Xara Audio Cleaning Lab - 3.0 User Guide

Magix Audio Cleaning Lab 3.0

Review by Rob Campion

Product Information:

Audio Cleaning Lab by Magix Computer Products International Corp. MAGIX Entertainment is a
leading producer worldwide for Personal Rich Media-Applications for the PC and the Internet. The
company was founded in Munich in 1993 and maintains branch offices in Berlin, Dresden, Los Angeles,
London, Paris, Netherlands, Italy and Sweden. The products range from Personal Rich Media
applications with audiovisual content to complete interactive music and video productions.
Product costs: $39.95 at amazon.com and Best Buy

Introductory Summary:

Audio Cleaning Lab is a music editing program.

Requirements:

Microsoft Windows 95 to XP
Processor 166 MHZ or better
32 Meg memory, 64 Recommended
100 MB of Hard drive Space
Resolution 800x 600 with 16 bit high color
CD Rom

Installation:

Install went very well, with no adverse conditions. Uninstall is available.

Features:

Audio Cleaning Lab is as it would imply, software to manage audio files.
File formats supported are WMA,WAV,MP3
Very Affordable, competition prices range in the hundreds of dollars.

Documentation:

A manual consisting of 106 pages is inclusive. This is very thorough in all facets of the program.
There is a video to further enhance the manual. There is extensive coverage in the programs helpfile.

Product Support:

I needed no support to install nor in the use of the program.
Tech support is available for a charge. $3.00 for the first min & $1.50 for each minute thereafter.
429 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 120 Santa Monica, CA 90401 Phone: [phone] Fax:

Summary:
Technology is wonderful, providing it works. This is one program that does!
Can you imagine life in general without music? Take a moment to do this, there is so much music in our
lives that we seldom stop to realize this. Music is a universal language.

I was more than anxious to install and use this program. I was impressed by its simplicity. There are
three basic steps to creating a CD. But the simplicity of the program is nothing to sneer at. When I

1

started to explore after reading the manual I found many features found on programs costing hundreds of
dollars more. Here is a complete program that does it all. Let me give an example. Currently I have a
program to extract the CD tracks; I have a program to encode the tracks, then another program to do the
actual creation of the CD. I have to go through a lot of procedures to create a CD. Audio Cleaning lab
does the entire process.

I have several vinyl 33-RPM records, with good music on them. I thought about putting a record player
in the car. Only problem is that it skips when I hit a bump! Cassettes are ok. But as time passes the metal
oxide wears and the music fades to an audible hiss. Not to mention that one of my favorite tapes became
impaled on the drive spindle one day. CD’s don’t skip, fade or become wrapped up on a spindle. And
even the cheap grade will last for 25 years. So how do I preserve the music that I have grown to cherish?
How do I duplicate my music to a CD? Taking my records and tapes to a studio was more expensive
than a hospital visit. Trying to find what I already have on a CD proved extremely exasperating. I really
needed something to be able to do this. The solution to the dilemma; Audio Cleaning Lab. ACL will
allow me to copy the music from the tapes and the vinyl records using the input of my sound card to
make a 74 minute CD. I click on the record option in the main interface to start the recording. The music
is converted to a wav format on the fly and is stored to a directory of my choosing. I then load the songs
that I wish to place on the CD by clicking import. During the conversion, the program keeps tally on
how much space is left on the CD. On the top bar the song is displayed in a graphical format. As the
songs gather, there is a marker that is placed at the beginning and end of each song so there is a pause
and it is not one big song.

When the master track is completed {the whole CD} I can use a wizard to clean the pops, hiss and clicks
as well as balance the sound so that the volume is consistent. Also on the master track is the option to
make adjustments to each individual song. One of the nicer features is that the original song is kept and
not altered. Any changes are made to the copy and it is all done in real time. I copied a song done by
Van Morrison, and used some of the advanced features such as brilliance, equalizer and compressor. I
was really impressed. The song actually sounded better than what I had on tape.

You probably think if the program is so simple then why is there a 106 page manual? Features are the

answer. This program is full of them. To list all it does, I would need more space. But here is just a few.
Copies records, copies tapes, copies CDs, and cleans hiss, pop, clicks and noise. Fade in fadeout.
Surround sound and edit the song to remove unwanted portions. It also has a reverb, equalizer and 5
different analyzers. Time stretching and pitch can be adjusted from the tempo. If you are doing much or
a little with music, then this is one tool that should be in the box.

2