Audio Cleaning Lab 4 is no longer available on Amazon. Actually I have been able to fully install ACL 10. Acl 15 almost completely installs after it tries and tries to read the CD. By importing files from an image of my old computer, it finally works, but gives an error message on startup, that I can just dismiss. 15 almost has everything I need, but is probably satisfactory.

@clement5 It is available for me on Amazon. Maybe it's dependent on the country? Can you open this link?

https://amzn.eu/d/0i1JnSPv

Here is the link from Magix: https://dl03.magix.net/soundforgeaudiocleaninglab4_dlm_losdhr.exe You should be able to start a 30 days trial with that.

I started a 30 day trial of ACL 4. Ok it is organized to look like the familiar ACL, but does not have a feature I used a lot namely DirectX plugins. I could add a sharp high Q filter to get rid of one hum frequency, listen to it, then go on to another as I stack up the filters. 60HZ, 120 HZ... I have the filters, but the 32 bit version does not recognize them. The current price for ACL 4 is $99, but I might be able to get an upgrade price. I haven't looked to see if there is a similar VST filter. Also I used the Sony Noise Reduction that Magix used to support, which is the best pop and tick filter, although not perfect. The Magix filter was the next runner up.

I am fairly sure the problem is a scratch because I can see a small one that is radial, but slightly wide. If I could get another ACL 15 CD that works that might be ideal. My kludge to get it to work requires putting the CD into the drive before starting ACL 15 and then killing the error message "cannot save unlock key to harddrive!". There is apparently a hidden code that has to be written to the drive to allow it to startup seamlessly. I don't know where it is storing it so I can change permissions to allow it to be stored.

I forgot to mention the other thing that they took out of ACL 4. ACL had a very useful 2 track feature which helped in making exact replacements in sections of audio. They now claim that cannot be done and have a high feature audio editor. ** They promicuously remove features that people use and then provide others that are difficult to use and often do not work as well.

@clement5 Ok, I don't know if SFACL4 still has DX plugin compatibility. Likely not.

Can this tool help you?

https://craiganderton.org/how-to-use-dx-plug-ins-with-vst-only-daws/

https://www.xlutop.com/buzz/zip/dxshell_v1.0.5b.zip

ACL had a very useful 2 track feature which helped in making exact replacements in sections of audio. They now claim that cannot be done and have a high feature audio editor.

I don't know your workflow but SFACL4 supports up to 8 tracks (enable the buttons 1-8 on the right side of the audio track.

The current price for ACL 4 is $99, but I might be able to get an upgrade price.

Magix no longer sells these apps, so it's not easy or even impossible to get an upgrade. You might be able to get something from customer support at infoservice@magix.net but they are currently very hard to reach.

My kludge to get it to work requires putting the CD into the drive before starting ACL 15 and then killing the error message "cannot save unlock key to harddrive!". There is apparently a hidden code that has to be written to the drive to allow it to startup seamlessly. I don't know where it is storing it so I can change permissions to allow it to be stored.

I've looked at the old CD copy protection some years ago. If your version of ACL uses the same protection, it indeed copies some kind of driver to the hard drive and then creates other files in the program directory To my understanding, these things might not work on 64 Bit operating systems. I got error messages like "Please put the disc into the drive" on 64 Bit versions of Windows 7 or 10, but it worked 32 Bit. So, in case you try to install it on a 32 Bit Windows 10 operating system, it might run fine.

Maybe simply try it on a VMware virtual machine with a 32 Bit Windows.

I figured out by myself that it had 8 tracks which is far more than I need. ACL 15 worked on my previous upgraded Windows 11 pc. The previous pc sort of worked but became very flaky so my son who is a computer science engineer and I concluded the motherboard was having problems. I am a physicist who is a second level computer wizard because I do not have the first level books. I will hobble along with what I have for now. It might be possible to install my favored plugins as VST as the distribution claims to have a VST version, but bombs on VST installation. I have concluded that the included VST plugins with ACL4 are useless to me as they do not have any audio cleaning functions, just music production functions.

It is possible to sort of notch out hum and whistles with the sound cloner, but it doesn't have variable Q which makes it possible to adjust the notch precisely.

The rush to do everything as 64 bit has left behind a lot of 32 bit useful software. I have been told by a very good programmer that 32 bit is faster than the equivalent 64 programs. Some of my favorite video and audio processing plugins are only 32 bit, and my scanner driver is only 32 bit, but the scanner is top notch. I have considered doing some polishing of the ACL 15 distribution disc. I did it successfully with one of my son's game discs. Old technology can still work wonders such as baking open reel or cassette tapes that squeal. I have done that.

@clement5

Hi,

I have concluded that the included VST plugins with ACL4 are useless to me as they do not have any audio cleaning functions, just music production functions.

No so. It comes or came with SpectraLayers Elements and RX Elements, both of which are for audio cleaning. Unfortunately, SpectraLayers Elements, which works with ARA, doesn't work properly with SFACL4. See my bug video below. However, it works well as a standalone and is a step up from the spectral editor in SFACL4 (which is still one of the most useful features).

RX Elements is an audio repair and enhancement toolkit designed for content creators and musicians, with essential tools for noise reduction and audio restoration, including: De-click, De-clip, De-hum, De-reverb, and Voice Denoise, and Repair Assistant which analyzes audio issues and suggests fixes.

I upgraded to Spectralayers 12 Pro, full version, which has many amazing features for audio cleaning and unmixing, including separating out background noise, separating different voices (people), etc.

Since Audio Cleaning Lab is a Samplitude-based program, it went to Boris FX, but I suspect that Boris doesn't yet know this. A while back, Magix was still showing SFACL4 for sale on their site, but clicking on it when to the Boris site. I have posted on the Samplitude website, now under Boris about SFACL now belonging to Boris and requesting that they fix it and sell it. It would be helpful if those who like ACL would advise Boris of this.

Surprisingly, Magix is still selling Video Sound Cleaning Lab (VSCL), which is an old stripped down version of Audio Cleaning Lab. It doesn't do VST plugins at all that I can find. I just downloaded the trial. Even the lowly Music Editor 3 that comes with Magix video editors, VPX, VDL and PhotoStory has at least VST capability (not VST2 or 3). So, do not even bother with VSCL.

Here is the SFACL4 bugs video:

I started with ACL 10 a long time ago.

John CB

I started with ACL 3, then 10, then 15 and bought Sony Noise Reduction 2.0 through Magix. Sony Noise reduction has the best click and scratch remover, but the ACL version is probably second best. I sampled many programs and used their demos on the other programs. I gave away my ACL 3 distribution as I remember. Looking at various alternatives ACL 16 is basically the same as ACL 17, but 17 they have no plugins and only one track.

ACL could have been improved for doing restoration by just adding things like a plugin for hum/whistle removal and continue the line. Sound Forge Cleaning Lab 4 does not seem to be available for purchase any longer except on Ebay. Sound Forge 18 and 18 suite are available at much reduced upgrade price. Only the pricey suite has Noise Reduction 2.0. Since it is advertised as a heavy duty pro program, it will not attract someone who wants to fix up their old analog sources, which ACL was a perfect match. I notice they have a hum reducer for 50Hz which just shows the US market is second class for them. I have encountered audio tracks with 60,120,240 Hz hums which were easily tamed with the blueline hum filter in sequence using ACL15. The adjustments were perfect for knocking it down in audibility without cutting too wide into the music. I wonder if there is a good alternative?

The last time I switched PCs they were able to give me a serial number that worked for the Sony Noise Reduction, but of course it doesn't work for the newer slightly faster machine. I still have the old Windows 11 PC and it still may work, so I might go back to it just for difficult audio editing. It is flaky and experiences unexplainable slow downs. The newer machine has a better GPU card and an even better card might be possible. along with a more capable CPU. As a retiree I have a limit on what I can afford to spend, as I may want to afford good care later and not burden my children.

@clement5

Hi,

SFACL4 is available at BestBuy, at least in Canada, for 99$. Too expensive when you consider that Magix was almost giving this away a year ago for about 25$. On the BestBuy site, for SFACL4, the show images of Audio Studio. To be consistent, for SF Audio Studio, they show images of SFACL4. I sent them an email.

SFACL still has the same cleaning and mastering features as always. Magix just added in VST plugins from third parties.

As for Sound Forge itself, it has many problems that have been discussed in this forum. My forays into SF Pro 16, have almost always met with failure, usually a crash. The worst feature is that the cleaning and effects buttons on the main screen are destructive; they should not be. Non-destructive ones are in the FX chain. Now that the Vegas team has taken it back over, there may be a future for it.

John CB