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Diamond Cut DC8 builds on the solid DC8 foundation and adds many new features to make it a "State of The Art" audio restoration system. We have again listened to our customers and added enhancements to many aspects of the program .

We have improved the click detection and replacement with the addition of our Big Click Filter, adding sophisticated spectral editing with our Direct Spectral Editing mode, added new audio enhancement filters and updated the CD burning capability with a full featured CD and DVD burner.

We have added direct support for many more file types like Broadcast Wave, Ogg Vorbis and FLAC files.

Here is a list of DC8s features:

Direct Spectral Editing (NEW)

Diamond Cuts new Direct Spectral Editing mode allows you to directly manipulate your music files in the frequency domain. This works like a paintbrush on the sound. You can attenuate (erase) or amplify (highlight) selected areas of a file to eliminate things like coughs or squeaks without affecting the entire frequency range. For example, you could highlight just the 2000-3000Hz area of one word of a vocal performance to bring out the articulation of that word.

You can also use the DSE mode to interpolate selected frequency ranges or the entire spectrum using our new Frequency Domain Interpolation algorithm. This interpolation technique allows you to do much longer replacement than previously possible.

Big Click Filter (NEW)

The Big Click filter automatically detects and repairs clicks lasting much longer than the standard click algorithm. Clicks lasting 100s of milliseconds can now be effectively found and repaired automatically. The big click filter uses our new spectral interpolation algorithm for a dramatically better repair than you ever thought possible.

Overtone Synthesizer (NEW)

The Overtone Synthesizer Filter generates an octave higher harmonics to add life to "dull" or limited bandwidth recordings. This effect is different and complementary to our VVA harmonic enhancer. See below for an example of what it can do:

Sub Harmonic Synthesizer (NEW)

The Sub Harmonic Synthesizer adds bass or sub-bass an octave below the exiting low frequencies. You can use it to add impact to almost any recording or to re-construct a lower octave that may have been missing in a restored original.

To see what can be done to an old cassette recording, listen to the following before and after recordings.

Paramount Organ and Piano Recital Before

Paramount Organ and Piano Recital After processing with the Overtone and Sub Harmonic Synths

DVD Burner (NEW)

DC8 Includes a DVD burner so you can burn CDs, DVDs or Blu-Ray disks to backup your work. The data burner works with ISO9660 or Joliet file systems and can burn Track-At-Once or Disk-At-Once modes with single or multi session disks.

Continuous Noise Filter with artifact suppression

The Continuous Noise filter is used for getting rid of constant background noise such as hiss and surface noise.

Our new technology reduces the aliasing and artifacting that sometimes affects the quality of the sound when youre pushing the Continuous Noise Filter to its limits. As you increase the power and amount of filtering on a tough file, in the past, you could generate new noise called artifacting. This machine-like ghosting was quite annoying and well be very happy to see it showing up much less in our restorations. Artifact suppression mode helps you push the Continuous Noise Filter harder without yielding these disturbing results!

The CNF filter also features an adaptive mode, This intelligent filter adapts itself to the changing nature of the noise in your file. As it gets smarter, your noise disappears.

Skin System (NEW)

You can now change the overall appearance of DC8 to suite your mood or visual preference. We have included the ability to use the Windows Skins to change the style of the various screen elements that make up visual style. We have included a base set of styles and you can add your own.

DC Tune Library Database (Improved)

This is cool new feature that increases both the power of DC8 and the uses for the product. The Tune Library is a database view that now lets you store, audition, and catalog your entire collection...all within the familiar confines of DC8. You can build playlists, burn CDs, track every single audio file on your computer...without ever having to copy it to one folder! It supports MP3, WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis and your wave files all in the same environment and makes it easy to organize your entire portfolio of audio.

Best of all you can play all of your music through any of DC8s filters or effects without going into waveform editing mode. With DC8 you can now play, or shuffle playback all files thru the multifilter with a different preset for each tune.

Virtual Phono Preamp

(More Presets) This novel new approach to RIAA equalization offers more accuracy and better sound to any record type. The Virtual Phono Preamp works great in conjunction with our flat phono preamps and offers you the best possible approach and most accurate EQ ever developed for vinyl restoration. This powerful new approach also includes a 3-band EQ, gain adjustment, balance controls and a 30 Hz Rumble filter to make recording your files a breeze...no matter what setup you present to DC8.

The Multi-Filter with LIVE Feedthrough

You can select multiple different filters (up to 20) to apply to your audio in one filter pass. You can apply click and hiss removal to clean up your file and then, in that same session, add some reverb and equalization to enhance your final product. This is a great time saver because you can handle many tasks in one single pass through your audio.

You don’t need to necessarily have your audio recorded to the hard drive to take advantage of the numerous features of DC8. Live mode allows you to run dirty audio in the inputs of your sound card, set up your numerous filters on the screen and have cleaned audio flow out the output of your sound card in real time.

EZ Clean

One click noise reduction. Even the most inexperienced user can clean their treasured vinyl and tape recordings with one click of the mouse. DC 8 includes a powerful new automated system that seeks and destroys clicks, pops, hiss, hum and other disturbances common to older recordings.

Easy DeClick and DeCrackle(Improved)

This is an "easy to use" click and pop noise reduction filter. I works great on all but the most difficult material and has been optimized to find the most common types of impulsive noises. With DC8 you can also remove Big Clicks in one pass with the Ez Declick filter.

For DC7, we improved just about every facet of our Impulse filters and youll notice enhancements down the line with every slider you move...but most importantly, weve added a new checkbox that makes special consideration for brass and strong vocal passages that used to confuse the filters and remove good audio. With this new enhancement, you can push the Impulse filters to new heights and achieve even better results over competing products.

Punch And Crunch

This cool feature is a four band dynamic expander (punch) and compressor (crunch). It is a great method for breathing new life back into recordings or mastering your own recordings to sound best on the radio. This has been enhanced in Version 7 with an additional band (4 instead of 3), variable frequency crossover points and symmetrical slope crossovers.

Variable Frequency Mode allows you to move around the crossover frequencies with your mouse and Symmetrical Third Order Crossovers improve the selectivity of the filter

This filter is also very effective and bringing out vocal from a noisy recording. Its dynamic nature make it easier to use than a traditional compressor/expander.

Narrow Crackle Filter

Many times during restoration, you come across tiny clicks that lie just beneath the surface of your good audio that are hard to eliminate with standard click removal techniques. We saw these lemons and made lemonade with our new Narrow Crackle Filter. After the Standard or Easy Impulse filters have done their jobs, a new step will be the Narrow Crackle Filter that cleans up the minute clicks you used to have to live with.

Stretch And Squish Redesign

For DC7 we upgraded our compression and expansion filter Now you can make major changes to both speed and pitch of your audio files with no discernable difference in quality. Where the old time compression expansion tool was effective with only about a 10% increase or decrease in speed, youll be amazed with what you can achieve using the new guy. Even if youve never used this tool before, you must try it...if nothing else but for the "giggle factor".

Spectrogram View

Used to be, you had to be a Forensics specialist and pay $1400 to get the Spectrogram view in your audio restoration. No more. The spectrogram view is sort of like an X-ray for sound. Sometimes stray clicks and pops can hide within the standard Time Domain View that youre used to seeing with virtually every audio editor. The Spectrogram lets you peer into the Frequency domain in a way youve never seen before. Those hidden clicks stick out like a sore thumb in the Spectrogram.

Full Support for popular file formats. (Improved)

DC8 has added full support for Ogg-Vorbis, FLAC and Broadcast wave to our existing support of Wav, WMA and MP3

CD Burner (Improved)

• Improved for DC8, we have a full featured Audio CD burner. Your can burn Disk-At-Once or Track-At-Once disks including support for CD Text writing. You can make CDs with our Easy to use Drag and Drop System our use the DC Tune Library.
• You can also import WLS, XML or M3U playlist formats into the DC Tunes Library.

EZ Enhancer

• One stop quick and easy enhancement plus tone controls . Even though this filter is easy to operate, dont be fooled. We have combined our best enhancement techniques into one filter with a bunch of presets and a very simple set of controls. This should be your first stop for putting the finishing touches on your restorations.
• Better yet, use this filter Live in the Multifilter while playing back Tunes from the DC Tune Library.

Virtual Valve Amp lifer Enhanced

• Many folks prefer the sound of tubes. The VVA is a tube simulator that allows you to re-create the sounds of many popular tube preamplifiers of the past.
• For DC7 we added a new High Noise Suppression mode to aid in enhancing noisy recording plus added New Pentode 6267-EF86 Tube and MOSFET 2SK-175 transistor types.
• Using the FAT BASS section of the Virtual Valve Amplifier, you can build up weak or inadequate bass lines in your favorite tunes and get those floors rattling again.

Dynamics Processor

• This is a complete compressor, expander and noise gate in one filter.
• We have Increased Range of Attack and Release for a much better Noise Gate

CD Ripper (Improved)

• Directly Convert your CDs to MP3, Ogg, FLAC or WAV files (New for DC8)
• Automatically look up CD information from the internet
• Optionally Rip All Files to One Track for easier for processing full CDs worth of material.
• Added flexible file naming for creating meaningful file names on your tracks.
• Added adjustable Rip speed limiting for better more accurate transfers.
• Automatically adds DC3V2 MP3 tags to ripped files.
• Sample Rate Conversion
• Change sample rate and bit depth on any file.

Make Waves

Create waveforms from sub bass to supersonic, you can create waveforms for effect or audio measurements with the "Make Waves" generator. Great for testing your audio system or your hearing.

New in DC8 is the ability to save and recall presets like all of our standard filters. We have added dozens of presets already.

Standard Filters (LP, HP, BP,Notch)

All the necessary tools to do what needs to be done. Low Pass, High Pass, BandPass, Median, Average IIR type filters in Butterworth and Chebyshev configurations and multiple slopes. These filters come in handy for removing rumble, DC, whistles and other steady noises that corrupt your recordings.

Record music with no time limits

Record from any input your system supports and Easily navigate to your sound cards mixer to adjust input levels on recording.

The wave file format has a 2 gigabyte limit. For those of you recording long radio shows or other events, this can be a real problem. Not with DC8 Though we cant fix the problem for Microsoft, we can find a nifty way of working around it. As we approach the limit, we simply stop the recording and open a second file. You get your whole recording...just split into several files.

Batch Editor with Auto Leveling

Got a bunch of files of varying volumes that youd like to make into a CD? No problem, just go into our Batch File editor and tell it to Auto Level these files. The Auto Leveler will raise the level or normalize all of the files so that your CD level will not fluctuate during playback.

10 and 20 Band Graphic EQs

The standard equalizer filter in both 10 and 20 bands. Another powerful and easy to use enhancement and noise reduction tool.

Reverb

Yes real reverb...

Echo Effect

The Echo Effect contains two independent delay lines, which can be used in a number of different modes providing it with a great deal of flexibility compared to the old analog systems. Because it performs its function utilizing digital techniques, it does not suffer from the noise and distortion buildup associated with the older analog systems.

DeClipper

Very often, files will become “clipped” if the input on the sound card is turned up too high and the sound card is overloaded. The results are usually distortion and a waveform that is “flattened out” on top. The new DeClipper helps remove this distortion and reform the waveforms.

Fast Multi-Tiered Editor

There are two modes of graphical editing, the Classic mode and the Fast Edit mode. The Fast Edit mode of operation allows instant editing with each level saved in the Fast Edit History Window, so instant undo over numerous levels is easy. Cut/Copy/Paste instantly…regardless of file length.

Output VU Meters

Two 100 segment VU meters can be displayed which will indicate the output of any filters that are being used. These meters indicate the level of the left and right channels and have both average and peak reading ballistics.

Direct X Support

Now you can use your favorite DirectX plug-ins within the DC8 operating system. You can even use them in the DC8 Multi-Filter.

Multi-Codec Sensor Support

DC8 automatically scans your system for Codecs and adjusts to whichever ones you have installed on your machine.

AVI Audio Support

Many of our customers wanted the ability to open an AVI file and extract the audio for editing. Many of our customers will now be happy! You can play an AVI within DC8, you can select an area and extract the audio.

The original Cut the Rope has been a rousing success. Known for its simple yet challenging gameplay and adorable animation style, the game was a hit with all age groups. It later spawned a sequel in the form of Cut the Rope: Experiments, which introduced new levels and gameplay mechanics.

Now, a year and a half after Experiments came out, developers ZeptoLab have released the third installment in the series, labelled Cut the Rope: Time Travel. The new game features the now familiar gameplay with some new twists, such as an extra character and not one but two candies in each level. Let’s see how this one performs.

Title	Cut the Rope: Time Travel
Developer	ZeptoLab
Platform	iOS	Android
Release Date	April 2013	April 2013
Content rating	4+	Everyone
Size	32.5MB / 71MB	Varies with device
Price	$0.99 / $2.99	Free (with ads) / $0.99

Gameplay

Cut the Rope: Time Travel borrows much from the previous two games. The main difference here is, however, there are two hungry monsters to feed. The premise is that the game’s protagonist Om Nom has gone back in time and comes across his ancestors, a different one in each level. So you now have two monsters in each level and two candies to feed to each of them. You have to feed them individually and you can’t just feed one monster both candies. Also, if you drop either or both the game ends.

Once you wrap your mind around this concept the rest of the game is classic Cut the Rope. There are several new mechanics, involving metal chains that can only be cut using blades, ability to pause time and freeze candy and other objects mid-air, bombs that explode when you drop candy on them and the resultant explosion can then be used to propel the candy to a desired point, flying candy that floats around and follows the motion of the other, regular candy and a large clock that can be used to move some of the objects on the screen around. My favorite, however, is the one where you have just one monster on the screen at a time and you have to use the candy to flick a switch on the screen for the other one to appear from behind a stone platform.
Other than these, Cut the Rope: Time Travel features some of the mechanics from two games, such as portals, rockets, bouncing platforms, etc. The old mechanics coupled with the new ones are enough to make the game feel fresh.

The problem is that Cut the Rope: Time Travel is too easy. The original game has some incredibly tough levels that will leave you scratching your head for hours or even days but Time Travel can be finished in an afternoon. As usual, you first have to figure out the way to deliver the candy to the monsters, which usually takes less than 30 seconds in most levels and after that it’s a matter of timing to execute the solution, which for veterans of the game shouldn’t be too difficult. You can blaze through most levels with consummate ease and only a handful of levels pose any real challenge. It doesn’t help that there are just 90 levels in the game, most of which can be completed in under a minute.

Graphics and Sound

Visually, Cut the Rope: Time Travel looks identical to the previous two games in the series. This is not exactly a bad thing as both of them are visually stunning and have some of the most wonderful character animations in a 2D game. Cut the Rope: Time Travel ups the ante by introducing a few more of those amusing and adorable animations and the new characters also look great. They do, however, behave identically to our usual Om Nom and the different ancestors bring no change to the gameplay, which is a disappointment.

The sound in the game is fine but nothing special. The background music is new but sounds similar to the one in the first game and not nearly as memorable. The sound effects for the characters are great, though, especially their mumbling when they fall asleep after you feed one of them.

Verdict

Cut the Rope: Time Travel is a good third installment in a series of very enjoyable games. The new game brings with it some new gameplay mechanics but maintains some of the best parts from the older games. Unfortunately, most people will find the game a bit too easy and miss some of the challenge from the first two games. This game is great for kids, who will find the gameplay and especially the visuals very enjoyable but adults won’t be as amused.
Rating: 7/10
Pros: Brings an interesting new twist to familiar gameplay, amazing visuals and character animations
Cons: Far too easy

Download
iOS: iPhone • iPad
Android: Free • Premium