Audio cleaning applications?
 

Hi,

I have lots of s-vhs and dvcam tapes (and some old c-cassettes with dialogue) that are in need of some audio cleaning (or restoration) due to bad recording: Air conditioning and room noise, wind rumble, clicks from cameras, tape noise, hiss after 6-12dB applied gain...

I'm a video enthusiast and hobbyist and I need an application that helps me get the job done. However, I like to Be In Control and to make exact adjustments and such. Turning one knob only might just make me irritated. I want something that is reasonably easy to use in the begining but still gives reasonably good control when I feel I want to dive a bit deeper in the waves...

Budget about $500 (less is better, of course).

- I have heard of Magix Audio cleaning lab and Sound Soap and Audacity. Toys or tools? Which one would do the best job in cleaning audio? Should I forget those and get Sound Soap Pro or Audition or something else?

Feel a bit lost right now...

ps. It should integrate with an NLE with VST support and I want the audio track to stay in sync even after processing.

Ralf,

I have used Audition for NR, it has several filters to use all with adjustments.
I was able to remove all the noise, however being a novice at this (I am a lighting and camera guy) what was left over was not always useable.
Perhaps with more practice and learning what all those adjustments actually do it would turn out better.

There was a recent thread where Sonys Noise reduction 2.0 was discussed you might find of interest.
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=56253

Bill

I use Sound Soap. Have been for several years. When used with Peak, you can open the Movie file, edit the audio tracks (Normalize, etc) , Soap it, Freq it, and save it all back as a movie file.

Great. I'll take a look (listen?) at "Sound Soap Pro" and "Sony Noise reduction 2", then.

Has anyone used either of these apps on the 64bit O/S Win XP Pro x64? Audition, at least, works. Tried it. Unfortunately, I cannot locate a trial version of Sound Soap, so I need to ask about compatibility...

More NR software
 

Having done more searches for audio cleaning apps I've found these:

- Enhanced Audio DC6 at $200 (DC Live is too expensive: $1400)
- Sony noise reduction 2 at $200
- Algorithmix Sound Laundry 2.5 advanced at $300 (NoiseFree costs too much: $1100)
- Sound Soap pro at $500
- Waves audio restoration (too expensive, $1200)
- Cedar (too expensive)
- ... and Audition at $300, but it's not really a noise reduction software(?)

So, I have the choices of DC6, Sony noise reduction 2, Sound Laundry 2.5 and Sound Soap pro...

The question is which one is the most effective one given that I have some interest in tweaking settings for optimum result but can't spend a whole day cleaning a track (not regularly, at least)?

Sound Soap pro is interesting, but it costs much more than the others. Is it truly more capable/flexible or is it money wasted? Would Sound Laundry 2.5 utilizing the Algorithmix algorithms be a better buy, for example?

Does anyone know of any (novice friendly) online community specializing in noise reduction?

I use Sony's NR2 almost daily and it works as well as any such tool can, add to that their Clipped Peak Restoration tool and their Vinyl Restoration tools and I've managed to fix a whole host of audio nasties. Much to my surprise the deClicker fixed a problem caused by sample rate errors in one recent job.
NR2 is very quick to use, all you need to do is find a 'clean' sample of the noise and you're 90% done although there's a lot you can tweak.
However, these aren't standalone applications, I'd imagine they'll work in any app that supports DirectX plugs but not 100% certain as I run them under Sound Forge. I got all of them and SF as a special deal for under AUD 700.