Trying to clean up a bit of music

Janin

So I've got a CD that's only a few years old, but it seems parts of it got scratched or something - the music in a few places gets really noisy (as in static, not volume). I don't know much about audio processing, but I was wondering if there's any way to modify those sections to not sound terrible. I know it's not really possible to get back the original sound, but anything that hurts my ears less would be good.

Here's an example of a bad section, with good before and after. I don't know which mp3 upload sites are reliable and which not, so here's three different uploads:

http://minorcrisis.net/files/bad%20sound.mp3
http://www.wikiupload.com/download_page.php?id=180978
http://boomp3.com/m/cf87a6a537a6

AtomBomb

That is odd (3rd link the only one that worked for me btw). Can you see any visible scratches on the disc? Can you see anything in the area of the disc where this would be recorded? What disc is it? Is it an original pressing? If it's old, does it have an oil slick type look to it on the play side?

EDIT~ duh, you said it was a few years old. disregard that question and the one about the oil slick.

Janin

I don't see any visible markings on the disk. It's "Hate" by The Delgados. By original pressing, do you mean commercially produced as opposed to self-burned? If so, yes. If not, I don't know how to tell.

Zifnab

I'd call that distortion instead of damage. Do other loud parts of other CDs do it in the same player? Other loud parts of the same CD? Does this disc do it in other players? I just can't think of a way that damage would cause that particular type of sound.

Janin

Zifnab wrote: »

I'd call that distortion instead of damage. Do other loud parts of other CDs do it in the same player? Other loud parts of the same CD? Does this disc do it in other players? I just can't think of a way that damage would cause that particular type of sound.

I don't think it's a player issue, because that sample is ripped directly off the disk, and this is the only disk I've ever noticed problems with. I've tried running the thing through Audacity with various filters, but any that do a good job removing the noise have a side effect of making it sound like I'm listening underwater.

Janin

God damnit

Seems the distortion is some sort of intentional artistic bullshit

The ear-gnawing distortion on the huge drums at the start of "Light Before We Land" is bizarrely deliberate, so don't bother to test whether your EQ is misconfigured.

I guess unless anybody knows some magical filter settings to undo the artist's nonsense, this can be locked.

Khavall

Well.... if you have a good sample of the distortion, you could try a noise reduction process.... Even with really simple editors like Audacity or I believe GarageBand you can catch a sample of a type of noise you want removed, and then it'll subtract that specific wave from a full wave sound.... The only problem is that this tends to give horrible horrible horrible results and you need a good sample of the original sound and it has to be uniform through the entire section that you're editing.

So no efficient or effective way, but there is a crappy version.