TC Electronic RESTORATION SUITE User Manual - Tutorial
TUTORIAL
GETTING THE BEST RESULTS WITH RESTORATION SUITE
RESTORATION SUITE is best used in a stereo mastering application such as SPARK
XL. To handle all possible restoration scenarios, you will want to be able to load at
least 4 Plug-Ins in series. While RESTORATION SUITE can be used as a track insert
in a multi-channel application, the more RESTORATION SUITE Plug-Ins you load in
series, the greater the latency. Many applications compensate for latency automatical-
ly, but others do not. In addition to the latency common to DSP Plug-Ins, the
RESTORATION SUITE Plug-Ins have an additional processing delay—the time
required for the Plug-In to function optimally. If you use a RESTORATION SUITE
Plug-In as a track insert in a multi-channel application without adequate compensa-
tion, refer to APPENDIX A: PROCESSING DELAY.
CLEANING AUDIO
There is a specific, serial processing order that you should always use to restore any
audio file, especially that from a vinyl record:
(1) Descratch
(2) Declick (set to Click)
(3) Decrackle
(4) Denoise
Why is processing order so critical? It not so many words: size matters. Each Plug-In
is optimized to manage a specific type of artifact of a specific size. Let’s consider the
following example: should you load a Declick plug-in and set it to ‘Crackle’, it will not
fix a severe click, but it might smooth a severe click so much that a subsequent
Declicker setup to remove ‘Click’ does not find the severe click anymore and a
residual of the artifact will end up in the file.
REMOVING CLICKS & CRACKLE
These tasks can be accomplished best with the Declick followed by the Decrackle. For
Declick, there are just two controls required to adjust its processing: ‘Threshold’ and
the ‘Crackle/Click’ slider. Also, Decrackle is mainly adjusted by the two controls
‘Reduction’ and ‘Threshold’. Whenever you are restoring audio, it is wise to frequently
compare the original signal to the processed signal very carefully: incorrect settings
can create avoidable artifacts.
EXTRACTING ARTIFACTS FOR LATER USE
Now for something creative: let’s assume that it is your task to get a well recorded
piece of audio to sound ‘old’, as if it was taken from a scratched record. First, use any
of the RESTORATION SUITE Plug-Ins in Audition mode and record the artifacts from
an old recording to a new file. (Use the ‘Bounce’ or ‘Create File’ command from your
host application.) Then, using your multi-channel recording application, you can add a
track for the ‘artifacts’ file and mix it into your desired material.
RESTORATION SUITE
/
25
EE
NN
GG
LL
II
SS
HH