Since Fall of 2023, I have been working with Professor Mike Wisland on cleaning up and restoring a near complete Spike Jones record collection for spikejones.org. This has taken the majority of my free time on campus for the Fall and Spring semesters for 2023-2024. Many of these transcriptions are filled with constant popping, crackling, and hissing, so I have been doing what I can to restore these transcriptions to the best quality possible.

Restoration Processes

• Declicking & Decrackling

  • Files are processed with CEDAR using a CEDAR Cambridge system using a combination of Declickle 3 and VintageCR plugins.

  • The declicked and decrackled files are then run through an additional light touch algorithm I developed in Sony Vegas to get rid of leftover “bacon fry” that CEDAR tends to leave behind. This algorithm uses Sound Forge’s Click and Crackle Removal plugin and has an extremely low sensitivity to preserve as much content as possible.

• EQ and Denoising

  • The declicked/decrackled files will have an EQ curve applied if needed, which is usually the case. Most transcriptions are flat and require the RCA EQ curve from the mid-late 1940s. This also helps with reducing noise before the denoising process starts.

  • Tracks are denoised and given final touches using iZotope’s RX 11. Tracks are run through spectral denoise, and given final touches with iZotope’s declipper, or other restorative processes before being finalized.