Of all the noise-reducing plug-in modules accessible under the Waves standard, the W43 might be one of the most expensive plugin modules for noise reduction but, since it is evaluated all the more sensibly, adding it to your studio toolbox is for all intents and purposes an easy decision. Waves All Plugins Bundle 9r10 987 Mb Waves offers TDM, RTAS, AudioUnit, and VST. The Waves Restoration VST bundle contains five noise reduction plug-ins, each with. The Z-Noise plug-in is an all-purpose noise reduction VST effect, while X-Noise is. Download one of the many free programs available (see Resources).
Video makers need to reduce noise too — and W43 lets them do it in time-honoured style.
One of the biggest problems faced by engineers when recording audio for video is ambient noise. Camera 'whine', air conditioning hum and distant traffic rumble are all exampes. One long‑standing hardware solution is the rare Dolby Cat43, which is a spin‑off of Dolby A noise-reduction technology (see 'The Dolby Cat43' box). Now Waves have set out to make the Cat43 solution a little more convenient and readily available by emulating its features and functions in software form. The Waves W43 supports up to 24-bit, 192kHz resolution and is compatible with both Mac OS and Windows PC platforms supporting TDM, RTAS, Audio Suite, VST and Audio Units formats. The plug‑in is available separately or as part of the current Mercury Bundle. It's the second tool from Waves aimed at controlling troublesome noise, and joins the more expensive and complicated WNS (Waves Noise Suppressor).
Noise Reduction Plugin Free
Analyze a section where the background noise is present and pull up the threshold fader above the input and slide up the reduction fader until the background noise is gone. 2020-08-31 08:58 AM EST.
How It Works
Just like Dolby's original Cat43, the W43 noise reduction plug‑in is very simple to operate, having only four fixed frequency‑band sliders, plus a master Threshold slider.
W43 isn't intended for broadband hiss removal; its primary function is the reduction of continuous, low‑level ambient sounds with the minimum of audible processing artifacts. Waves also state that the plug‑in introduces no additional latency, so dialogue sync will not be affected.
One of the biggest problems faced by engineers when recording audio for video is ambient noise. Camera 'whine', air conditioning hum and distant traffic rumble are all exampes. One long‑standing hardware solution is the rare Dolby Cat43, which is a spin‑off of Dolby A noise-reduction technology (see 'The Dolby Cat43' box). Now Waves have set out to make the Cat43 solution a little more convenient and readily available by emulating its features and functions in software form. The Waves W43 supports up to 24-bit, 192kHz resolution and is compatible with both Mac OS and Windows PC platforms supporting TDM, RTAS, Audio Suite, VST and Audio Units formats. The plug‑in is available separately or as part of the current Mercury Bundle. It's the second tool from Waves aimed at controlling troublesome noise, and joins the more expensive and complicated WNS (Waves Noise Suppressor).
Noise Reduction Plugin Free
Analyze a section where the background noise is present and pull up the threshold fader above the input and slide up the reduction fader until the background noise is gone. 2020-08-31 08:58 AM EST.
How It Works
Just like Dolby's original Cat43, the W43 noise reduction plug‑in is very simple to operate, having only four fixed frequency‑band sliders, plus a master Threshold slider.
W43 isn't intended for broadband hiss removal; its primary function is the reduction of continuous, low‑level ambient sounds with the minimum of audible processing artifacts. Waves also state that the plug‑in introduces no additional latency, so dialogue sync will not be affected.
Each of the four frequency-band sliders sets the amount of noise reduction applied to that band. The frequencies are separated into Low (30Hz to 80Hz), Low Mid (80Hz to 1kHz), High Mid (1kHz to 3kHz), and High (3kHz and above). It's recommended that W43 be inserted before other dynamics plug‑ins, such as compressors, which may otherwise further increase the level of noise. There's no metering or display on the interface, so the setup procedure is to start with the master Threshold control at zero (corresponding to ‑39dBFS), then pull down the slider or sliders that encompass the frequency range of the unwanted ambient noise.
The noise‑reduction process depends on the level of signal in each band, so when the signal exceeds the processing threshold, no gain reduction is applied. In other words, it is assumed that over a certain level the noise will be masked by the main audio. When the signal drops below each band's threshold, it is subjected to gain reduction. In order to minimise audible artifacts, specifically tonal changes, the fader should be pulled down only far enough to bring the ambient sounds down to an acceptable level. It is also possible to push the individual sliders above zero, again to mimic the original hardware, in which case some gain increase within that band is applied when the signal falls below the threshold. This provides a useful method of identifying which bands contain most of the ambient noise.
As with the original Dolby hardware unit, having all the faders at zero doesn't automatically signify zero processing, though a true flat setting is available as one of the factory presets. Also, while the Engage button enables and disables the noise‑reduction process, the processor still has some effect on the audio passing through when it's disabled. The conventional plug‑in bypass button in your DAW should be used for a truly clean bypass. For making A/B comparisons and undoing changes, as well as saving and loading presets, the standard Waves toolbar is included.
On Test
The W43 is much more simple to operate than the Waves Noise Supressor, and costs a lot less too!
While most noise-reduction plug‑ins take a bit of getting used to, this one is extremely simple to use. In most cases, you can simply leave the master Threshold control at zero and use just the four frequency sliders. Unlike typical multi‑band de‑noisers, there are no 'tinkly' or 'watery' processing artifacts, though if you find it necessary to pull down the High slider to any significant degree, there may be a little softening of high frequencies. This side‑effect is especially apparent at lower signal levels.
Personally, I would have liked to see a threshold display for each band, even if just a single 'LED' to show when the signal is above or below the user‑set threshold. Perhaps metering has been left out because it would mean a departure from the original Dolby hardware. As it is, you have to set the faders entirely by ear, so it's up to you to reach the best subjective compromise between residual noise and tonal change.
In a real‑life situation, many types of background noise can be significantly reduced without compromising the sound of dialogue to an unacceptable degree, though it is probably fair to say that if the noise falls into just one of the frequency bands, the process is more benign than if it straddles two or more bands. There may also be situations where material is best processed using a combination of W43 and a conventional broadband noise‑reduction plug‑in.
Conclusion
What you need from a noise‑reduction tool may vary from take to take; sometimes you may need to cut out a single percussive sound in the background, in which case spectral editing will yield the best results. On the other hand, broadband hiss, such as tape noise, responds best to multi-band techniques where each of several hundred bands is essentially an expander with its own threshold setting and where the thresholds are set either by taking a noise fingerprint (from a noise‑only section of the recording) or, in more sophisticated models, by a correlation process that attempts to identify noise in the presence of an audio signal. W43 is rather more straightforward, but has the benefit that it emulates a well‑known piece of hardware that's often used in the video industry, and is well suited to dealing with many of its noise problems.
Noise Reduction Plugin Mac
If you find that a recording suffers from a modest level of air‑conditioning hum or rumble from passing traffic, W43 provides a very fast and simple way of dealing with it, but as with all such devices, the result will be a compromise between degree of noise reduction and introduction of audio artifacts, which in this case often means some loss of high‑end detail and clarity.
W43 is clearly useful when treating dialogue for video, but may also be of benefit when cleaning up audio‑only location recordings, such as background sounds destined for Foley use, or sounds to be used in sample libraries. It's also a relatively affordable noise-reduction solution, especially considering the 40 percent discount on Waves products available at the time of going to press.
As long as you accept that all such easy‑to‑operate systems have their limitations, the W43 is a useful ally anytime you have to deal with recordings made outside the safe confines of the recording studio, especially where the noise problem isn't too severe or too broadband.
Alternatives
While there are numerous noise‑reduction plug‑ins around, the closest to this approach is probably a multi‑band expander. Waves also produce another, slightly more advanced plug‑in, the WNS Noise Suppressor. Rival noise‑reduction suites include Izotope RX and CEDAR's DNS software. BIAS SoundSoap Pro also provides a simple‑to‑operate alternative that is capable of dealing with broadband noise.
The Dolby Cat43
Dolby's first professional tape noise‑reduction system, Dolby A, was a four‑band, encode‑decode, compression‑expansion system. Compressing the audio signal before recording to tape allowed quieter sound elements to be raised well above the tape noise floor. Complementary expansion on replay restored signals to their rightful level, while simultaneously pushing the tape noise down to make it less audible. Dividing the audio spectrum into four independently processed bands enabled the system to apply the dynamic processing more effectively and with minimal audible side effects. In essence, it only provided compansion if the signals in each band were quiet enough to warrant it, relying on the principles of noise masking, and this was the key to its remarkable success.
Although intended to be used as a complementary encode‑decode system, it was discovered that Dolby A was also useful when used in decode‑only mode, in which case it served as a four‑band downward expander.
As the system divides the audio spectrum into four bands, each band effectively operates as a dynamic filter, increasing the attenuation as the signal gets quieter. This expansion effect could provide a useful amount of noise reduction in some situations, quieter sounds being reduced while louder sounds were left unaffected. Dolby capitalised on this by developing the Cat43 system, which became extremely popular in film and TV dubbing circles to clean up location dialogue soundtracks, helping to remove the unwanted noise of traffic rumble, fans, lighting and so on, while leaving the speech largely unscathed.
The Cat43 unit used standard Dolby A noise‑reduction cards — one for each channel being processed — in a bespoke rackmounting frame, which configured the cards for downward expansion. A dedicated remote-control unit linked to the frame carried five faders (much like you see on the Waves W43). The first adjusted the overall threshold level, to ensure that the bulk of the dialogue signal sat comfortably in the 'null zone', so that its level was unchanged. The other four faders controlled the amount of downward expansion applied by each of the four audio bands, allowing the user to decide how much to reduce the unwanted noises, and in which frequency regions.
The Cat43 was a noise-reduction system and not a noise-removal system — its abilities were limited by the modest amount of expansion available in the Dolby A card — but it proved immensely useful nonetheless. As a result, the Cat43 system has been used on thousands of movie and TV soundtracks over the years, to improve the quality of location dialogue.
When Dolby launched the far more sophisticated multi-band SR noise-reduction system to replace the ageing Dolby A, it also superseded Cat43 with Cat430 — the same basic idea, but using Dolby SR cards instead of Dolby A cards. The remote control was also simplified to just two faders, adjusting the high-band and low-band attenuation either side of the wanted speech band, plus a rotary master threshold adjuster.
Both the Cat43 and Cat430 systems were analogue, and while that meant zero processing delay, it also meant limited noise‑reduction capability. Alternative digital systems are now available working on similar basic principles, but with the advantage of more accurate and efficient digital signal processing. The CEDAR DNS range of noise‑reduction systems is amongst the most highly regarded. Hugh Robjohns
Pros
- Affordable.
- Easy to operate.
- Effective at reducing most types of consistent background noise.
- Emulates an industry‑standard hardware solution with which many engineers may be familiar.
Cons
- Doesn't suit all types of noise problem.
- All settings have to be tuned by ear, as there is no visual metering.
Summary
W43 provides a simple and generally benign method of processing to reduce many types of ambient noise contamination. It's a useful alternative to hardware, for general noise reduction where the noise is caused by predictable sources, such as air conditioning, machinery or camera motors. It isn't a cure‑all, but can be very effective where the noise contamination problem isn't too serious.
information
£190/£340 (native/TDM), including VAT.Sonic Distribution +44 (0)845 500 2500.
$300 (native); $600 (TDM)Waves +1 (0)865 909 9200
Test Spec
Apple Logic Pro 9
Apple Mac Pro, dual quad‑core Intel Xenon (2x2.8GHz) CPU, 10GB RAM, Mac OS 10.5.8.
Last Updated on September 9, 2020 by
Last Updated on September 9, 2020 by
If you deal with sound recordings on a daily basis, you are probably keen on the numerous issues that can come along with making them sound good. Whether the sound was recorded by a professional recordist or a complete novice, sometimes there are anomalies and noise problems that you simply can't get away from, even if you follow all the rules to getting great sound on set.
Noise reduction software is your saving grace. There are a few really solid tools out there, some you've certainly heard of, and others you may not have. Let's break down some of your best options.
Accusonus ERA (N/R/D) – Noise Reduction Magic
Accusonus is one of those companies that has gone largely unheard of in respects to audio repair, which is a shame as their offerings are affordable, easy to use, and capable of producing quick results. Here's a quick overview of their comprehensive ERA Bundles. The ERA Bundle Standard ($149) contains 4 single-knob plugins, each one solving a different audio problem:
● ERA Noise Remover
● ERA Reverb Remover
● ERA Plosive Remover
● ERA De-Esser
The Accusonus ERA Bundle Pro ($499) contains the 4 single-knob plugins as well as ERA D, a joint noise & reverb reduction plugin for post professionals.
You may be wondering about the steep upgrade when ERA-D does essentially the same things as the ERA Noise Remover and the ERA Reverb Remover. The secret here is that ERA-D does something that other tools don't: 2-channel intelligent noise reduction. This means you can feed in 2 different channels (boom and lav, for instance) and the 2 channels will inform each other of the content, making for a much cleaner denoising process with fewer artifacts. If this fits your situation, I'd say it's worth the small splurge for the top tier version.
The benefits of Accusonus' tools is that you can run them in real-time and get results quick. The one-knob style functionality makes them extremely simple for non-audio geniuses to use. It's definitely worth it for video editors, indie filmmakers or audio engineers who need a clean and quick solution.
Try it out for free and see for yourself.
iZotope RX (Standard/Advanced) – King of Audio Repair
RX is possibly the most well-known sound restoration software out today. Ever since version 1, iZotope has been pouring R&D into making this software unbeatable.
RX gives you a fully featured waveform and spectral editor with numerous ways to view and select your sound and a complete host of tools including:
- De-Noise
- De-Click
- De-Crackle
- De-Hum
- De-Clip
- De-Bleed (uses
- De-Plosive
- De-Ess (removes vocal sibilance with ease)
- De-Reverb
- De-Rustle
- De-Wind
- Interpolate
- Dialogue Isolate (algorithms shaped to lighten noise without introducing artifacts)
- Spectral De-Noise
- Voice De-Noise
- Mouth De-Click
- Deconstruct (the ability to filter and separate between tonal and broadband sounds)
- Ambience Match & Extraction (no room tone? no problem!)
- EQ Match
- Auto Leveler (time saver, helps you audio sound consistent without compression)
- Time & Pitch Manipulation
- Center Content Extraction
- Find Similar (uses machine learning to find sonic events in the recording that are similar to the one you've highlighted)
- Common Tools including: Gain, Phase, Normalize, Azimuth Correction, Panning, Resampling, signal Generator, etc
- Batch Processing (this is key if you have a lot of bad audio on a consistent basis)
Needless to say, iZotope's flagship software can warrant an entire blog series on its own. If you are an indie filmmaker, video editor, sound engineer or sound designer, this software surely has a handful of tools that will be immediately useful in your everyday work. The advanced version will cost you a pretty penny, but if you can afford the standard version, you still get most of the available tools, minus just a few awesome ones.
Bronica etrs serial numbers. Elements RX: $99
Standard RX: $299
Advanced RX: $999
Adobe Audition CC – The Editor's Go-To Sound Tool
Many video editors will be quite familiar with Audition, as it comes bundled with the Creative Cloud suite (meaning many of you already have this available to you without spending an additional dime). Adobe premiere 1.5 free full version crack.
Free Audio Noise Reduction Plugin
Audition is not just a noise reduction software, but a complete digital audio workstation, capable of multi-track editing, mixing, sound design, mastering and spectral audio editing. While the noise-reduction tools are relatively bare-bones compared to some other options, it likely has the tools you need the most:
- Click Removal
- Pop Removal
- Hum Removal
- Sound Removal (for odd, random sounds)
- Adaptive Noise Reduction (for constantly changing sounds, like an airplane fly-by)
- Hiss Removal
- Volume Leveling
- Pitch Correction
- Plus the entire suite of tools and plugins that Audition has to offer
These tools, along with their spectral editor (complete with photoshop-like selection tools), give you the ability to clean out most common sonic problems.
If you are a Premiere Pro editor on a budget, this is a no-brainer. Learn to use Audition as well as you do Premiere or After Effects, and you are golden. If you don't have the Adobe CC suite, but you want Audition, it'll cost you $20.99 per month.
Cedar Studio – Serious Audio Restoration
Xbox game app. Cedar is the grandfather of noise-reduction, the first major competitor in the industry, and what most of the professionals use when lives are on the line, like in the case of forensic investigations.
Cedar's tools are available in both software and hardware, with different tools for different purposes, such as live event noise-reduction where a zero-error and zero-latency solution is absolutely necessary, or in server setups where huge bulk processing must happen 100x faster than real-time to keep up with the huge amount of audio that needs to be processed.
Basic music recording software. But most studio professionals on this level would rely on Cedar Studio; their comprehensive set of software that works inside DAWs like Pro Tools. Of course, this bundle of tools will cost about $13,000, with each module costing no less than around $3,000 each. While many of the benefits of these tools can be found in cheaper software, the added top level of quality, speed and efficiency is a need reserved for a select few.
It's likely that if you need Cedar, you aren't reading this article, but it's good to have knowledge of the software by which all the others will be judged in terms of quality and reliability.
Waves (WNS/W43/NS1/X-Noise/Z-Noise) – Quick Audio Cleanup
If you are an audio engineer, you likely know all about Waves plugins. They've been around a long time and have been a staple in every major music and post house all over the world. In that time, they've released some pretty great noise reduction plugins, which I'll parse into 2 categories:
Intelligent:
- NS1
- W43
- WNS
Manual:
- X-Noise
- X-Hum
- X-Click
- X-Crackle
- Z-Noise
The manual plugins are their older suite of tools and have parametric features to dial in the threshold, band control, and more after you've taught the plugin what the noise print looks like.
The intelligent plugins are their newer tools that use advanced DSP logic to differentiate between signal and noise, allowing you to dial in the threshold and, in the case of W43 and WNS, adjust that threshold for multiple bands to dial it in a bit more.
The greatest part of their intelligent plugins is that they work really fast, with almost zero-latency. This means you can throw it on your audio track and not lose sync, which can be a huge time saver.
Of this toolset, W43 may have the best bang-for-the-buck, only costing $49 (depending on the day, as Waves is always having sales) and giving you a 4 band control. If you are in need of not only noise but click and hum removal, those plugins are priced around $89, or you can buy the entire intelligent set for $399.
SOUND FORGE Pro 14 – Formerly MAGIX Spectral Layers Pro
A completely unique tool, Magix (who bought this software from Sony) offers what some may call the ‘photoshop-for-audio'. The software gives you a spectral view of your audio, advanced selection, brush, clone (yes, clone stamp for audio!) and erase tools, and the ability to extract separate items into ‘layers' and process them individually.
While Sound Forge Pro gives extreme granularity to editing your audio that no other software really offers (even RX doesn't offer some of these features, like drawing in frequencies, pitch shifting a single selected harmonic, or spectral casting/molding), this tool hasn't quite caught on yet with professionals.
Of course, they also include tools for noise ‘fingerprinting', but you won't find the number of intelligent algorithms available for noise removal like you see in iZotope RX. Spectral Layers is all about manual control, and if you know how to view the spectrogram to find sound, and use the tools to manipulate it, you may be just as well off with this software.
For $399, Sound Forge Pro is an impressive tool that offers features unique in their own right and makes itself a valuable component in a sound editor's toolkit.
Antares SoundSoap – Legendary & Simple Sound Cleaner
Soundsoap from Antares (yes, the auto-tune company) has come a long way since it was owned by BIAS (pre-2012) and has made itself one of the simplest, fastest and cheapest options for noise reduction. Despite BIAS no longer being around, the genius behind BIAS' legendary tools is now CEO of Antares, so you can trust that the development of the software is in good hands.
With its most basic version starting at a one-time fee of $74.50 (none of that subscription nonsense), you get an intelligent noise reduction solution that will work in any professional audio or video editing software environment. While their $250 Soundsoap+ software offers some better algorithms and more fine-tuned control, for a down and dirty solution in the middle of a fast-paced video editing project, Soundsoap might be all you need.
Zynaptiq ‘Un-Series' Repair Tools – Unique Sound Fixes
If you are looking for a more specific set of repair tools, you might want to look into Zynaptiq. Since its inception, this company has been focused on making tools that nobody else has made before. Can you do powerpoint on a mac. For their audio repair products, they offer the following tools:
Un-Veil: learn and reduce the effects of natural reverb in recordings
Un-Chirp: remove ‘watery' artifacts caused by low bit-rate encoding and noise filtering
Un-Filter: ‘un-EQ' your audio from things like resonances, comb-filtering, roll-offs and more. Watch rambo 4 full movie.
If you don't know much about audio restoration, know that these tools are making strides towards capabilities previously unseen in the industry. While not perfect, they do work surprisingly well considering the mathematical engineering feats required to create tools like these. Worth checking out if you have the money. The bundle for all 3 will run you about $799.
Additional Noise Reduction Tools
If you haven't found anything in your price range, you're in luck! There are lots of noise reduction plugins available. Many are similar to ones we've listed, but just didn't make the cut, and are likely capable of doing what you need. Many others (usually bare-bones basic plugins) are also often included in software already, like Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, and Audacity (a free audio application).
Do your research and find what works best for you in your price range and what is compatible with your software and your workflow. Know the difference between what intelligent reduction, manual noise-print reduction, and gating have to offer your sound. And keep in mind, not all of these plugins will work equally as well. Use your ears and listen for when you're reducing too much noise. Nothing sounds worse than over-filtered audio files.
Remember, if you pick the right gear from the start, like low-noise microphones and recorders with low-noise preamps, your likelihood of needing noise-reduction will probably decrease a substantial amount. Check out our guides on buying a budget microphone or recorder to get you started.
Soundsnap
Chances are that if you work as an editor, sound designer or the like, you're in need of a great source for sound effects for your projects. Soundsnap has 300,000+ professional sound effects (and music loops) across every category and is used by companies like HBO, Pixar, Vice, and more. We make purchase options flexible, allowing you to buy a few at a time or to pay for an entire year of unlimited downloads for just $199.
