Waves Restoration Bundle

Formats: Mac RTAS, AudioSuite, VST, MAS; PC RTAS, AudioSuite, VST, DirectX

The Waves VST Restoration Bundle is available for both Mac and PC-based systems, and comprises four separate plug-in modules designed to remove or attenuate clicks, crackle, noise and hum with the minimum of audible side-effects. Authorisation is via the now familiar challenge and response system, and one welcome feature of all these plug-ins is that they are very simple to use.

The X-Click module is designed to work primarily with digital clicks and vinyl scratches. Once scratches are identified, a short section of audio is removed and replaced, presumably with material adjacent to the click. One slider sets up the threshold that determines what level of clicks are dealt with, while another sets the duration of the 'repair'. Most of the time, this is one of those plug-ins that you simply set up and then allow to run; to ensure that you're not removing anything that's important to the track, there's a 'Difference' monitoring function that allows you to hear just the clicks being removed. Additionally, a visual scope section shows the waveform being treated with the detected clicks superimposed on it, which gives some clue as to whether you're overprocessing or not. A small number of presets is included to provide suitable starting values.

I tested X-Click with a vinyl record I'd transferred to CD without processing, and found that it removed virtually all the audible scratch clicks without altering the sound in any noticeable way, even though the original record had a few quite bad scratches. For those occasions where you only have a few clicks to deal with, though, the recommended procedure is to record the 'clicks only' output to a separate audio track to act as a guide in locating the clicks, then use X-Click to process only the offending sections rather than the whole track.

The X-Crackle part of the program is used to reduce vinyl surface noise where the noise character falls somewhere between constant noise and individual clicks. This is technically a more complex process than de-clicking, because surface noise is virtually continuous. X-Crackle is best applied after X-Click has been used to remove individual scratches and clicks, and has a similarly simple control setup with sliders for the detection threshold and for the attenuation applied to the crackles. Once again, I found this worked well on typical vinyl records providing the original wasn't too badly damaged. Crackle is mainly a problem with vinyl and shellac records, so you probably wouldn't need this plug-in for other noise-removal jobs.

X-Noise is based around a multi-band filter bank, and its task is to attenuate background hiss and similar continuous noise. A sample of the noise by itself is needed for the program to 'learn', but this need only be a second or less of noise at the start or end of a recording. This is used to set thresholds within all the filter bands so that noise is dealt with on a per-band basis rather than globally, as is the case with a simple gate or expander. The resulting threshold can be moved up or down by means of a slider and the amount of noise attenuation can be adjusted along with the global attack and release times of the noise-reduction process. An additional high-frequency cut shelving filter is available for reducing HF noise in material that has little or no extended high-frequency content.

In most respects, X-Noise works rather like the original Digidesign DINR, though it seems to produce far fewer side-effects, which suggests some intelligent interaction between the frequency bands. Clearly any system that is based on a 'noise fingerprint', as this is, can only work effectively when the noise background is fairly constant, but providing you can adjust the threshold to get quieter parts of the mix sounding clean without introducing side-effects, natural noise masking should take care of the louder sections. Having a 'Difference' monitor to let you hear only what is being removed greatly simplifies setting up, as all you need to do is move the threshold so that the maximum amount of noise is audible but without any trace of the music coming along with it. As soon as you hear music as well as noise, all you have to do is to back the control off slightly so that the noise takes on a more even character and you're in business. A graphic display shows the level spectrum of the audio plus the threshold curve.

The final weapon in the noise abatement armoury is X-Hum, which comprises a high-pass filter to eliminate low-frequency rumble plus eight linked, very narrow notch filters designed to take out fixed-frequency hum both at the fundamental frequency and its harmonics. The high-pass filter can be set to 12 or 24dB/octave slopes and its turnover frequency is fully adjustable.

The harmonic notch filter section has a Frequency control for setting the fundamental centre frequency of the hum, while Global Q sets the width of the notch filters. Ideally these should be set as narrow as possible. The amount of cut can be set individually for each notch filter, and there are three link modes that provide different means of altering the filter gains. They can either all be linked to move together or be set to Odd/Even, which links the gains of odd-numbered filters and separately links the even-numbered filters. In Free mode, all the filters may be adjusted separately.

While X-Hum can be effective in reducing hum, even the narrowest notch filters have some effect on the material being processed, so it is important to use only as little processing as is necessary to achieve an acceptable reduction in hum. This is particularly important in situations where the hum is wandering in frequency as it is then necessary to use wider filter settings, which in turn cause more noticeable tonal changes. Having said that, I was able to bring about a dramatic improvement in the hum level of a vinyl transfer without incurring any significant side-effects, just by not overdoing the amount of attenuation applied.

At £1110, the Restoration Bundle will not be a casual purchase, and Mac owners should also consider TC Works' Spark XL editor, which is substantially cheaper and includes de-noising and de-clicking plug-ins that, to my ears, are equally effective. Nevertheless, Restoration Bundle will be invaluable to many looking to rescue old vinyl collections or carry out basic mastering work where the source material is slightly noisy. All the processes work remarkably well, even the hum filters, and although high-end professional restoration systems undoubtedly do a better job, used with care these plug-ins can achieve what would have been regarded as little short of miracles a decade or two ago. Effective though the plug-ins are, they also remain easy to use, so the only advanced piece of kit you need to get the best out of them is a good pair of ears. Paul White

information

£1110 including VAT. Pure Distribution +44 (0)20 7328 0660. +44 (0)20 7372 7660. Click here to email www.pure-distribution.com www.waves.com

ReFX Trasher

Formats: Mac and PC VST

It's always a pleasure to get something for nothing, and most budget-limited computer users will have long been in the habit of scouring the web for freeware plug-ins to expand their sonic armoury. There are many such freebies available, but the harsh reality is that you often only get what you pay for, and many free VST offerings are not really usable.

Trasher is different. This superb plug-in, developed and distributed by ReFX, authors of the highly-regarded QuadraSID and TBL shareware VST Instruments, is a rare example of a freebie that's every bit as good as its commercial counterparts. Trasher is a distortion box. Nothing too revolutionary about that, of course, but the care and attention to detail put into its development have ensured that it is a near-perfect example of the species. It offers controls for reducing the sample rate and bit depth of any audio passing through it, a Drive control to add some more analogue-flavoured noise to the proceedings, and a filter with adjustable cutoff and resonance, which is switchable between low-pass, band-pass and high-pass modes, with a slope switchable between 12 and 24dB/octave. Each parameter has its own independent LFO, with Rate and Depth controls, which can be used to create some great modulation effects. Additionally, all manual parameter tweaks can be automated in the usual way, allowing for a great deal of flexibility in the mix.

Trasher is excellent for wrecking drum tracks, ideal for creating 'telephone' vocals and unique in its ability to reduce pristine, CD-quality audio to a glorious parody of the kind of noises output by the vintage Commodore 64 home computer on which its appearance is modelled. Available for both Mac and PC, and costing not a single penny, Trasher is little short of essential. You should already be downloading it... Paul Sellars

www.refx.net

Plug-in Tips

If you find yourself running out of CPU power and thus needing to bounce effected audio to hard disk, remember that some effects, most notably reverbs and delays, take time to die away, so you may need to create a bounced file that's longer than the original. Sam Inglis

Want some free VST plug-ins? Try downloading the demo versions of applications that come with their own bundle. Even if you're a Logic user, for instance, you can still get your hands on Cubase's built-in plug-ins: simply download and install the demo version, then transfer the plug-ins to Logic's VstPlugIns folder. Mike Senior

In an application such as Cubase that provides a limited number of insert plug-in slots, which can't be reordered, it's often a good idea to start with the second or third slot, leaving the first one empty, when loading plug-ins onto that channel. You never know when you might want to incorporate another plug-in later on, at the start of the chain... Sam Inglis

Plug-in News

IK Multimedia have launched a free version of their impressive Sampletank VST sound module. Sampletank Free provides the same playback engine and effects as the full version, but not the huge sound library. Instead, IK are making selected instruments available as downloads from their web site, the first of which is their Acoustic Concert Grand Piano. Meanwhile, the full version of Sampletank has reached version 1.1, and now includes MAS support for Digital Performer, optimisation for G4 processors on the Mac, dual-processor support on both platforms, and a new High Quality playback mode which, say IK, combines a flat high-end frequency response with negligible aliasing.

www.sampletank.com

Native Instruments have been busy converting many of their software instruments, as well as the unique effects plug-in Spektral Delay, for Digidesign platforms. So far, they have launched two products: Spektral Delay is available separately for £280, while the £650 Studio Collection comprises NI's B4 tonewheel organ emulation, Pro 52 Prophet V copy, and Battery drum sampler. All the plug-ins run using the native processing power of the host machine: Digidesign's new HTDM format allows them to be run alongside DSP-powered TDM plug-ins, and they are also available in RTAS format for non-TDM Pro Tools users.

	Arbiter Music Technology +44 (0)20 8202 1199.
	www.native-instruments.de

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