Imagine you have a sound file that was badly recorded, with no possibility to re-record, and with no clean version : how to deal with the clipping, the saturation, the distorsion ?
Imagine you have a mix/(pre)mastering that was crushed-to-death in a “loudness war” fashion and you have lost all the original files :
how to fix this mess ?
Is there a possibility to clean / smooth the sound ?
Sonnox Restore is a very capable suite of three plug-ins designed for highly accurate audio restoration. Its advanced algorithms and novel features allow fast and extremely effective removal of pops, clicks, crackles, scratches, hum, buzzes and background noise from virtually any recording without damaging the important 'wanted' audio content. In the past, I was obsessed with installing the latest plugins and trying out the latest presets packs, etc. But this leads to more distractions. So I chose to only use 3 VST synths that will cover all my needs. Even if those 3 synths are limited, it will help me to think creatively and outside the box.
RX has long been the go-to audio repair and polishing suite for film, television, music, podcasts, video games, sample libraries, and more. With RX 8, we’ve created new tools and improved beloved modules to help you accomplish more in less time than ever. The Oxford DeClicker features three discrete sections for removing pops, clicks and crackle from your sound. Each has a threshold and sensitivity control to define the number of events that are detected and removed. The unique Events Graph shows the level and duration of each pop, click and crackle as it's detected in three separate colour. ReaEQ By Reaper. ReaEQ equalizer VST plugin is one of the best free plugins for music producers.
how to “unsaturate” ?
can i have declipping ?
-> no <-
it’s too late, we can’t go back to the clean sound!
But we can do our best to limit the damages.
here’s some informations : http://www.wavosaur.com/forum/can-distortion-be-removed-or-minimized-t1262.html
And now a selection of plugins to help fixing the clipping disasters :
I won the loudness war
Declipper plugins :
Some editors provide plugins that can add some improvements, Izotope has developed a suite, intended for repairing audio : this include music restoration, “declipping”, noise removal etc.. It’s a bit expensive but if you really need it, you have it all !
Izotope RX3
more info and download demo @ http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/rx/
We have hunted down freeware declipper plugins on the interweb, we only found two, three if we include the “transient designer” (it can heal some overcompressed files) :
Relife 1.42
More info and free download @ http://www.terrywest.nl/utils.html
This free VST declipper can bring the oversqueezed samples to life, or smoothes a bad vocal recording. It was used on the clipped sample you can see on the first picture.
Don’t expect miracles, but don’t hesitate to test the three algo, to find which is working best for you.
Declipper DX plugin 2.5
Declipper plugin 2.5
Free download @ http://www.silksound.com/geniesys/
This is a directX plugin, you have to use a DX-VST wrapper (like vb ffx4) in order to make it work in Wavosaur.
This free declipping plugin try to resynthetize the peak lost by the overclipping, It has advanced controls, you can have a look at the help to understand how it works. It aslo has a compress feature.
Steinberg Declicker Plugin Vst Download
Bittersweet 3
Informations & Freeware download @ http://www.fluxhome.com/products/freewares/bittersweet-v3
Free Declipper Vst Plugin
This one is not intented for “declipping” but is a transient designer, and it can help to get a smoother sound. It’s subtle, and more important : it has a big knob !
Declicker Vst Plugins
Don’t expect wonders, once a signal is clipped / saturated / overclipped / distorded, you can’t go back to a clean signal.