User manual TERRATEC PHONO PREAMP IVINYL

English Manual Version: 8/3/2006 CE Declaration We: TerraTec Electronic GmbH, Herrenpfad 38, D-41334 Nettetal, Germany hereby declare that the product: PhonoPreAmp iVinyl to which this declaration refers is in compliance with the following standards or standardizing documents: EN 55013 The following are the stipulated operating and environmental conditions for said compliance: residential, business and commercial environments and small-company environments. This declaration is based on: Test report(s) of the EMC testing laboratory The information in this document is subject to change without notice and shall not be deemed as a warranty by the seller. No warranties, express or implied, are made with regard to the quality, suitability or accuracy of this document. The manufacturer reserves the right to change the contents of this document and/or the associated products at any time without the provision of prior notice to specific persons or organizations. The manufacturer shall not be held liable for damages of any kind arising from the use, or the inability to use this product or its documentation, even if the possibility of such damage is known. The information in this document is subject to copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express written permission of the copyright holders. Product and brand names contained in this document are used for identification purposes only. All registered trademarks, product designations or brand names used in this document are the registered property of their respective owners. ©TerraTec® Electronic GmbH, 1994-2006. All rights reserved (8/3/2006). 2 PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) Contents Pre-amplified Congratulations................................................................................................. 4 Technical data .........................................................................................................................5 Connection and Control Elements ........................................................................................... 6 All about Vinyl......................................................................................................................... 8 Tips and Tools ..................................................................................................................... 8 Just one Groove, but a Lot of Music...................................................................................... 8 RIAA filtering........................................................................................................................ 8 Shielding............................................................................................................................. 9 Recording ............................................................................................................................ 9 Wav, Mp3 or AP ..................................................................................................................10 Links .................................................................................................................................. 11 Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1......................................................................................... 12 1. Overview ......................................................................................................................... 12 2. First steps....................................................................................................................... 13 3. User Interface ................................................................................................................. 15 4. Recording .......................................................................................................................18 5. Rescuing Audio Material .................................................................................................19 6. Descratcher ................................................................................................................... 20 7. Denoiser ......................................................................................................................... 21 8. Burning CDs................................................................................................................... 22 9. Application Notes ...........................................................................................................23 10. Contacting Us................................................................................................................25 11. Restoration on the Macintosh........................................................................................25 Service at TerraTec. ............................................................................................................... 26 PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) 3 Pre-amplified Congratulations With the TerraTec PhonoPreAmp iVinyl, you have made a great choice. The PhonoPreAmp iVinyl is the complete solution for digitizing analog sound sources, like your beloved LP record collection, in top high-fidelity quality. The USB connection to the computer is almost too easy. Even so, please read the following information so that you can start using all of the benefits of your phono PreAmp Studio USB right away. Furthermore, the chapter entitled, "All about Vinyl", provides useful background information on the LP recording medium as well as worthwhile information on the topic of "digital restoration on the PC". The following description is based on use with a PC but can be applied to Mac use without modification. Tip: Don't forget to stop in at our website at http://www.terratec.de. There you can find regular software updates, tutorials and instructions to make your experience with your TerraTec product easy and successful. If you run into problems, checking to make sure you have the newest drivers and software version, and then going to our FAQs page will solve most issues. We hope you find great satisfaction in using your TerraTec PhonoPreAmp iVinyl ...your TerraTec Team 4 PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) Technical data · · · · · · · · · · · · · Stereo input for record player, can be switched to analog line input (RCA/cinch) USB bus power supplied by the computer--no separate power adapter necessary Suitable for moving magnet (MM) pickups and moving coil (MC) systems with high output level (at least 2-3mV); standard moving coil (MC) pickups are not supported Sampling frequencies of 32 kHz / 44.1 kHz / 48 kHz / 96 kHz are supported Input capacity adjustable in three stages (100 pF, 250 pF and 430 pF) Filter function with high-precision RIAA equalizer (20 Hz-20 kHz / ± 0.4 dB) Harmonic distortion < 0.007 % (5 mV) Signal-to-noise ratio: > 86 dB (A) EMC-compliant aluminum case LED display for level and signal Bundled software (Algorithmix Sound Rescue 2.1 TerraTec Edition) Windows 2000/XP Mac OS X PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) 5 Connection and Control Elements Phono line input (cinch / red = right channel, white = left channel) This is where you connect the output cable from your turntable. Note that the PhonoPreAmp iVinyl is designed for moving-magnet (MM) pickup systems. Standard movingcoil (MC) systems are not supported. If you have a high-output MC system, you can use it with the "phono PreAmp Studio USB". However, the output level must be at least 2-3 mV. Alternatively, you can connect devices with line level output, such as tape decks (refer to the input-level selector switch (point Ground screw To prevent so-called "AC hum," you should connect the grounding wire from your record player to the thumbscrew located on the connection side of the PhonoPreAmp iVinyl. This ensures that your record player is grounded through the computer. )). USB jack for connecting to the computer's USB port The USB port is how the audio data, digitized in the PhonoPreAmp iVinyl, is sent to your computer. It also acts as the power supply for your PhonoPreAmp iVinyl. Don't bother searching for an audio jack for your sound card: you don't need one! It all works digitally through USB. Using the USB cable provided, simply connect the PhonoPreAmp iVinyl to any free USB port on your computer. 6 PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) Input-range selector switch Please refer to the technical documentation of your phono pickup system for the recommended input capacity range for the preamplifier. Then set this selector switch to a value that best matches this range. If you cannot find any technical documentation for your pickup cartridge, set the selector switch to its middle position. Your selection will be indicated by the LED. Signal and peak display These two LED lamps conveniently let you know that the PhonoPreAmp iVinyl hardware is working. If the unit is connected correctly and is receiving an audio signal, the signal LED is lit (red, top). Its brightness changes according to the strength of the input signal. The peak LED (blue, bottom) lights if the signal level is too high, causing overamplification. For adjusting input levels, see item selector switch". regarding the "Input-level Input-level selector switch Use this to select the type of input signal and how it is to be preamplified. You can select between minimum (Min) and maximum (Max) preamplification. If you are recording a line-in signal, select the Line-IN option. Your selection will be indicated by the LED. In this case, also refer to the chapter entitled Recording. PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) 7 All about Vinyl Tips and Tools When CD technology took hold of the music recording industry, it eventually replaced all production of vinyl records, to the regret of many collectors and enthusiasts. Today, it has become easy for just about anyone to create his own CDs using a computer and a CD burner. This is the time when the idea of eternalizing (or at least conserving them for the "half-life period" of a CD blank ...) your old vinyl treasures has become most interesting. Even the restoration software available on the market today has become more affordable and easier to use. How, however, do you get the phono recordings into the computer? First of all, turntables do not provide a signal that is directly usable with sound cards (and other line devices). Second, many of today's commercial HiFi amplifiers do not even come integrated with the special phono-input preamplifier required for use with turntables. Of course, you can always set up your (turntable-compatible) HiFi amplifier directly next to your PC--that is, if you don't mind having to move all your nicely connected equipment all the time. That is precisely why Terratec came up with the concept of the PhonoPreAmp iVinyl. The PhonoPreAmp iVinyl amplifies the output signal of the turntable, turns it into a high-quality, usable signal, and then digitizes it--all within the device. The digital data are then "copied" straight to the computer through the USB port. Now you can even archive your records on a laptop in comfort-- without having an unnecessary mess of cables lying around--because the PhonoPreAmp iVinyl takes its power supply directly from the computer's USB port. For those interested in the details of the good old phonograph technology, the following is for you. Just one Groove, but a Lot of Music The audio signal is stored on a record as a pattern in the record's groove. This pattern is picked up mechanically by the turntable's stylus, which converts the "audio data" pressed into the vinyl into a weak electrical signal. There are two different pickup systems: Moving Coil (MC) and Moving Magnet (MM or MD for magnetodynamic). In MM systems, a permanent magnet is moved; in MC systems, the coil follows the movement of the record's groove. The advantage of MC systems is their lower moving mass, but they have the disadvantage of an output signal that is lower than that of MM systems by a factor of 10, making it more difficult to achieve a good S/N ratio. Both MM and MC systems are capable of outstanding musical reproduction, but in practice the first system is the more common one. RIAA filtering Perhaps you've accidentally connected your turntable to the wrong input of your HiFi amplifier at one time or another. You probably noticed that the signal was not only very quiet, but also 8 PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) distorted. The reason: as the deflection of the needle is limited to specific range, high frequencies (= low amplitude) are amplified and low frequencies (= high amplitude) are weakened on the record. The signal from the pickup must therefore be processed (filtered) before it can be used. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has defined a standard for the changes to the frequency ranges to ensure that all records can be played using the same filtering. The quality of the equalization process is thus an important factor in the overall quality of a phono preamplifier. Shielding Due to the relatively low output levels that even moving-magnet systems achieve (MM approx. 2-5 mV, MC approx. 0.1-0.4 mV), a certain amount of protection has to be provided against external sources of noise. For example, using an overly simple power supply design can result in unpleasant AC hum. Unfortunately, the mounting number of electronic devices in an average household means an increasing amount of electromagnetic interference. While these waves are very weak, they can still interfere with the signal from the pickup, which is also very weak, as mentioned above. This problem can be dealt with by carefully shielding the amplifier, as is the case with the PhonoPreAmp iVinyl. The ground wire of your turntable, if present, also fits in with this topic. This wire establishes an electrical connection between the turntable and the shielding to help prevent AC hum. We've got this one covered, too. The PhonoPreAmp iVinyl is equipped with an extra ground connection, which passes completely through the device, to the USB port, and then into the computer. This guarantees maximum shielding. Recording Included with the PhonoPreAmp iVinyl is Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1, a professional software application for restoring your audio recordings. For more information, refer to the Recording chapter later in this manual. Start Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 as described in the manual and begin recording. To achieve optimal level control when recording, it is important to adjust the input level of the PhonoPreAmp iVinyl correctly. Play the record you want to record and watch the peak LED on the PhonoPreAmp iVinyl while doing so. Whenever possible, set the input level to MAX. If the blue LED lights up, it means the input signal is being amplified to strongly. In this case, set the input level back to MIN. With this setting, the LED should not indicate any more overamplification (peaks). Unlike recordings that you may have made in the past with a tape deck, digital recordings must never exceed the maximum level. In the analog world, this might have passed for a desirable "tape saturation" effect, but with digital recording technology it leads to clearly audible distortion which is virtually impossible to "repair". PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) 9 After you have recorded your music using the PhonoPreAmp iVinyl and the Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 software, you can also use the Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 to edit your recordings directly on a digital level. This software is a powerful tool for the restoration of old records, yet it is intuitive and easy to use. If you would prefer to use a different application to edit your recording, it should include at least the following functions: removing short, loud pops (de-click); removing quiet background crackling (de-crack), noise suppression (de-noise) and the automatic adjustment of the audio signal strength (normalization). The normalization function should always take place in a separate step after the audio material has been restored successfully. Some programs offer additional functions such as the broadening of the stereo image (this is rather restricted on vinyl records in comparison to CDs) and equalizers with which you can freshen up the sound quality or add a bit of punch. However, please remember that less is generally better than too much, and that too much tinkering can destroy the authentic sound of the original recording. If you generally record the entire side of a record at once, you can cut the recording into individual tracks if you want. To do so, you can use Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 or another audio editing tool. Depending on the software you are using, this function can be automated. Finally, you can burn the recordings you have made in this way to CD with your usual burning software. Wav, Mp3 or AP All files are recorded by Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 in *.wav format. The raw, uncompressed data of the recording are stored in this container format. The advantage of this is that all of the song's audio information is available, allowing it to be easily adapted or restored. The disadvantage is the relatively large amount of space required; as a result, this format has only limited usefulness, particularly as a trading format. Therefore, the *.mp3 format is in much more widespread use today. *.mp3 is a compressed music file in which more or less inaudible portions are filtered out in order to save storage space. The result is usually no different from a *.wav file. If the compression rates are too high, however, a significant loss of audio quality can result. If you do not want to burn your music files to CD or want to trade them as allowed by copyright law, we recommend that you convert them to an *.mp3 file. Various freeware programs exist on the Internet for this purpose. In our experience, a program called Audiograbber works especially well. This program lets you convert files not only from *.wav to *.mp3, but also into many other formats, some of which are less common. Another useful feature is the connection to the CDDB. CDDB is a database in which album and artist information is stored. Since track information can also be stored in *.mp3 files, there is no need for the time-consuming process of entering them manually. It is not possible to record in *.wav format at 24bit/96Khz because this sampling rate is too high for this format. Instead, Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 uses the *.ap format, which is a special internal container format that can handle recordings at 24bit/96Khz. You can easily 10 PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) load and edit this format in Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1. Then, the saved file is in 32-bit float 96 kHz *.wav format, which is compatible with all common sound editors (such as Wavelab, SoundForge, Audition, CoolEdit, Audacity etc.). For additional information on Audiograbber, go to: http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/ You can also download the software at no charge from this site. Links If you are interested in more information, here are some of our recommended Internet links that you may want to check out. We hope you find them useful and entertaining. http://fabdp.fh-potsdam.de/lehre/studpro/steffen/record/head/head.htm This site provides a lot of information on the history of the LP record. http://www.aaanalog.de/ Information on records, record players and analog technology. A first-class magazine with informative articles! Highly recommended. PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) 11 Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 1. Overview Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 is a powerful tool that lets you clean up problematic material such as older recordings, directly on your PC. It lets you remove or significantly reduce unwanted noise while maintaining the authentic sound and quality of the original recording. Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 is an ideal compliment to recording and CD programs, especially if you want to eternalize all of your tape cassettes and vinyl treasures--even your shellac phonograph records on CD. Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 offers a vast variety of functions and is specially developed for the multimedia user who does not want to spend hours learning complicated editing processes or use the multitude of parameter settings necessary for other professional software. For the two editing modules, Descratcher and Denoiser, only two parameters need to be set to achieve optimal sound, which normally takes only a few seconds to do. You can adjust these settings with no trouble during real-time playback. Likewise, you can adjust the volume and tone (bass and trebles) of the "cleaned" output signal to remaster "dusty" recordings. Features: · · · · · · · · · · · Real-time operation at 800 MHz or better under Windows® 2000/XP High stability using its own, separate drivers Recording in 44.1 kHz/16-bit (CD format) "red book" WAV format or internal 96 kHz/24-bit AP format Worldwide, the fastest off-line processing Fast, intuitive menu prompts Removes noises such as popping, crackling, static, scratches and surface noises Reduces constant background noises such as tape static, line hum and thyristor hum Softens digital distortions and covers signal drops Real-time operation during the fine tuning of parameters Unique Difference function for listening to the noises that are removed All measurements are precise to up to 80-bit decimal accuracy 12 PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) Typical Applications: · · · · · Archives and restores old audio media Remasters old recordings to CD: from shellac, vinyl and tape Removes interference noises on cassette tape recordings Filters out and removes distortion in noisy dialogs and in recorded telephone clips Reduces distortion in radio broadcasts from medium wave, short wave and FM 2. First steps Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 is located on the product CD, which is configured for automatic installation. If the autorun application on the CD does not launch automatically, go to "My Computer" and double-click the icon for your CD-ROM drive. The autorun application should appear in a few seconds. Select your language and go to the Software menu item. This is the location of the item Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1. Clicking it starts the installation routine; after a few brief installation steps, click "Finish" to conclude the routine. The first time it is launched, the system is searched for compatible CD-recording applications. Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 has been tested with WinOnCDTM 3.6 to 8.0, EasyCDCreatorTM 5.0 to 6.0, EasyMediaCreator 7.0 to 8.0, Nero 4.0 to 7.0 and Feurio 1.63. If a compatible CD-recording application is found, a dialog appears and asks you whether the found application should be used for writing audio CDs. Answer "Yes" if the application mentioned is your preferred burning program. If a compatible CD-recording application cannot be found, verify that one of the CD-recording programs listed above is installed correctly on your system. You can start a search for CD-recording applications at any time by selecting "CD recording" in the system menu, which you can open by clicking the icon in the upper-left area of the window. The dialog window for selecting burner software Select the program that you prefer most for burning your audio CDs. Also refer to Chapter 8. Burning CDs. To quickly verify that Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 was installed successfully, simply click the button and select the democlic.wav file for editing. Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 supports *.wav files according to the Red Book "16-bit/44.1 kHz" standard, as well as the internal 96 kHz *.ap format, which processes data into 32-bit float / 96 kHz *.wav files, which can then be opened and used in an external audio editor. PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) 13 User Interface Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 has an intuitive interface. Its features are clearly arranged and truly easy to use and, at the same time, it offers powerful functionality. The upper half of the window contains the areas for the DeScratcher, Analyzer and DeNoiser features, and below these is a strip with other adjustment options for sound optimization. Below this is the Playback area, which displays the actual audio material in the Waveform window as well as control buttons for other program functions. Quick Instructions Follow the steps listed below to achieve--in very little time--a high-quality, remastered, recording of, for example, and old, scratched LP record. More details are provided in the chapters that follow. 1. Click the 2. Click the button, enter a file name and start recording your new audio material. button to open the "Select Input File" menu. Select the WAV file that you want to process. The file you selected is loaded and its waveform is displayed in the Waveform window. 3. Start playback with the button. You should now hear the audio material and be able to view the level-control indicator. In the Analyzer window, the frequency profiles of the input and output signals are dynamically displayed as is the noise print. You can pause playback with the button and "rewind" back to the beginning of the clip by clicking . During playback, you can restart playback at any position you like simply by clicking the position in the Waveform window. 4. If your recording contains sudden popping noises, use the Declick adjuster to try to filter them out. 5. If your recording has humming or buzzing noises or, in the case of a recording from an LP record, a constant background crackling, use the Decrackle adjuster to filter it out. 6. To reduce or remove noises such as tape static or constant LP surface noises, use the Denoiser feature by adjusting the threshold and reduction adjusters. 7. To compare the original sound with the filtered signal, click the 8. Use the button. function to listen to the noise that has been filtered out. 9. Adjust the volume slide so that the volume level never quite reaches the red range. 10. Use the position. 11. Click 12. Click to save the remastered audio material to a new file. to optimize the loudness level of the audio material. button to clip off the extra audio material to the left of the current marker 14 PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) 13. If you click the button, the current audio material is sent to the associated burning software as a new track. Simply repeat this step to put together an audio CD instantly, which you can then burn. 14. The functions of the parameters for the Descratcher and Denoiser features are described in the chapters entitled, Descratcher, Denoiser and Application Notes. 3. User Interface Editing area The editing area of Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 consists of four main parts: Descratcher (left), Denoiser (right), Analyzer (in the middle) and the Bass/Treble/Volume controls (bottom). Two sound-level meters let you control the output level while, at the same time, you can adjust the volume and the bass and treble levels using the sliders mentioned above. Because the processor requirements of Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 are quite low, you can optimize all parameters and simultaneously hear the results in real time while editing your tracks. The editing area of Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1. lets you listen separately to the noises that are being filtered out during processing in real time. lets you listen to the input signal by bypassing the DeScratcher and DeNoiser filters. indicates the CPU usage of the computer, i.e. the percentage of CPU time being used by Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1. Analyzer graphically displays the volume and frequency curves, which is useful for visually verifying the filter levels. effectively removes pops and crackling from the audio material. 15 DeScratcher PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) DeNoiser Playback Area removes noise and static from the audio material. The Playback area is located in the lower section of the Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 interface. Using its features, you can record a WAV file, load a file for editing, start and stop playback, and jump to any position in the WAV file by moving the cursor within the Waveform display. After loading a WAV file, its name and format are displayed in the status window below the Analyzer and its waveform is displayed in yellow in a normal view, meaning it is adapted to fit within the width of the Waveform window. The playback area of Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.0 The edited audio material can be stored offline. To this end, select the file dialog with the button. The sampling frequency of the output file corresponds to that of the input file (44.1 kHz or 96 kHz for .ap files). If converting these formats or converting the sampling rate, for example, from 96 kHz to 44.1 kHz, always use a suitable, high-quality tool provided in your editing or sound card software. Note that the functions "Norm", "Split", "Track" and "CD" only work with 16-bit, 44.1 kHz wav files. For .ap files, these functions are disabled, because the resulting file format would not be compatible for creating audio CDs. The Buttons and Controls in the Playback Area File Functions opens the "load" file dialog box opens the "save" file dialog box Audio Functions normalizes the audio material to maximum loudness splits the audio material at the current marker position sets the marker at a position in the audio material at which a new track most likely begins sets the marker at the position where the loudness is at its maximum 16 PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) starts the associated CD burning software opens the help file Control Functions asks for a file name and opens the recording window starts playback interrupts playback returns the playback cursor to the beginning of the clip View Functions shows the entire audio material of the file zooms in on a length of about 20 seconds of the audio material PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) 17 4. Recording With Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1, you can also make recordings, of course. To do so, click the button and specify a location and name for the resulting WAV file in the dialog box . that opens. You will now see the AlgoRec window, which shows you the input level for the standard recording device as configured in Windows. Recording at first is paused The AlgoRec recording window of Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 Adjust the level so that it never quite reaches 0dB, i.e. the red range. Going into the red range can cause digital crackling noises, which cannot be completely filtered out by the editing tools. Clicking the Click button opens the Windows recording controls. to start the recording. The recording is written to the file in Red Book format (44.1 kHz, 16-bit, stereo .wav) or in an internal 96 kHz .ap format. Both formats can be edited directly with Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1. To create an audio CD, however, only the 44.1 kHz, 16-bit, stereo .wav format will do. After being processed in Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2., the internal 96 kHz .ap format is saved as a 32-bit float 96 kHz wav file, which can then be opened and used in external audio editors. Use the system menu to select the format you want to use (click the title bar of the recorder using the right mouse button). Click quit recording to the file you selected earlier. If you like, you can now press ify a new file and create a new recording. to again to spec- 18 PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) 5. Rescuing Audio Material This section provides more details on how you can edit your recordings. Restoration After you have recorded the entire side of an LP, for example, you may want to rescue and restore the recorded audio material using Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1. Start playback with the button. If you enable the button, the DeScratcher and DeNoiser filters are bypassed so that you can listen to the original recording. Disable the bypass option to listen to the effects of the restoration filters in real time. You can adjust the settings of the DeScratcher and DeNoiser filters during playback and see the difference in the Analyzer while hearing it at the same time. To hear only the noises and crackling sounds that are being filtered out of the audio material, click . Adjust the control slider to your liking and refer to the chapters on the DeScratcher and DeNoiser functions for more information. Adjust the volume slide so that the peak level never quite reaches the red range. Once you are satisfied with the results, stop playback by pressing and save the results by clicking the button. The new audio material is loaded and displayed automatically. To avoid mistakenly filtering a file that has already been filtered, the bypass option is enabled automatically. Optimization Use to find the positions having the highest peaks and check whether they are the result of pops or the normal audio material. When you are completely convinced that the quality of the material is good, you can raise its recorded volume without your recording being overamplified by clicking the button. Now save your results again. Creating Tracks After successfully restoring your digital recording, you will probably want to pull out certain tracks from the length recording. If you click , Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 automatically finds for you a position that is likely a pause between two tracks. You can of course search for such pauses manually simply by listing to the audio material with , stopping the marker with . Then you can zoom in on the section of the recording using the button and reposition the marker more accurately. Use gether. to write the audio material to the left of the marker to a new file or to delete it alto- The Split window of Sound Rescue TerraTec Edition 2.1 Select the option you want to execute, provide a name for a new file if necessary and then click OK. Save your individual track here and burn it onto a CD. PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English) 19 6. Descratcher The Descratcher function effectively removes pops and crackling noises from old vinyl and shellac records as well as from audio files in which the tone quality has been decreased during recording because of switch noise, digital crosstalk or thyristor humming. The Descratching algorithm consists of two parts: the Declicking Filter and the Decrackling Filter. While the Declicking filter is running, usually to remove relatively loud clicks and pops from old vinyl records or switch noise from digital or analog audio devices, the Decrackling filter removes any remaining, usually quiet but dense crackling. The higher you set the Declick parameter, the more cracking noise is removed. When it is set to 0, the filter lets through nearly all cracking noises. To remove cracking noises from soiled vinyl records, a Declick value of about 50 is good in most cases. A typical popping noise in a signal from a vinyl record (left) and the reconstructed signal (right). The higher you set the Decrackle parameter, the more crackling noise is removed from the original. The highest setting, nearly 100, dampens the actual input signal. In general, this parameter can be set to 80 without resulting in any audible depletion of the original sound. In some cases, an extremely high setting, even up to 100, can be used to improve the quality of the audio material. To minimize the depletion of the original sound in the Descratching procedure, you should listen very carefully to the effects of the Declick and Decrackle parameters at various points of the recording before deciding on their final values. In doing so, the Difference function in the Playback area will certainly be a great aid. It allows you to set the parameters in a very intuitive manner. With it, you can switch between the original input signal and the input/output signal difference, i.e. the portion that has been removed by the Descratching algorithm. Normally, you do not want the signal difference to contain any part of the original signal that you want to keep. For more notes on optimizing the settings of the Declick and Decrackle parameters, see to the Application Notes. Note also that the Difference functions can be applied to the Descratcher and Denoiser functions simultaneously. If you want to run the Descratcher only, leave the sliders (threshold and reduction) for the Denoiser set to 0. 20 PhonoPreAmp iVinyl (English)