Is DC6 too much product for me?

I'm so sorry I've been such a nuisance the last couple of days, but I have been away from the restoration process for a while (a year or so) and things change at such a fast pace in the computer world, I would like to a decent job on my restorations, but not perform brain surgery either.

Like some of you already know, I have THOUSANDS of 331/3 rpm. vinyl albums from my days as a disc jockey and I CAN'T spend countless hours on each album or project. Most of my vinyl is in pretty decent shape from the late 60's to whenever vinyl disappeared from "Record" stores. I have been using DC6, but frankly I don't use a tenth of the features of the product because of the speed I need to restore projects.

Is "Mentor" a viable alternative? I know I could DL it and try it, but I don't like to put things on my system and then have to remove them.

If this helps, about the only features I really use with DC6 are the impluse noise reduction (for clicks and pops), continuous noise filter (surface noise) and the chop into pieces feature for breaking album sides into "tracks". Oh, I use some of the other features, but not nearly as frequently as the ones stated above.

So, what I am really asking... Am I trying to swat a fly with a bazooka?

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Geebster

[Dan McDonald]

Hey Geebster -

Sounds like Mentor is perfect for you. It does the things you want to do. Since you already have DC6, you can use it on any major problems, but mentor should take care of most of your needs (from my experience with it).

Dan

[Geebster]

Thanks for the information, Dan. I'm going to give the demo a test drive and l'll let you know how it goes.

Geebster

[Dan McDonald]

Personally, I like having a lot of capabilities that will take me a while to learn how to use efficiently, because I'm always finding various pieces of audio with all sorts of problems. But in a situation where you want to get a lot transferred quickly, that sounds like a good solution.

Dan

[Geebster]

I must be like you Dan, because although I can see using "Mentor" would be a benefit to some, but for me DC6 is actually faster to use... and has more power capabilities.

I just tried "Mentor" on a very familiar track of mine and it didn't always let me do what I wanted it to do. That is no way a fault of the program, but mine. I am so used to the capabilities and interface of DC6 (or DCart32 or DC5 before 6) that "Mentor" actually slowed me down!

I never use the EZ clean feature in DC6 and I use the interpolate function a bunch for loud quick decay pops, so that for me at least DC6 and probably DC7 will be the way I can do the fastest restoration work.

Thanks a bunch for your input.
Geebster

[Dan McDonald]

That could be.. but check out the cleaning system. I think it's a couple of notches above DC6.

Dan

[Geebster]

Yeah, I will give it that. It does seem to do a bit better. Maybe I should just play with it a little more to get comfortable with the program.

The thing that drove me nuts was the editing out of the long pause at the beginning of an album side. It's so easy to mark, and cut it out on DC6; and I really didn't have too much sucess with that function with Mentor.

The cleaning capabilities do seem to be top notch with the product though.

I didn't learn DC6 the first time I used it either!

Geebster

[Dan McDonald]

Right - that is what I had the most trouble getting used to. When you get used to doing something one way, it's always trouble to get used to a different way to think about it. I think it's probably easy if you're not used to doing it with DC6

[Geebster]

I probably should have started this thread in the Mentor section... but, that's the way it goes.

Dan, I've played around with Mentor a little more and I do like it's sound removal system. Some of the other things I regularly do to my files (chop, move markers, etc) seem to be far easier on DC6, but I guess there is no free lunch. I could see myself using both programs quite nicely together.

Geebster