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Audio Cleaning Lab 3.0

Audio Cleaning Lab 3.0

List Price: $39.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: GREAT NEW VERSION TO THE ORIGINAL!
Review: Magix Audio Cleaning Lab 3.0 is a great follow up to the 2001 original version. All the same great features are still there plus some new ones. One new feature that stands out is the new MULTI-MAX 3-BAND COMPRESSOR. This is great for "punching up" dull sounding recordings. All in all, a very worth while product that is very easy to use. Great software for the price - get it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Audio Cleaning Lab 3.0 is a Great Audio Enhancement Program!
Review: Magix Cleaning Lab 3.0 is great software. I have restored many songs I thought would never see the digital light of day. Now they are played with vibrant sound! Essentially one has the option of cleaning music in four ways.
1. De-click (to remove click sounds from old records)
2. De-crackle (same source as above)
3. De-noise (from cassette noise, hissing, etc)
4. De-hiss (tape hiss among other types of hiss)

Among these one can choose varying levels of correction. Some recordings require stronger levels, others weaker. As the original recording quality worsens, the ability of the cleaner worsens too. Sometimes the cleaner, creates a different type of sound than before. For instance, the original sound might contain a tambourine, but once cleaned strongly, it sounds more synthesized. The program has a "wizard" that will take you through the cleaning process in the best order. Using the wizard, you can hear the original and preview it cleaned. At the end you get to hear the original and the perfectly cleaned songs. The difference is amazing.

Now, after you have cleaned it, you can feel just like a top-level audio engineer, who has the audio in graphic form right in front of him. There are multiple effects, all which can be utilized while the track is playing. They are

1. Stereo FX (Here you can adjust the level of stereo surround, or bring it to mono. You can change the volume of individual channels too).
2. Brilliance/EQ (Change the sound with a graphic equalizer, and preset equalizer settings)
3. Multi-Max (Increase the loudness, presence, of a file, and it acts as a limiter)
4. Direct X controls (add on any Direct X effect)
5. Normalize Object Volume (this is not on the display, but can be done by right clicking on the sound graphic and selecting this option. This makes quieter songs louder.)
6. Acoustics-Simulator (new to 3.0, this gives the music echo and reverb, to make it sound like it's been recorded in a hall, cathedral, tunnel, etc)

I have used the sound effects not only for records, but also for digital recordings. After sending them through Cleaning Lab, they sound much clearer and fresher than before. Typically I export the songs that I clean to MP3 format, at 160 kbit/s or higher, and set the option to "high quality," (this is done on the "export audio" window, by clicking "format settings") to get the crispest sound.

Okay, now for the negatives. It won't burn on my CD burner. It just won't recognize external CD-RW units. It will recognize most internal ones though. I also noticed that using the acoustics simulator often causes a cracking sound to appear on the recording because when adding its effects, it makes the music much louder. Also, in order to export your cleaned recordings to MP3 format, you must pay for an upgrade (wavs, MPEGS, WMA files are free). I paid about 15 US dollars. Finally, the help files are sometimes not translated too well from their German originals.

I haven't used every recording feature. Usually I record each song individually using the audio-in jack. If you record this way (from the headphone jack on your stereo to your computer line-in jack), you will need a cheap cable. Magix periodically offers patches for products, so check their web site from time to time to ensure best performance.

Version 3.0 does not seem to me to offer a huge number of features over the previous version. The interface is slightly easier to navigate, and there are certainly more features and more cleaning/mastering options. Overall I am very impressed with 3.0, but not much more than the previous version. I have a lot of fun restoring old songs, and enhancing newer ones! I definitely suggest this product.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: audio cleaning lab
Review: most mp3 cleaning software you will find the limitation on converting too mp3 format is common, as I have a simular software on my computer. the customers purchasing mp3 software need to get a convertion software first, can be found on a shareware file site.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Magix should be embarassed by this scam...
Review: Oh how I wish I'd checked with Amazon.com before I bought this...

... Despite all of the references to MP3 on the box, the software will not let you encode more than 20 MP3 files without forcing you to pay the manufacturer for an upgrade. Of course you aren't told this until you after it's installed and you read the on-line help.

...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works Great! Probably the best software for this purpose.
Review: This works as advertised. I had tried the product that came with Easy CD creator and was really disappointed. All of the scratches and clicks were easily removed from old vinyl recordings with Audio Cleaning Lab without losing any noticeable quality from the recording. Numerous features as described for enhancing the quality of the recording. I would recommend the full version (carried by Amazon) rather than the e version, downloadable at Magix web site, since the e version doesn't include their "wizards" and some other useful features that the boxed version contains. Great product!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works Great! Probably the best software for this purpose.
Review: To go into great detail, about how this product works, would take up a lot of space, and time. Besides you would have to hear the differnce for your selp. But anyway, this product does work. It doesn't "Digitally remaster" the songs, but it does take out tape hiss, and pops and crackles heard on records, in most cases it would be better to by the remastered cd, if it is inprint. Takes a little bit of time to master it, and all of the other effects, and etc.. that it has. But it is worth the money. Good editing tool to cut songs, splice together, or fade in or out. You can als raise or lower the volume of the songs to match the other songs on your cd. Some of theses can be done by you or the program. There are many other uses that this program can do. WORTH THE MONEY, and one of the better music programs out.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: WORTH LEARNING
Review: To go into great detail, about how this product works, would take up a lot of space, and time. Besides you would have to hear the differnce for your selp. But anyway, this product does work. It doesn't "Digitally remaster" the songs, but it does take out tape hiss, and pops and crackles heard on records, in most cases it would be better to by the remastered cd, if it is inprint. Takes a little bit of time to master it, and all of the other effects, and etc.. that it has. But it is worth the money. Good editing tool to cut songs, splice together, or fade in or out. You can als raise or lower the volume of the songs to match the other songs on your cd. Some of theses can be done by you or the program. There are many other uses that this program can do. WORTH THE MONEY, and one of the better music programs out.


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