Using Waves Vocal Bundle plugs to zap mouth clicks

[David MacNeill]

I'm trying to find a way to reduce or eliminate a "mouth click" sound in my audiobook post-production work. I've tried to narrow my Renaissance DeEsser and Renaissance Channel sidechains to the click's frequencies so I can lower their volume automatically with the compressor, but I can't seem to get them narrowed enough so that they don't take too much high end out of the whole track. All these clicks are of consistent volume and frequency, and all are free standing with clear space before and after them. Is there a way to automate their removal? Our audiobooks are 10 to 15 hours long, so manual editing is out of the question.

Also, is there a way to select a tiny piece of audio and determine its frequency range?

[bigbadwolf]

manual editing is out of the question.
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Manual editing is - unfortunately - the one and only reliable way ...
W.

[vocalvoodoo]

Waves X-Click may work, although I've never used it. But I think I have to agree with the above post. The only way I know of to do a thorough job is manually, which sucks even for small VO sessions. I could only imagine the pain of manually de-clicking an audio book session!

[David MacNeill]

I submitted my question to Waves Support and they asked for a sample section of the WAV with the clicks. They are working on finding a way to isolate and reduce the click using the Vocal Bundle plugs, which is all I currently own. This is my first experience with Waves support and I must say that I am pleased at their helpful and timely response to my query.

There's just got to be a way to filter them out. The audible ones are always surrounded by silence -- the rest are buried in the announcer's voice and aren't noticable at all. Since the click is so consistent and always isolated, it would be great to do a "search and replace" for that exact sound signature when it occurs in isolation. Does anyone know of an audio editing tool that can work such magic? if I have to fix this manually, I'll end up with carpal tunnel for sure -- yikes!

[bigbadwolf]

David,
how can you hear the clicks if they are not audible?

[Alex Rodriguez]

David,
how can you hear the clicks if they are not audible?

I beleive he's talking about the ones that are isolated, although I might add that there are lots of occassions when these clicks are noticeable along with the voice, at least with singers.
David, please let us know the response of your query from Waves or any other.

[comprodman]

This wont help now but for future projects.

I have recorded radio drama, books and hundreds of thousands of radio adverts, and VO mouth noise is always a pain in the butt, I have found one way of getting it to a mimimum. Alway have a pop sheild, and a big glass of cold water and a box of tissues, as a lot of the clicks are caused by drying saliva. I have found that if the person drinks plenty of water, mention to them you are getting a lot of mouth noise and play it back they will work with you.

[David MacNeill]

Okay, Waves Support got back to me with a partial solution. They recommended using the C1 Gate and sent me a preset which I will attach to this message if the system will allow me to.

The result is mixed. The clicks are reduced, but at the cost of introducing audible gating at the beginning of sentences. And incidentally, I do't own C1 Gate, only the Vocal Bundel, so i asked them if this preset will work on the Renaissance Channel's gate.

Here's a quote from Waves Support:

"I do not believe that removing the frequencies will do the trick.
Since the clicks are much lower in volume then the speech I have used a gate.
I have used the C1 gate mono.
It does help.
I attached the preset that I used for the processed Sandra_50.wav.
I was only able to use it on the small segment you have sent.
You can use my preset as a starting point and change it if needed.
Please change the output gain if needed as well.

Run the plug in and hit load, choose open preset file.
Navigate to where ever you have put my preset and call it up."

[David MacNeill]

Can't find a way to upload this preset -- anybody know how to do this? I'd really like to share this with you all. It's only 4K.

[David MacNeill]

Just heard back from Waves again. The've created a preset for my Renaissance Channel, which I would also like to share with you all -- if I can figure out how. Here's what they wrote:

"Please note that you also loose the breathings sound of the vocalist (there is no way around that) and there is slight change of the sound character since the Rchannel add its own feel."

I'll test it tonight and report.