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unauthorizedrob
unauthorizedrob
Inspiring
October 31, 2018
Answered

Can Adaptive Noise Reduction ever be trusted?

  • October 31, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 833 views

I am making my way through 52 files/chapters of an audiobook, fixing rough patches, removing whistles, sibilance, and mouth noises. 

I have been doing this in the boutique fashion -- every single action is executed by me.  I have eschewed processing because of its tendency to take the warmth and human quality out of the voice.  On files with the Adaptive Noise Reduction applied, there is a maddening high-pitch whine under the dialogue, and some very bizarre, whooping sounds in place of certain words.

Wondering if there is a SAFE way to use the Adaptive Noise Reduction tool, adjusting until it cleans out just the bits I want out, and preserves the richness of the voice.

Wading through the user guide, and will share what I learn.  Does anybody have any guidance on this?

Thanks

rob

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer ryclark

    If you are running the latest CC 2019 v.12 of Audition the new DeNoise effect is actually much better than Adaptive NR, especially if used in small amounts.

    1 reply

    SteveG_AudioMasters_
    Community Expert
    SteveG_AudioMasters_Community Expert
    Community Expert
    October 31, 2018

    unauthorizedrob  wrote

    Wondering if there is a SAFE way to use the Adaptive Noise Reduction tool, adjusting until it cleans out just the bits I want out, and preserves the richness of the voice.

    My personal view about this is gloriously simple...

    NO!

    Because it's adaptive, it's inevitably unpredictable. It's primary purpose is to make a basic attempt to clean up dialogue from situations where the background is constantly changing, and that absolutely shouldn't be the case with a reading in a controlled environment. If you really want to use NR, then use the 'process' system, and only reduce the amount in small steps (3-5dB), having set the FFT size as high as it will go before taking a noise sample. You almost certainly won't need a small FFT setting, because there shouldn't be much LF noise needing a larger window to analyse. And it's the lower settings that tend to lead to the processing noise being more audible. On top of that, you'll probably find that once you've sampled the background from one file, it will be sufficiently similar to all the others, so you can save it an use it again. With care, you could even use it as part of a batch process...

      unauthorized
      unauthorized
      Inspiring
      November 1, 2018

      Thank you Steve.   I will not attempt it.  I am doing this all like an Old World Artisan, by hand. 

      Rob

      ryclark
      ryclarkCorrect answer
      Participating Frequently
      November 1, 2018

      If you are running the latest CC 2019 v.12 of Audition the new DeNoise effect is actually much better than Adaptive NR, especially if used in small amounts.

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