Remove "clicks" from audio files with GPU DeClicker

GPU DeClicker is a free program for Microsoft Windows systems to remove "clicks", "pops", "bit rots" and other types of noise from audio files.

Designed primarily for audio files recorded from vinyl disks, GPU DeClicker removes noise from any supported audio file you throw at it.

The current version of the program is listed as beta. While it works fine as it is, it comes without graphical user interface as this is still on the developer's to-do list.

Note: The application supports a GPU-mode which requires a CUDA compatible graphics card and driver. It falls back to CPU processing if a compatible video card is not detected.

GPU DeClicker review

GPU DeClicker is a command line program. Audio support is powered by libsndfile and limited to formats such as WAV, AIFC, PAF, FLAC or VOC but not common formats such as MP3 or AAC.

This means that you need to convert files that you have to a supported format to have them processed by GPU DeClicker.

Use of the program is straightforward. Use the command declicker.exe PathToAudioFile to process the selected audio file.

GPU DeClicker supports parameters that you may use to target specific noise types:

• -h K -- Defines the length of samples the program uses to calculate the prediction error rating for the current sample.  A larger sample length improves error detection and increases the processing time.
• -I N -- Prevents the replacement of sequences that are longer than N samples. Developer suggests to use N=8.
• -t M -- Sets the threshold for detecting bitrots and other noise types. Default is 3.
• -n -- Turns of GPU use if supported by the PC.
• -c O -- Sets the number of coefficients for noise detection. Default is 4. Quality increases with the number of coefficients but processing time increases as well.
• -r P -- Sets the number of coefficients for noise restoration. Default is 16.

You may use one or multiple parameters or none at all if you want the audio file to be processed using the default parameters.

Closing Words

GPU DeClicker is a specialized program. It is held back by the lack of support for popular audio formats and a missing graphical user interface. The latter is on the author's to-do list and things should improve once it is added to the program.

The program needs batch processing support for files. While you can create a batch script to process all audio files of a directory, using a GUI for that is a lot easier.

If you have audio files, e.g. vinyl disk recordings, you may want to try GPU DeClicker to correct recordings with "click" noises and other types of noise. (via gHacks)

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