Acoustica User Forums

I researched vinyl restoration programs for six months. I found SIA about two months ago, and since that time, I have tried to find a reason NOT to use it. I tried to download the free version of the software to see if SIA really worked. I had trouble downloading the software due to my Trend Micro not liking the program. Accoustica Greg gave me a link for the free software and it downloaded beautifully, without a hitch. i set some time aside this morning and decided to become familiar with SIA and REALLY find a reason not to use it! My equipment installed and worked beautifully. The monitor worked without a hitch. The absolutely ONLY problem I had was track markers. I had a dickens of a time with them. Come to find out that if I omitted track times when I documented my album, the track markers worked perfectly. I am the dullest tool in the shed when it comes to computers and such things, but SIA is great!! If I can make this program work, ANYBODY who is breathing can!! The first album I did was a scratchy Lawrence Welk album from 1959. The "Click and Pop" feature worked like magic. Sounds like "Dance Time" was recorded digitally rather than on an old scratchy, well used Decca record. I am going to try a cassette tape next........GREG

I tried recording a cassette tape with about 25 songs on it total (both sides). There was a couple of songs that the software did not identify the tracks correctly on. I had trouble trying to identify where the problem was and then even more trying to correct them, since instead of having ten or twelve tracks to work with, I had 25. I started over. I made one side of the cassette at a time into a file. LOTS easier for me to work with, at least until I become intimately familiar with SIA and what exactly to do when I mess up. I am VERY impressed. Could not be happier so far. This program does exactly what I need it to do, and is simple enough for me to do it!!!!! Thanks........GREG

I just used all my free version of SIA, so I guess its time to get out my credit card. A couple of other observations from my tinkering today. First, I have learned that the Level Wizard does not always set the volume high enough for the software to recognize and identify track. higher volume seems to lessen my problem with track markings. So i usually set the recording level a little higher than Level Wizard does. The cassette tapes I have been doing today contain phonograph records, many of them 78's that were recorded in the '70's when there was no way to eliminate noise. This is why I have been working one side at a time, since i have to use pop and click on them and then fix the tracks that the software cannot identify. Works well, so far. Thanks.........GREG

Yes the automatic splitting is dependant on the level of sound coming in. So if you have a live recording for example, there might not be "quiet" spots between songs because of crown noise and talking, so the split might not occur. On the opposite end, if you have a classical recording which has many quiet spots, the software could interpret these as split points. It's not always going to split perfectly, but the edit screen makes it easy for you to create your own split points or merge an unwanted split.