Please recommend noise reducer plugin for Protools

[DC-Choppah]

I sometimes need to reduce the recorded hiss and noise from some tracks.

I have sounds that I pull of off cassette tapes and would like to remove the tape hiss before using in the DAW.

I also sometimes record something where I was not able to (or just forgot to) reduce the hum or hiss from something in the patch so the extra noise gets recorded.

I have been using the Audacity noise remover and that has worked great for me. You bring it the audio, find a piece of just noise to train Audacity and it removes the noise from the rest of the track.

But I would like to stay inside Protools to do this but have the same capability.

I have Waves Platinum but it has no noise reducer in my bundle.

I can use VST plugins too in Protools.

[James Perrett]

Izotope RX Elements is only $29 at the moment and includes Voice Denoise which might work although I use Spectral Denoise in the standard version which is the best noise reduction I've used (though I haven't used Cedar).

However, if you are happy with the noise reduction in Audacity (which was pretty basic last time I tried it) you may be happy with using ReaFIR which is available separately from Reaper in their Reaplugs package.

[Drew Stephenson]

I think Izotope RX Elements is on sale for $29 at the moment. The noise removal tool in that is pretty good I reckon - I use it a lot on the video stuff I do for work.

[Edit - beaten by the mods again!]

[CS70]

Must... resist...

[Drew Stephenson]

I wouldn't try, for $29 it's a steal. Especially if you ever have to work with stuff recorded and sent to you by other people...

[Ian Shaw]

Have a look at Accusonus.
https://accusonus.com/products/audio-repair/era-bundle-standard#noise-remover-anchor
One knob noise reducer that I've used very successfully before. Buy one, get one free atm.

[CS70]

I wouldn't try, for $29 it's a steal. Especially if you ever have to work with stuff recorded and sent to you by other people...

That's actually happening more and more in these coronavirus times.. gotta think..

[CS70]

I sometimes need to reduce the recorded hiss and noise from some tracks.

In understand Elements is likely better and right now costs less, but staying with Waves I've good results often with their X-Noise plug.

[James Perrett]

I sometimes need to reduce the recorded hiss and noise from some tracks.

In understand Elements is likely better and right now costs less, but staying with Waves I've good results often with their X-Noise plug.

The samples I've heard of X-Noise processing have been on a par with Audacity and ReaFIR which are easily beaten by Adobe Audition which, in turn, is beaten by RX when it comes to noise reduction.

[CS70]

I sometimes need to reduce the recorded hiss and noise from some tracks.

In understand Elements is likely better and right now costs less, but staying with Waves I've good results often with their X-Noise plug.

The samples I've heard of X-Noise processing have been on a par with Audacity and ReaFIR which are easily beaten by Adobe Audition which, in turn, is beaten by RX when it comes to noise reduction.

Yeah nothing to say about that - the stuff I've used with was generally not very noisy to start with. And I just looked and it's more expensive than Elements.. but sometimes with Waves you have a free plugin or two coupon code from past purchases..

[DC-Choppah]

One problem I have run into with the Audacity noise reducer is hopefully something that these others are better at? Please let me know.

Lets say I have the hum and hiss from say a guitar amp in the track. Steady, just always there.

And lets say the sound is a percussion piece, like a tambourine recorded in a live room so it has some reverb or was recorded with reverb applied.

What happens is that Audacity removes the noise. But when the tambourine reverberates, the reverb will stop abruptly as it tails off. My sense is that the reverb blends into the noise and gets deleted when it hits a threshold.

Some of the stuff I am pulling off old cassettes is great stuff but it's like that with reverb on it and noise at the same time.

[Tim Gillett]

One problem I have run into with the Audacity noise reducer is hopefully something that these others are better at? Please let me know.

Lets say I have the hum and hiss from say a guitar amp in the track. Steady, just always there.

And lets say the sound is a percussion piece, like a tambourine recorded in a live room so it has some reverb or was recorded with reverb applied.

What happens is that Audacity removes the noise. But when the tambourine reverberates, the reverb will stop abruptly as it tails off. My sense is that the reverb blends into the noise and gets deleted when it hits a threshold.

Some of the stuff I am pulling off old cassettes is great stuff but it's like that with reverb on it and noise at the same time.

Yes the denoiser acts on thresholds. Sound below the threshold is reduced or removed. For what else can the tool do? Just have a realistic expectation of the tool.

[DC-Choppah]

Ok, I got the Izotope RX Elements.

Learning how to use it.

The de-noiser sounds very good. But it changes the level of the output and you seem to have to manually adjust the make-up gain to get it to stay the same as it was originally?

[Tim Gillett]

Well if it there's a lot of noise and it's removed then of course the average level may go down. But maybe its also removing wanted music? There should be a check box to listen to "what has been removed".

[Zukan]

I use Spectral Denoise in the standard version which is the best noise reduction I've used (though I haven't used Cedar).

I second that James. Damn good sofwtare for silly money.

[DC-Choppah]

Well if it there's a lot of noise and it's removed then of course the average level may go down. But maybe its also removing wanted music? There should be a check box to listen to "what has been removed".

Thanks. Yes, the problem is just me learning how to use this. I have it now.

To use in a similar way to Audacity where you have a sample of the noise, you have to do the following:

Insert RX as an insert on the noisy track.
Take RX out of Adaptive mode. Adaptive mode will subtract the music itself and lower the level. That was a problem. Adaptive mode removes too much. It must think that my instruments are 'noisy'.

Then when you get to a place in the track with just the noise, hit LEARN. It turns blue. Then hit again to stop learning. Make sure you don't catch any of the real wanted sound in there. I was doing that too, so it was subtracting the sound.

The spectrum it shows you should be the spectrum of the noise, not the music.

Now play the whole track, keeping out of adaptive mode, and it will use that noise sample.
There is no reduction in level when you do it this way. Just the background noise is gone.

Wonderful!

This used to take me a long time going in and out of Audacity. Worth th $29 for sure!

What I like is I can automate the threshold and reduction throughout the clip. As instruments fade into reverb, you can ride the threshold to make it sound natural, but low noise at the same time.

[James Perrett]

Then when you get to a place in the track with just the noise, hit LEARN. It turns blue. Then hit again to stop learning. Make sure you don't catch any of the real wanted sound in there. I was doing that too, so it was subtracting the sound.

I tend to use the RX Editor and just highlight the section with only noise. That way you can adjust the start and end point to make sure that you are only sampling noise. Does Protools allow you to just play a short region? That would achieve the same thing.

On high quality settings I find the denoiser to be fairly processor hungry so I prefer to create a new denoised file in the RX Editor and replace the original with the denoised file in the timeline.

[Tim Gillett]

As I understand it, adaptive mode tries to respond to changing unwanted noise levels. But even unchanging unwanted noise such as a noisy cassette recording is problematic! Stay with it. Push it to its limits to see both the possibilities and the limitations of the tool.

[DC-Choppah]

I tend to use the RX Editor and just highlight the section with only noise.

Hmmm. What is this 'editor' you speak of?

I am not sure I have that in the RX essentials?

Oh I see it now. It is standalone, not inside Protools.

Ok I see, you can load your audio in there to work with it the clip there by itself.

[Zukan]

DC, do you mean RX Elements?

Have a read of this:
https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/rx-as- ... ditor.html

[James Perrett]

Oh I see it now. It is standalone, not inside Protools.

Ok I see, you can load your audio in there to work with it the clip there by itself.

Yes - it is an old habit from the days of using Adobe Audition where the restoration processing was all offline. However, I find it useful to keep both the processed and unprocessed audio in case I'm rich enough to afford Cedar in the future.

[DC-Choppah]

DC, do you mean RX Elements?

Have a read of this:
https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/rx-as- ... ditor.html

Yes, Elements. The $29 jobby.

Thanks for the link to the article. I do see now how to launch the RX editor, and yes it is in this Elements package. You get to the RX editor outside of Protools.

Playing with this more in a musical context, I am really getting to like using the De-Noise as an insert, and automating the controls by riding the threshold and noise reduction.

Basically when the noise is exposed, you increase the amount of noise reduction, and when the noise is buried, you ease off so it has less of an impact on the sound. I couldn't do that with Audacity.

In Protools, when you get the track the way you like, you just bus record the track to print it and it is mix ready. Or do an offline bounce of the track to go faster. I prefer to listen to while bus recording in real time to catch any issues.

[Guest]

I use Accusonus and it's good

[Guest]

Problem with plugin's people overlook the ones with bad graphics.
Some with bad simple graphics perform better than overstated and over graphically represented and advertised.
I think most people will agree Izotope is made for dummies and never fails to do lots of fixes very easily.
Steinberg Wavelab is not as easy or smooth sounding as the stuff Izotope had previously that came with the Sound Forge Mastering software. No one can own that version without the old Forge but it worked in a way that seemed it was too good. Like I was using it thinking how is it possible to be able to be this good. If you like that sort of lies on the audio tape vibe where everything is perfect and smooth go for it. Otherwise try and take a walk on the wild side.

[Sasha Kovzanovich]

I would certainly recommend you trying their plugins --> [link removed --Ed] .

Good reason to try it is because they have free trial for all their plugins!