Presets and Settings

The presets that come with ClickFix work well for most signals. But don't be afraid to experiment with the settings to get the best results with your particular signal.

In ClickFix (full version), the setting that makes the most difference is Sensitivity. You may find that you get better results by increasing the Sensitivity setting. The presets may not set Sensitivity high enough for your particular signal.

Do no harm

(Full version only) To make sure you are not removing too much from the signal you're trying to clean up, turn on Keep Only Clicks and click the Preview button. This lets you hear what ClickFix will remove from the signal. If you hear musical content, you may need to decrease the Sensitivity setting, or increase the Musical Transient Rejection setting.

Using F3 to speed up single-click repair

If you prefer to use ClickFix to repair clicks individually, use Adobe Audition's F3 feature. Zoom in on a single click and use ClickFix's Force Fix feature to repair it. To repair more clicks, just select each click and press F3 ("repeat last command").

To undo a repair, press Ctrl-Z.

ClickFix will not change any part of the waveform outside your selection, so make sure you select the entire click plus a few samples on each side.

Set up a hot key for ClickFix

To make it easy to call up ClickFix, use the Favorites feature in Audition or Cool Edit to define a hot key combination for ClickFix. To do this, select Favorites / Edit Favorites. I use Ctrl-Shift-C.

Click and pop removal before or after Noise Reduction?

Users sometimes wonder whether to perform click removal before or after noise reduction. In most cases, you'll get better results by performing click removal first, then noise reduction. Clicks and pops can "confuse" the noise reduction process, so it is best to get rid of them first. The reverse is not generally true -- noise typically does not "confuse" ClickFix. 

However, with extremely dirty signals, you may get better results performing at least some noise reduction before using ClickFix. In these cases, it's best to experiment and see what works best.

Using Spectral View to locate clicks

If you hear a click you want to repair using Force Fix but can't locate it in the waveform, switch to Adobe Audition's Spectral Display view. To do this, zoom in on the portion of the waveform that contains the click, then select Spectral Display view from Adobe Audition's View menu. The click will show up as a narrow vertical line. You can even use ClickFix's Force Fix feature to repair the click while in Spectral Display view.

In Adobe Audition you can use the marquee and lasso selection tools while in Spectral Display view to limit detection and repair to certain frequency ranges.

Adding clicks to simulate the sound of a scratchy LP

If you want to make a recording sound like it came off a scratchy old LP, use ClickFix on a recording from an actual scratchy LP with Keep Only Clicks turned on. Then use Adobe Audition's Mix Paste feature to add those clicks and pops to a clean recording. ClickFix in reverse!

Eliminating "crackle" from LPs

(Full version only) After you remove the clicks from your waveform using one of the ClickFix presets, try an additional pass using the settings shown below. This works well to remove the light, barely audible "crackle" present in some signals, especially from some LPs.

If you like the results, add this as a new preset for future use. I call mine "LP, final polish".

Caution: These settings can remove musical content from some signals, which can result in distortion. To check for this, turn on Keep Only Clicks and click the Preview button to listen to the result. If you hear musical content, try decreasing the Sensitivity and/or Maximum Click Width settings.

Making the ClickFix toolbar button appear

(Does not apply to Audition 2.0 or 3.0) Select Toolbars from Adobe Audition's Options menu, then select Noise Reduction to display the Noise Reduction toolbar.  The button for ClickFix (full version) looks like this: and the button for ClickFix Free looks like this:

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