Waves Native Restoration

Jul 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By Rob Shrock

Waves is renowned for its high-quality software plug-ins and hardware processors. I use Waves tools almost every day. However, when I heard that Waves was releasing a plug-in collection for vinyl restoration, extreme noise problems, and forensic work, I hardly got excited. I didn't think I needed surgical noise removal — I make sure that my recordings are always noise-free — and I haven't been recruited yet to clean up wiretaps for Uncle Sam.

Within a week, however, two people asked if I could transfer some of their old vinyl records to CD. I have to admit it — maybe I have a need for this stuff after all.

The Native Restoration bundle contains four plug-ins: X-Click, X-Crackle, X-Hum, and X-Noise. Not intended solely for vinyl restoration, they are each aimed at solving the specific audio problems that their names suggest. You can run them individually or in series; results vary according to the quality of the original source material.

Each plug-in is extremely powerful, yet Waves did an excellent job of keeping the interfaces simple. Most of the processes involve properly setting Threshold and Reduction sliders, and great presets are provided. You can monitor the resulting audio or hear the actual noise being removed. That lets you determine whether you are removing any audio material so that you can adjust the settings accordingly. The plug-ins are real time and single ended, meaning they perform their processing without the need for encoding/decoding stages as in Dolby or dbx.

X-Click is designed to remove loud pops such as vinyl scratches or digital clips. It removes the clicks and interpolates audio data to fill in the holes. Waves posted an updater to X-Click that is better at removing clicks than the version that shipped on the original CD.

X-Crackle removes or diminishes the lower-level crackles that pollute most vinyl recordings. It's usually used after X-Click.

X-Hum employs eight harmonically linked steep, low-cut, notched EQ bands to remove rumble and DC offset. It's geared toward noises with a steady pitch, such as 60 Hz hum from bad grounding.

X-Noise, a broadband noise-reduction plug-in, “learns” a portion of the noise and tailors its response to the customized profile. It's the one to use for tape hiss, guitar buzzes, and other residual background noise, such as air conditioners.

FOLLOW YOUR ABCs

When specifically cleaning up vinyl records, a good rule of thumb is to use the plug-ins in alphabetical order. That means you first get rid of the big loud pops and then move on to the crackles. If there are hum or noise problems, run those two plug-ins last. You can run the plug-ins simultaneously in series, but I received much better results by concentrating on one process at a time and doing the vinyl cleanup in stages. There are often more noticeable artifacts when you try to do more than two processes, especially because the processing is in real time.

The Restoration plug-ins are not yet multiprocessor savvy. Even on a dual G4/800 MHz with 1.25 GB of RAM, the hit on the processor is pretty high, although I could run all four processors in series with no problem. Still, it's better to approach the plug-ins as surgical tools that you use and put away rather than as processors that you strap across a bunch of tracks and leave in place.

The Waves installer CD includes half a dozen music and dialog phrases with various noise problems. You can play with the files to learn your way around the processors. There are some serious noises, pops, and hums on these recordings, and I was able to do some amazing noise reduction on each one. Using test files provided by the manufacturer and cleaning up files in the real world, however, are two different things.

BUDDY, FREDDY, AND DISNEY

One day last December, my father-in-law dropped by with two old vinyl albums under his arm. The first was an original Coral Records Buddy Holly Story, and the other was an old Freddy King record in the original paper dustcover; they were two of my father-in-law's favorites when he was a kid. By coincidence, a few days later, my neighbor asked if I could transfer his Disney sing-along records that he had listened to as a child so that he could play them for his six-month-old son. All of the records were old and in pretty bad shape, but I knew they would be a great test for the Waves plug-ins.

The first challenge was creating audio files that didn't skip. A few spots in the Disney records ended up having crossfades in them because I eventually gave up trying to capture some sections. Once I had the audio files of all four records in the computer (I chose 16-bit, 44.1 kHz for the sake of convenience), it was time to start the cleanup.

Sticking to the aforementioned rule of thumb, I started by using X-Click to go after the big pops. I was able to remove about 75 percent of the pops at first, and after updating to the newer version of X-Click at the Waves Web site, I got rid of most of the offensive clicks, as well (see Fig. 1). The Freddy King record had the worst pops, and I had to remove a few by hand in an audio editor. But the number of pops removed by X-Click in a few hours would have taken weeks by hand. There are virtually no audible artifacts with X-Click, and the interpolated data sounds perfectly natural while also maintaining the integrity of the program length.

X-Crackle was effective for getting rid of most of the remaining little pops on all of the records, although it takes a softer hand at the controls to avoid dulling the high end (see Fig. 2). That's where I really learned that vinyl restoration — and serious audio cleanup, in general — is a balancing act between noise and the artifacts of noise removal. It is impractical to expect to remove every single offensive artifact without adversely affecting the original audio. However, used with taste and common sense, each Restoration plug-in is a little magic box.

I didn't really need to use X-Hum on those four records, but I did have a few audio tracks that were suffering from a little ground hum. X-Hum has a few presets that are tailored for 50 Hz and 60 Hz hum, and that did the trick on a colleague's preamp that was humming when he recorded some overdubs for me (see Fig. 3).

TURN THE BEAT AROUND

Going back to my records, I did notice a little turntable rumble. X-Hum is quite sophisticated, allowing you to customize a highpass filter and its set of eight filters, which can be linked or unlinked to gain. Again, I found a preset that did the trick.

If it's possible to isolate a tiny portion (at least 100 ms) of residual noise, then X-Noise will pay big dividends. X-Noise removed most of the general noise that remained on the records at this point (see Fig. 4). This is the trickiest and, if abused, potentially most damaging plug-in in the bundle, but it can really work wonders on noisy audio. Simply toggling the Learn button while listening only to a short portion of the noise without any program material (usually found at the beginning or end of the material) creates a noise profile that can be saved. Then it's just a matter of properly setting the threshold and reduction amounts, keeping in mind that too much processing will cause weird phasing or aliasing sounds.

ORDER RESTORED

I can't say that the results of the vinyl restoration are perfect or that they rival the original masters — the records were in pretty bad shape. But I can say that the difference in the overall listening experience between the original audio files and the processed recordings was like night and day.

For serious audio professionals in the world of sound design, TV-production audio, film, and field recording, the Native Restoration bundle is a no-brainer. It's also great for small labels or distributors wanting to clean up their vinyl catalogs for CD distribution. It is a little pricey for the average consumer who just wants to clean up his or her vinyl collection before transferring to CD, but that's not the product's main purpose.

For professionals who need serious audio-cleanup tools, the Native Restoration plug-ins are inexpensive compared with equivalent hardware solutions. The fact that the processors run native under DirectX, MAS, RTAS, and VST hosts makes them flexible with a wide range of applications.

All of the vinyl records I worked with were transformed by each Waves processor. I haven't given my father-in-law and neighbor their CD copies yet, but I have half a mind to also give them CDs of the original audio files before cleanup so that they can appreciate how powerful the Native Restoration bundle really is.

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Producer, composer, and keyboardist Rob Shrock has recorded, performed, or both with Burt Bacharach, Garth Brooks, Ray Charles, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, George Duke, Gloria Estefan, and a host of others.

PRODUCT SUMMARY

Waves
Native Restoration
noise-reduction plug-ins
$1,200

FEATURES	4.0
EASE OF USE	4.5
QUALITY OF SOUNDS	4.5
VALUE	4.5
RATING PRODUCTS FROM 1 TO 5

PROS: Removes a wide range of noise sources. Works in real time. Easy to operate.

CONS: Requires a fast computer. Not multiprocessor savvy. Audible artifacts at extreme settings.

Manufacturer

Waves
tel. (865) 546-6115
e-mail sales@waves.com
Web www.waves.com

Minimum System Requirements

Native Restoration

MAC: PPC 603/180; 64 MB RAM; OS 8.5; RTAS, AudioSuite, VST, or MAS host

PC: Pentium II/266; 32 MB RAM; Windows 95/98/NT/2000; RTAS, AudioSuite, VST, or DirectX host