How do I erase a pop/crack in my audio track

Cubase
#1

I have recorded a few tracks about 10 minutes long, and the guitar track has one electronic pop, in it which I suspect it was caused by the Roland BOSS ME 80 which was connected to Acoustic Electric guitar and connected up to my Steinberg UR44.

I am new to Cubase and have a book called Power Tools for Cubase 7 and have the Cubase Artist versions 7, 7.5 and 8 and have looked online to find out how I use something like a eraser tool and take out unwanted noise.

Here is the image of the track and the area I need to remove, right in the middle. I appreciate any tips or advise on how to do this, or where to look to learn how to do this.

#2

Hi There

There are a couple of ways, One would be to zoom right in on the waveform in the Sample Editor and use a pencil to “Draw” the crackle outta there, tricky but it can work. Another way is to find a “similar” passage (even down to small sections less than 1sec long) and cut the offending crackle out and replace it with the similar version and crossfade the borders.

Best Regards

Dave

#3

Aloha a,

@ Dave. +1

This too is my approach and it can be very effective.

Problem is if you don’t do this all the time, (and unless you get very lucky),
it can take some time and effort and patience to get it right.
(it’s not a science)

So
1-Make a couple of back-up tracks. (make sure the back-up files are really in the pool)
2-Take you time and try and think like an artist while drawing.
3-Try and ‘feel’ it.
4- Don’t get discouraged. This can and does work.

Good Luck!
{’-’}

#4

i had the same question (problem) a time ago.
If you could afford, buy Izotope RX4. In the spectral editor you can very comfortable get rid off crackles, Pops.
Really a good tool (i think in Us$ it’s about 300)

best regards
Flohre

#5

Thank you all for these good tips, Last night I figured out that perhaps I can draw around the area and mute it out, but now reading these advices, I will back up my project folder and give this a shot.

It would be nice if I could take the eraser tool and just wipe it off :wink: I Youtubed the “Vari Audio” and saw how powerful it is, it would be nice to allow eraser tool to work in “Vari Audio” to graphically erase those noises out.

#6

+1 to all of the above suggestions :slight_smile:
It look like the “pop” is towards the end of a sustained note/chord, yes? If so, then following Dave’s second suggestion, you might consider duplicating/pasting a short section of what is immediately preceding the pop. Experiment with crossfade lengths… you’ll probably get away with quite a long one, so long as the pop itself doesn’t start to creep back in :wink:.

#7

Or use iZotope RX, it’s almost magic how it can repair and cleanup tracks.

#8

Removed a lot of unwanted side noises in 20 minutes of spoken word today in Wavelabs Spectrum Editor. It’s a gift :wink:

#9

You could also chop out the pop and then use a timestretch & crossfade to join the sections back together. But ultimately it comes down to whichever option works and sounds natural. Another thing worth trying is to see how it sounds in the mix - you might find you can simply duck the crackle out and in the mix the effect is inaudible, sometimes its amazing what you can get away with.

Mike.

#10

Yes this can be quite effective and quick. An easy way to do this is zoom in on the sound in the Project Window and cut the Audio Part just before and just after the pop. Then grab the top of this new Audio Part and drag down to lower the volume on just that small section. If you loop for a couple of bars before and after you can easily tell if you can make the pop get buried in the mix without sounding weird. I do something like this all the time to de-ess without using a de-esser. And since this is all non-destructive to the waveform if it doesn’t work just delete the Audio Parts and drag in a new copy from the pool (or use the Edit History to get back to the start).

#11

Drew lines to clean up audio tracks of extraneous noises, pops and digital drop-in residues when we did our CD 10 years ago. Time-consuming, fiddly and very frustrating.

RX4’s Spectral Repair is magic, especially on a 4K monitor with its extra resolution allowing less scrolling. I have even resurrected a miss-hit guitar note by bringing up individual harmonics, namely because I had nowhere from which I could pinch the note. It is just the thing for cleaning up tracks recorded with condenser mics, because they pick up EVERYTHING!

#12

You can get Izotope RX demo, and use de-clicker module on this event through Process=>Plug-Ins. I once had a recording with lotsa noise and clicks - used RX demo though “Process” tab without demo limitations.
The downside is that after using demo you will probably want to buy RX, just like i did.))

#13

This does not always work, but it does work often enough that I thought it worth mentioning.

If you have several pops you would like to get rid of and don’t want to spend the time drawing all of them out, you might try grabbing just that tiny part of the audio event - ie, you are just grabbing the click/pop, and then do a c&p to another track. Flip the phase on that new track, and the clicks should null themselves out of a track.

Or, if you can recreate that click/pop, that might be easier.

Cheers.

#14

@Jeff. A major mahalo for that tip.

That is soooo koool!

Now all I need is some pops and crackles to give it a go. (Ha!)
But for sure I will in the future give this technique a try.

thanks again.
{’-’}

#15

Please how do you reverse phase in sample editor?

#16

Highlight the piece or whole content of the sample editor, choose process, there you’ll find it. Or use DOP which does the same right from the project page.

#17

There is no ‘erase’ that can be done, because the sound is co-existant with the rest of the sounds on the track, which would leave and audible hole.

RX’s spectral editor is fantastic for this type of thing.

When I have mis-hit strings, I usually just found the same note elsewhere, and cut-and-pasted it in RX, which automatically cross-blends the start and end for seamless insert. Sometimes I had to stretch or shrink the note to have it fit.

Once, I couldn’t find a replacement note, so had to use RX to kill the wood-hit doubled leading edge, then highlight each harmonic and increase their level and length. It took a little while but it is indistinguishable from a normal note. The spectral editor made that possible.

If doing recording, especially with condenser mics, which pick up every extraneous noise possible, RX is indispensable. The sound editor on both Lord of the Rings (LotR) and The Hobbit (TH) said that with LotR, they had to throw away 80% of the onsite recorded audio because of the noises, but on TH, using RX, they kept over 85% of the onsite recordings, even with the 48Hz cameras which generated a lot of noise in the 3KHz band. That is 100s of hours of rerecording and overdubbing that didn’t have to be done.

RX’s spectral editor really comes into its own with a 48-50 4K TV/monitor, as it saves a lot of panning and zooming.
RX_4K.jpg