I like to use a transient designer in a lot of these situations; where I like the sound of the reverb as it is, but I want the tail to close out faster. Primarily on hats and cymbals. You can use any of them which have a hold, decay, or sustain parameter that you can adjust. It can clean up some in between the hits, but doesn't effect the actual hits themselves. This is a general comment, and not about the original audio problem above.

 

In the cases i can identify where exactly is the unwanted noise i use Izotope RX. I find it more capable than Spectralayers tbh. Pinpoint the culprit visually and use the lasso tool to grab it, then delete to remove it, perhaps then replace the remaining gap with a similar part from elsewhere where there is no noise to remedy the spectral cut. Its precision work alright and in case your cut leaves an audible gap you might need to exactly find what to replace it with prior to removing it. Undo function can go a long way hehe.
Thing is i hear no spike and i dl both audio files. Too old for high frequencies most likely hahaha. Hope you solve it soon.
Cheers.

 

Couldn't you go back to the source and ask the client to actually fix it in the mix? The alchemy that it's taking to problem solve the noise seems over the top although you seem to be in the positive in acquiring a new skill to try to do so. It harkens back to a story that I read as a kid about someone who mistakenly put salt into the King's morning coffee. The regent called for the greatest minds of his land, all who had created different methods of removing the salt, though none of which worked to satisfaction and in addition altered the taste of the brew. Then a concerned child who dearly loved the king posited, "Why don't you just make a fresh cup of coffee and be done with it?".

 

That is near perfect logic and on a logic level I totally agree. I could be wrong, but I believe it is a live digital recording, likely recorded with the reverb into the recording, which means it is basically a fried egg. You can season it with any number of things but you cannot go back and turn it into a boiled egg

 

Stevie, IMO you're bing a little hard with yourself. No one should reinvent the wheel, you're mastering and very probably got a good set of post production/fixing tools at your hand. If you can't figure out, spot the problem to the mixer. He or she can adress it and go straight to the source and solve that if it's a problem. They can't even find out its a problem. So always comunicate your struggles, because the end result will be satisfying for everyone.

But at the worst of the scenarios, where the mixer can hear the problem but can't solve it, but it annoys he/she as much as you. You should aware them that you can fix the problem but it has its costs related to fidelity and potential damages that can occour to the final result. So they can decide which end result is the best one for them.