New Oxford Restoration Tools

[filmixer]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm always looking for things that'll save my butt. Can't wait to try 'em.

Overview:

The three plug-ins, DeClick, DeBuzz and DeNoise, encapsulate four fundamental processes in audio restoration. The DeClick plug-in combines DeClick and DeCrackle - unlike other de-clickers, it is able to remove large pops and clicks, right through to tiny crackles, all within one plug-in. The DeBuzz plug-in has two modes (‘strong’ and ‘weak’) to minimize signal damage and is able to automatically track any slow drift in the fundamental buzz frequency. While the DeNoise plug-in can automatically track noise in auto mode, it can also provide traditional Noise Fingerprint capture. There is also a Mid-Side button for de-noising FM broadcasts and a ‘Soft’ control for reducing artefacts while working with heavy noise or dialogue.

http://sonyplugins.com/

[poldo]

Hi filmixer,

I'm in line with your "always try a new solution to do the trick" way to go.
I think that I'll try this new gear in my next restoration session (before new year came) and I'll post my opinions...
Im intrested because of my long long X-Noise/X-Crackle/X-Click usage (more than 80 movies restored!) and Sonic No-Noise frustration..

AJP

[Branko]

Ok, I wasn't able to resist, downloaded the demo and tried it on my studio's "Restauration Torture Acid Test" (prepared by Tiago Silva) and carefuly listened to results.
Testing was done in our dubbing theatre, monitored on JBL 4670 speakers. I tried it on a piece transferred from damaged variable density sound negative of an old Portugese movie. The program is full of crackles, clicks, pops and thumps, extending well into the reel, over music, and dialogues. There is a strong buzz, due to poor printing and re-printing in the past 50 years, and the track suffers from loud hiss, due to wrong exposure values and processing. We used it to test almos everything that was available on the market, including Steinberg's declicker, Waves restoration pack, Sonic NoNoise and Digi's DINR.

First impression is that the Declicker is excellent. It does exactly what it claims and doesn't affect the program. I didn't have enough time to experiment various control settings, but defaults worked perfectly and increasing the value of Threshold and Sensitivity faders removed all the nasty clicks and pops.

DeBuzz does the job instantly, leaving some delay and resonance effects when extreme settings are applied.

DeNoise is a very soft processor and one can tell that great attention was paid to preserve the original signal quality as much as possible. We couldn't obtain high noise cancellation without some artifacts, while on moderate settings the results were very good. Adaptive noise detection is a fantastic feature, permitting plug'n'play operation. You don't need to take a "noise fingerprint" to process the audio, just play it through the plugin and tweak the controls for instant results. BTW, control/parameter names aren't very intuitive, but I'm sure we can learn what they mean.

Comparing these plugins to others we regularly use (we are restoring audio and picture for DVD releases of old portuguese films) the first conclusion is that the DeClicker is a great tool, followed by DeBuzz. For denoising, I still prefer Sonic NoNoise.

These were only the first impressions, as we were testing it for an hour only, but that was enough to understand that now we have new powerful tools.
Branko

[minister]

thanks for the report, branko! the detailed descriptions and reactions were very helpful. i am starting my search for noise reduction tools. even though i know it best to have several tools, i need to jump in on one thing somewhere. i mostly get camera noise hiss, low battery fluff and a/c units and the like. sometimes, the waves c1 c/g (in combo with eq and mutli dynamics) works great in the high end sizzily stuff on voices, but it looks like sonic would be a good start for me. then cedar and now sony!, when i can do those.

obrigado para a revisão!

[georgia]

hey, have you tried the system 6000 backdrop against nay of the other tools. I'm interested in your impression about the difference between the backdrop and the new sony plug-ins... FWIW, i'm rather unimpressed with the waves restoration bundle when it comes to cleaning up dialogue without leaving sonic artifacts....

cheers
georgia

[Branko]

Hi Georgia,
I've never used TC 6000, heard a lot of nice things about the box, though. I use regularly Cat 43 (Orange Box) and NoNoise and sometimes we rent a CEDAR DNS2000.
Obviously, all of these CAN produce artifacts when pushed to limit, but when applied carefully and moderately, much of the original sound can be preserved. This said, I can confirm (I tried the SONY DeNoise on some production dialog tracks today) that Sony does the job without artifacts. At the first moment, the results are not so dramatic, as with CEDAR, but very soon you begin to like the smooth characteristics of the plugin. For the begining, the de-hissing works perfectly - like Sonic NN and much better than CEDAR, which is too hard oh HF. In Hi and Lo Mids, nothing can beat the CEDAR DNS box, while on Lows, I still prefer the Dolby box, 43 or 430.
The NR and Smooth controls on Sony are very sensitive, and I wasn't able to get useful results with more than 6 dB of attenuation.
A very important feature is Adaptive mode, which is kinda "set and forget" way of working - noise fingerprint is being constantly updated automatically. This is very similar to Cat 430, except that Dolby box has separate Hi and Lo controls for additional flexibility.
As a conclusion, I'd say you can use these plugins safely, for some moderate de-noising, but never expect to get Cedar-like results, but the difference in quality and power is smaller than in price.
Branko

[georgia]

thanks.... I was wondering... I use the 6000 backdrop and waves restoration along with sideband compression and EQ to do the trick... but, i'm always looking for new ways to do better....

cheers
georgia

[surroundguy]

Thanks for the review Branko! Does anyone know of any "restoration torture tests" that can be downloaded off the net?

[Pirate Post]

I am working on a little movie right now that requires major noise reduction. I have the Waves, NoNoise & Sound Soap Pro Plug-ins. I downloaded the Sony noise reduction plugs to try (not impressed) and I still find that I like:

#1 - No Noise (sounds the best but a pain to use)
#2 - Waves Restoration (easy to use and works well but leaves a metallic residue)
#3 - Sound Soap Pro - Oops, I made a mistake with this one. Need to try it again.
#4 - WavesArts web page great 6 band RTAS Compressor/Expander that can clean up a tone of stuff.
#5 - Waves C4 (Like the WaveArts plug in but only 4 bands and not as adjustable.)

[vudoo]

I'm trying out the Sony bundle right now, and me too, i'm not that impressed with the noise reduction...have not tried the others yet.