..purchasing Soundsoap Pro for $500 USD?

I need some serious sound restoration software for hiss, hummmm, click, rumble, pop, and the occasional fart removal. I have Voxengo's Redunoise, and it seems a bit cumbersome for me. Maybe I haven't spent enough time with it, but I hear artifacts in the source material after using it (phasing and EQ weirdness). I also have an older version of Cool Edit Pro, and its noise reduction does reduce the hiss, but takes the high end sheen with it.

I've seen Waves restoration bundle in action, but haven't had any hands on experience with it, plus it sells for about $900 bucks! If I'm going to spend that close to a grand, I might as well step up to the plate and go full pro with Cedar Audio. I think I can get a Cedar for windows setup for about $3000! If it works, and it's clean, I can deal with that, but I'm hesitant to pop 3 grand on anything!

Of course, my third choice is a mortgage on my house for $20,000 or more and get the Cedar Cambridge, which I should be able to pay off when I'm 82, about 20 years after I've gone completely deaf and piss myself regularly.

Any comments on Soundsoap Pro or the future state of my credit card?

Phil

Landphil wrote:

..purchasing Soundsoap Pro for $500 USD? I need some serious sound restoration software for hiss, hummmm, click, rumble, pop, and the occasional fart removal. I have Voxengo's Redunoise, and it seems a bit cumbersome for me. Maybe I haven't spent enough time with it, but I hear artifacts in the source material after using it (phasing and EQ weirdness). I also have an older version of Cool Edit Pro, and its noise reduction does reduce the hiss, but takes the high end sheen with it. I've seen Waves restoration bundle in action, but haven't had any hands on experience with it, plus it sells for about $900 bucks! If I'm going to spend that close to a grand, I might as well step up to the plate and go full pro with Cedar Audio. I think I can get a Cedar for windows setup for about $3000! If it works, and it's clean, I can deal with that, but I'm hesitant to pop 3 grand on anything! Of course, my third choice is a mortgage on my house for $20,000 or more and get the Cedar Cambridge, which I should be able to pay off when I'm 82, about 20 years after I've gone completely deaf and piss myself regularly. Any comments on Soundsoap Pro or the future state of my credit card? Phil

Unfortunately I can't help you, although I'd be very interested in the answer to your question.

On the bright side, the way you phrased your question made me laugh loud and hard

Edited (moronic spelling)

Phil

If this is a one time job I'd probably just take it into a studio and let them deal with it.

If that's not an option...hmm...

You probably have tried this, or thought of it, but what about just buying $3,000 worth the vodka and locking yourself in front of a hi-band mixer and a pair of monitors for a weekend?

After all...that's basically what the software's doing...minus the vodka.

Quote:

You probably have tried this, or thought of it, but what about just buying $3,000 worth the vodka and locking yourself in front of a hi-band mixer and a pair of monitors for a weekend?

Not a bad idea, actually. Will it work with Gin?

It's not a one time deal, though. I'm fascinated with the art of restoration, both audio and visual. Since the '70's, when Time-Life would mail soundsheets called "The Swing Era", I was hooked on the technology that it took to take an old recording and clean it up. Just a bit of a hobby, I guess. Something to do on those nights when I have writers block.

$3000 . . . hmmmm . . that's about 120 bottles of the stuff I like. I'll get started right away!

for $3,000 , I'll come over and hand edit every crack pop and hiss in wavelab until your recording is pristine.


I am *deadly* serious.

scuffbutt wrote:

I am *deadly* serious.

no I'm not. I'm just kidding.

sorry - don't know what I was thinking there

I know that 900.00 is a lot of money, but from using the Waves Restoration bundle first hand on a Mac, I can tell you that it works great, but the 'restoration,' is sort of a tricky matter, as of course you are going to hear the software working...
you chose an interesting word, as 'restoration,' has lots of wiggle room... are you aiming to make whatever recordings as good as they were originally? (I mean, ideally,) or would you like to try some computer magic to make them better?
I ask because it's a good subject to ponder, what distortions are integral to the music, and which would make the source 'better,'

I`m sure many of the moderatly priced ones do a fine job within reason.(I didn`t mean reason )

Anyway,Ones that do "look ahead"(maybe all them),but that is necessary for a good job.

Any type that will let you listen to a section of the file to preview your settings...and then when satisfied,does the whole process in one fell swope.

Make sure you can undo if need be.

Better ones will want you to select a sample of the noise you want to do away with so it can learn it and recognize it as it scans and re-processes the file.

I would check some out by typing "noise reduction" in a search engine.

Thanks, Gents.

I'm gonna spend some time with Redunoise to see if I can get a better grip on it. Might also have a go with with the Waves plugs, if they still have a demo to download. Perhaps this was one of those times I was looking for instant gratification without having to do a little work! Can't have my cake and eat it, too!

Actually, why would anyone want to have a cake if they couldn't eat it? I mean, you can't eat your cake without having it, can you?

I vote that all clever sayings must be palindromes before becoming public cliche!

Landphil wrote:

Quote: You probably have tried this, or thought of it, but what about just buying $3,000 worth the vodka and locking yourself in front of a hi-band mixer and a pair of monitors for a weekend? Not a bad idea, actually. Will it work with Gin? It's not a one time deal, though. I'm fascinated with the art of restoration, both audio and visual. Since the '70's, when Time-Life would mail soundsheets called "The Swing Era", I was hooked on the technology that it took to take an old recording and clean it up. Just a bit of a hobby, I guess. Something to do on those nights when I have writers block. $3000 . . . hmmmm . . that's about 120 bottles of the stuff I like. I'll get started right away!

One way of looking at it is this: Devide hours of application use into cost. You spend $500 on something you use for a few nights a week for a few years & I'd say that justifies the cost. You describe it as a long term hobby going back a few decades. I say spend the three grand & pass up Gin in favor of Vodka till you 'make' your money back

Alas, it turns out that 3 grand was just a pipe dream. Turns out that the cost of a Windows CEDAR system is appx. $45,967, or $7,500 per module.

Thanks for letting me dream a little!

Landphil wrote:

Alas, it turns out that 3 grand was just a pipe dream. Turns out that the cost of a Windows CEDAR system is appx. $45,967, or $7,500 per module. Thanks for letting me dream a little!

Than get the Bias soap app. What's that come out to, like 5 good bottles of Champagne? I just drank one, so I'm a 5th of the way there already

Bias has years in the biz, man...I loved using Deck, but I'm not on a Mac anymore. Go for it.

I've used Sound Forge for years and I can't complain about anything. I bought the $999 bundle that included cd architect and noise reduction. However current prices for seperate packages is about the same as it was years ago, even a little less.

SF - $400
CD - $240
NR - $280 = $920

Be careful. Before you buy architect make sure you have a compatable drive. If you don't need to make CDs without the pause between songs (like live stuff)just skip it and knock that price down.

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/products/default.asp

tomg wrote:

I've used Sound Forge for years and I can't complain about anything. I bought the $999 bundle that included cd architect and noise reduction.

Oops! The wife says it was $1500 and included a Yamaha CDR102 and scsi card... Wow! No wonder I wanted to foget what it cost.