, I find it often pays to not use them too aggressively in any case: your ears can get too focussed on hiss, hum and crackles, but it's seldom necessary to remove them *entirely* - just reduce them a bit so that the listener's ears can focus on the music... at this point, the human brain's own clever filtering system tends to remove the hiss all by itself.

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~~~ A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen as you are tossed with! www.feline1.co.uk ~~~

Quote feline1:

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With all these types of plugins, I find it often pays to not use them too aggressively

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Absolutely -- very good advice.

The trick is to remember you're trying to make a worthwhile improvement, not to achieve absolute perfection. I also find that it is often better to take several gentle passes rather than try to do everything in one big hit. You get fewer and much more subtle artefacts that way.

Hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound