Most audio cleanup tools are intimidating in the extreme, with complex interfaces, packed with technical jargon. If you don't have a degree in sound engineering, you might prefer a simpler approach to repairing noisy audio - and SoundSoap 2 could be ideal.

Open an audio file, for instance, and there's no large waveform display, no talk of filters, spectral analysis or EQ. Instead SoundSoap opts for a few sliders, dials and buttons, which for the most part have clear and obvious labels like Noise Reduction, Remove Click & Crackle, Remove Hum, Remove Rumble and so on.

In many cases, though, you won't even have to use these options. Just click the "Learn Noise" button and SoundSoap will figure out the noise in your audio, then apply the appropriate noise reduction settings entirely automatically. If this doesn't quite work for some reason then the results are easily tweaked; just drag the Click and Crackle slider, say, to apply extra cleaning power. And once you're done, the Enhance Slider replaces any missing high frequencies to leave you with a sparkling clean sound.

SoundSoap doesn't have the configurability of the more high-end audio repair tools, then, but there's more than enough cleanup power here for most purposes, and concentrating on the core basics only makes the program much easier to use (and cheaper, too). Conveniently, it's also available as a stand-alone PC and Mac application, and as Audio Units, RTAS/ AudioSuite and VST plug-ins, allowing you to use SoundSoap just about anywhere.

Please note, this 14-day trial version will fade your audio in and out periodically. You'll still have plenty of opportunity to hear how the repair tools affect your sound, but it won't be possible to save anything useful until you've purchased a SoundSoap licence.