pop and click filters

Rockvirgo...The Mute function performed by a musician, although it may sound abrupt, is too slow to be called a "transient". The fact is that the "play it backwards" approach to click elimination does work.

I suppose that some sort of electronic mute could be used that would chop the waveform off as sharply as a scratch in the LP.

And...the electronic mute would have to be something done by the recording engineer, at his console, not by the musician. Even if an electronic instrument's output were chopped off, the sound would linger on in the hall.

Eld, good observation. Like the response to impulse tones some testers seem fond of, I suppose music or any sound created in air necessarily has certain reverb and decay components. Whether recording and playback captures, lessens or enhances those qualities for us back at the ranch makes interesting food for thought.

Your further responses are intriguing to say the least. I have also been told that scratches may have a certain regularity, i.e. every revolution for the duration of the scratch if perpendicular to the edge which also opens a possible avenue for a sophisticated software program to recognize and minimize. I am writing again here primarily to ask if any of you who wrote above or anyone who hasn't written yet knows of any "backwards and forwards" noise minimizing software and/or any other equally sophisticated software actually on the market or under development and where I might locate or at least who to contact. Thank you.

e_berns@yahoo.com...I don't consider myself a "hands-on" expert on this subject. I have heard lectures on how digital restoration of LPs works, and have heard some "before/after" playback that was astonishing. There are many techniques other than the "forwards/backwards" one...I picked that one as a good example of something that obviously cannot be done while the LP is playing.

Regarding software for your PC, when I looked into this I found a range of price from about $39.95 to $400. You probably get what you pay for. I don't know if the "forward/backwards" technique is included in any of the consumer software.