Cleanup Audio

The Cleanup Audio window lets you remove clicks, scratches, tape hiss from your recordings and more. You don't need to save working copies of your files as you edit them - VinylStudio keeps track of your changes and applies them on the fly (to any CD's you burn or to any MP3 files you save) whilst keeping your original recordings intact. This can save a lot of disk space, and, coupled with extensive Undo and Redo facilities, makes VinylStudio a productive and forgiving working environment. VinylStudio's audio cleanup features are not just a toy; used correctly, they can achieve excellent results, even on badly damaged recordings.

In the Cleanup Audio window, you can:

• Remove clicks, pops and scratches from your recordings.
• Filter out hiss, hum and rumble.
• Equalise your recordings.
• Remove unwanted sections of audio ('cut and splice').
• Patch bad scratches and dropouts.
• Repair severe clicks and scratches manually.
• Hear the results as you work.

Follow any of the links above for more information.

The Cleanup Audio window also offers a number of 'housekeeping' tools, which let you:

• Convert your recordings between MP3 and WAV formats.
• Save working copies of your cleaned up files for editing outside VinylStudio.
• Import files recorded or edited outside VinylStudio.
• Delete unwanted files.

Again, follow any of these links for details.

Please note that if you have VinylStudio Lite, the audio cleanup features can only be used on a trial basis. Specifically, you cannot burn cleaned up audio to CD or to tracks saved as MP3 files. To upgrade, select 'Upgrade to Full Version' from the Help menu.

For New Users

There are a lot of things you can do in the Cleanup Audio window and it's easy to get lost at first, so for new users, we recommend that you proceed as follows:

• first split your recording into tracks, if you have not done so already; this helps you find your way around your recording later on
• then, if it is a vinyl (or shellac) recording, or a tape made from one, scan it for clicks
• if it is a tape recording, or a noisy 78, apply the hiss filter; if not, you probably don't need to bother
• finally, use the graphic equaliser if you feel you need to adjust the tone, especially for recordings made from cassette tape
• repeat for side 2

It is also worth spending a few minutes familiarising yourself with the operation of the waveform display and associated toolbar as described in the sections below.

As you become more proficient, it is worth exploring the available filter settings in more depth as there is a lot you can do with them. In particular, the rumble filter should be applied to all vinyl recordings and the hum filter can make a big difference in certain cases.

Waveform Display

Unlike the Split Tracks window, which works on the album as a whole, the Cleanup Audio window works on one album side at a time. The display shows the audio signal both before and after any click repairs have been applied (one signal is superimposed on the other). The original signal is shown in green and repaired clicks are shown in grey:

Most of VinylStudio's functions work with the current selection. To define a selection (which is shown shown in yellow), click and drag in the waveform display while holding down the shift key. You can subsequently adjust the either edge of the selection by clicking on it (no shift) and dragging. To clear the selection, press Esc.

Positioning the cursor and zooming in and out work in the same way as in the Split Tracks window but it is worth repeating that, when you zoom in, VinylStudio uses the uses the current cursor position to centre the display (so you should position the cursor near the area of interest before you zoom in). The waveform display is more fine-grained than the one in the Split Tracks window, and you can zoom right in to see the individual samples if you wish.

A number of functions are also available by right-clicking in the waveform display.

Using the Toolbar

The buttons in the toolbar have the following functions:

(space bar)	Starts playing from the current cursor position. Click in the waveform display first to position the cursor if necessary.
	Stops playing
(S)	Plays the current selection (shown highlighted in yellow in the waveform display). To define a selection, click and drag in the waveform display while holding down the shift key.
(1)	Plays a brief snatch of music spanning 1 second either side of the current cursor position.
	Determines whether the display pans to follow the cursor when it moves off the right-hand edge of the screen while playing.
	Stop playing at the next end-of-track marker.
(+)	Zoom in, centering the display at the current cursor position. Click in the waveform display first to position the cursor to the area of interest if necessary. You can also zoom in and out with the scroll wheel.
(-)	Zoom out. You can also zoom in and out with the scroll wheel.
(Z)	Zoom in (or out) so that the current selection exactly fills the window.
(A)	Zoom all the way out (so that the entire recording is visible).
(M)	Insert a marker at the current cursor position. This lets you mark a particular spot that you might to come back to later. To delete a marker, click on it and press D. Markers also appear in the corrections list, and you can select a marker by clicking on it in the list.
	Show / hide trackbreaks (toggle).
	Scan the recording (or current selection, if any) for clicks. To define a selection (highlighted in yellow), click and drag in the waveform display while holding down the shift key.
(R)	Insert a click repair at the cursor position manually. Use this if VinylStudio has failed to find the click by scanning. To adjust the width of a repair, zoom in on it and drag either edge. To select a click repair, click on it in the corrections list list.
(P)	Patch the current selection. Use this to repair damaged areas, such as scratches or dropouts, which are too wide for VinylStudio's click repair capabilities. To select a patch, click on it in the corrections list list.
(X)	Cut out the current selection, and cross fade the edges of the cut with the surrounding audio. To select a cut, click on it in the corrections list list.
(F)	Opens the filter settings dialog, which allows you to filter out tape hiss, hum and rumble, and includes a graphic equaliser.
(C)	Determines whether you hear corrected or uncorrected (i.e. the original, as recorded) audio when you click Play. Corrections, such as scanning for clicks and removing tape hiss, are applied in the Cleanup Audio window.
	Turns off audio in the left or right-hand channel (so that you can listen to just one).
	Opens the Windows mixer applet, which allows you to adjust the playback volume.