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  #1  
Old 04-22-2008, 12:24 AM
dwdrmmr13 dwdrmmr13 is offline
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Default Need help with noise reduction

Hello all, I need some serious help reducing some major noise issues I am having.

I am working on my first post production project and I need to eliminate some background noise. I am working on some BTS interviews that were done in a room that has a very present air conditioner noise and I am having trouble using the BNR plug-in that comes with Pro Tools. Basically what is happening is I am selecting a small segment of just the noise floor and trying to apply that noise reduction to the whole portion of the audio track. I am getting a very un-desirable result that sounds very "under-watery" and unnatural. I've tried the 7 band EQ and I am not having much luck with that either even at narrow bandwidths. At some points I feel as if I have a great sound but when I process the audio the waveform looks as if there is nothing even there.

Any ideas as to how I can manage to take out as much background noise as possible without sacrificing too much of the vocal qualities?

Thanks a lot for the help in advance,

- Mike
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Old 04-22-2008, 01:34 AM
Hearfilm Hearfilm is offline
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Default Re: Need help with noise reduction

Yeah, I cant imagine anyone ever successfully used BNR for anything... it sux.


I get great results with Multidynamics 5. It has many useful features, but one of them is dynamic noise suppression.... basically it will turn down set octaves below a certain range, and then either leave them alone or increase and even compress above the threshold. Works similar to other dynamic noise reduction, by letting sound pass through it.... It wont work miracles, but its well worth its $150 price tag.... It will completely remove the room from good recordings, foley and adr, and clean production track, and it will bring down a lot of noise from bad tracks.

I believe there is working demo.
Start out with the "Noise Reduction" preset until you get familiar with it.
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  #3  
Old 04-22-2008, 01:46 AM
tj_davies tj_davies is offline
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Default Re: Need help with noise reduction

I love Izotope RX for noise reduction.

Hope it helps,
Timothy
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  #4  
Old 04-22-2008, 03:34 AM
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Branko Branko is offline
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Default Re: Need help with noise reduction

Quote:
...take out as much background noise as possible without sacrificing too much of the vocal qualities...
Whatever you use, do not overprocess. Use mild settings and repeat various times, if necessary. Generally, 6-10dB of NR is the maximum you can achieve with plugins. Forget BNR. Try Wave Arts MRNoise.
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  #5  
Old 04-22-2008, 03:37 AM
Kuba Pietrzak Kuba Pietrzak is offline
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Default Re: Need help with noise reduction

Before you start doing your mix, you need to establish what are media, in which a particular mix will be played. Is it Tv, internet or any other medium. Just have a look at a typical news interview. Most of them are recorded in absolutely non-sound-friendly environment like a corner of a street or busy mall. So it is perhaps about "sound convention". Now, what kind of monitors you use? Do you know them really well? (I mean can you predict how a particular mix will sound on-air?)
Where this interview takes place? Do you think, if there is a possibility to add some background sounds in order to mask any processes you do on your source signal?
After you answer all these questions, you should try to use some eq and multiband expanders to get rid of unwanted frequencies. A good denoiser should also help, I am also a big fun of RX - just try it.
And again, if there is an even little possibility to add any background sound/noise/whatever, just do it. You will bit the noise with its own weapon.
regards
Kuba
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Old 04-22-2008, 03:01 PM
s0und80y s0und80y is offline
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Default Re: Need help with noise reduction

I also thought BNR was rubbish until I played around with it a little.

BNR will work a little bit, you just have to be very selective in what frequency it is used over
If you have higher frequency hiss or lower rumble BNR can work.
You just have to be very selective... In BNR choose fit then pull down freq beween 500hz and 4khz I rarely use any more than -6 in noise reduction and also use a bit of smoothing.

All those funny underwater sounds seem to happen when using BNR in the 1-4k range so avoid using noise reduction in that range.

I still to this day use BNR.

Wavearts is the best noise reduction software I have used so far...
RX didn't cut for me, as you can't be selective in what freq the noise reduction is applied.
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  #7  
Old 04-22-2008, 03:30 PM
Noiz2 Noiz2 is offline
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Default Re: Need help with noise reduction

I would also give a vote of (mild) support for BNR. You have to use light passes say around -5, but I find that is true of pretty much everything I can afford to get my hands on. I also have SoundSoap2, got it before BNR, it is also useful sometimes. And RX. RX is the best of the ones I have used though I do like the added control BNR has. "Underwater" is the sound that comes to pretty much everyones mind when hearing over processed NR. Lighter passes should help a lot. The best advice I ever heard is to ask yourself after each pass "Is it better, or just different". Amazing how much that simplifies the decision process.
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  #8  
Old 04-22-2008, 04:20 PM
s0und80y s0und80y is offline
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Default Re: Need help with noise reduction

Quote:
The best advice I ever heard is to ask yourself after each pass "Is it better, or just different". Amazing how much that simplifies the decision process.
very good advice.

Also make sure you keep the original unprocessed track.. as when your mixing if your not happy with the file you can easily go back to the original or combine a bit of the noise reduced file with the original.
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Old 04-23-2008, 10:54 PM
Hearfilm Hearfilm is offline
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Default Re: Need help with noise reduction

Quote:
Quote:
The best advice I ever heard is to ask yourself after each pass "Is it better, or just different". Amazing how much that simplifies the decision process.
very good advice.

Also make sure you keep the original unprocessed track.. as when your mixing if your not happy with the file you can easily go back to the original or combine a bit of the noise reduced file with the original.
I automate all noise reduction.....
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  #10  
Old 04-24-2008, 05:54 AM
jacobfarron jacobfarron is offline
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Default Re: Need help with noise reduction

Another +1 for BNR, it just takes to time to learn to how use it. Some tips: Don't process the entire track at once. Split it up into smaller sections, because many times the room sound and level of the speaking voice will change as time progresses. As others have said, 2 or 3 light passes with about 4db reduction will yield better results. The trick here, is that after each pass... relearn the noise pattern (as it has changed since the NR) before the next pass. Smoothing, and frequency selection will take care of a lot of the chirping sound you hear.

Lately I've been using Audiosuite for all of my BNR... it seems every clip is so different that it takes much less time to create a new playlist than to automate.

Isptope RX is great too. I haven't used it for overall broadband NR, but the spectral repair is great for momentary RF hits, chirps, thuds, etc.
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