Plug in to remove reverb to recorded dialogue on film

[Marco Mastrocola]

I need to remove or reduce the amount of natural reverb that has been recorded on dialogue to a short film. Clearly the microphone was too far from the source or the wrong type of microphone was used.

I see there are many plug ins that can do this, which one is best for dialogue recorded in a kitchen (with the annoying kitchen ambience)?

Ideally software that has a free trial so I can see which works best for me.

Thanks

[rockydennis]

The best way in theory would be to fire a starter pistol in your kitchen, and record that to generate an impulse response for the reverb of the kitchen. And then you could deconvolve that with your audio that you want to fix. I would actually try that if I were in your shoes just for the fun of it.

[Marco Mastrocola]

It wasn't recorded in my kitchen. I wasn't involved in the recording, so I really need a plug in that will reduce/eliminate the room sound.

[James Perrett]

I have had some success with RX's DeReverb - it helps with the longer tails but won't remove everything.

[RichardT]

I’ve used RX also, with mixed results.

[Mike Stranks]

Another for iZotope RX De-reverb. But use it with care and make full use of the 'Preview' option. It's also non-destructive so you can jump-back and try again if you decide you've over-egged it...

As it's now in Elements I think that would be money well-spent, bearing in mind the other features in the Elements bundle.

[Wonks]

There's a trial version of this De-reverb plug, so you could give that a go (never tried it at all myself) https://www.accentize.com/deroom-pro/ and the full Pro version isn't that expensive (if it works well). The standard version may be all you need though.

[tea for two]

This is quite intriguing to me as my phone camera app has people removal lol based on some basic AI.

So I looked up AI reverb removal and there's this with free trial
https://www.accentize.com/deroom/#:~:te ... components.
DeRoom

Blurb says, which I think prudent to take with a pinch of salt

"DeRoom is a Machine-Learning based audio plug-in to reduce or remove reverb and room resonances in real-time. An artificial neural network has been trained on many different room scenarios in order to be able to separate direct sound from reflection components. Reverb tails and echos are automatically detected and then precisely suppressed or if desired entirely removed."

[orange]

I've never had much luck with any of the dereverbing plugins - Izotope, Zynaptiq, Spectralayers, Sonible, SPL etc plus some others that I forget

You might get away with it on a sound that was part of a bigger mix, where any oddities might be masked - but in isolation, on movie dialog, I don't think you're going to get a satisfactory 'dry' sound.

If possible I'd just ADR.

[Peevy]

I’ve found Acon Digital’s Deverberate to be useful. You can try before you buy too.

https://acondigital.com/products/deverberate/

[Hugh Robjohns]

Do it like the pros...

ADR — dialogue replacement. Re-record the dialogue in a studio.

Of course, you'll also have to recreate all the cooking sounds through foley...



Perhaps more seriously, if the audience can see it's a kitchen they'll tolerate it sounding like a kitchen... provided the dialogue is intelligible. If it isn't the sound recordist wasn't doing his/her job properly.

As others have said, you can gently reduce some of the reverberation with RX, but don't expect miracles. A couple of gentle passes is more effective than one pass with heavy-handed settings.

[resistorman]

Expensive, but works very well:
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/st ... yers-pro-9

[Matt Houghton]

So I looked up AI reverb removal and there's this with free trial
https://www.accentize.com/deroom/#:~:te ... components.
DeRoom

ADR is the best approach! But I realise that's not always possible.

I've found the Accentize one really impressive. There's obviously a point after which it can't work miracles, but I compared with a few others mentioned here (Acon, RX, Accusonus...) and preferred this. I'll be checking out their Chameleon soon too — like the idea of it, just haven't found the time to play!

Also, if you're happy to let the AI do its own thing (ie to have much less control) then check out the Studio Sound feature in Descript. You can then set the wet/dry % if you want to make it less aggressive. And up to a certain number of minutes each month it's free.

[The Coastal Path]

I think even when you have a choice of using ADR it is at least partially a stylistic choice. I personally hate the ADR aesthetic and in the TV series and films I’ve made even when I tried it I ended up preferring the natural quality of poorly recorded sound. But as I say, that is primarily an aesthetic choice as I am not a fan of the traditional highly staged feel of most television and Hollywood movies.

There are some clever plug ins out there that can help with annoying spurious sound, and for a short film some artefacts can be lost in a mix. I think the only deal breaker is intelligibility of dialogue. Otherwise, hearing dialogue in the natural environment can often bring a verite to scenes that feel stilted if ADR is used - even with an experienced actor who is used to the process.

[tea for two]

Do it like the pros...
ADR — dialogue replacement. Re-record the dialogue in a studio.

ADR is the best approach! But I realise that's not always possible.

I think even when you have a choice of using ADR it is at least partially a stylistic choice. I personally hate the ADR aesthetic and in the TV series and films I’ve made even when I tried it I ended up preferring the natural quality of poorly recorded sound. But as I say, that is primarily an aesthetic choice as I am not a fan of the traditional highly staged feel of most television and Hollywood movies.

Otherwise, hearing dialogue in the natural environment can often bring a verite to scenes that feel stilted if ADR is used - even with an experienced actor who is used to the process.

This is it.

[Mike Stranks]

As some have referenced, like all enhancement techniques, ADR needs to be used sensitively and not just slapped over all the other sounds that give clues to location and space.

Watching a seemingly fairly high-budget film, with a cast that don't turn up for peanuts, on Nflix t'other night I was aware that some of the open-air location ADR was very poorly executed... excellent vocal quality, but no other location-context sounds - Foley or otherwise.

As I've commented before, even very lowly video-editors such as me need to be careful that in polishing the sound we don't cause a discord between the audio and visual clues.

[ronmac]

IMO, everyone who creates content should begin life as an editor. Only then will you know when it is best to "get another take".

[Tomás Mulcahy]

I need to remove or reduce the amount of natural reverb that has been recorded on dialogue to a short film. Clearly the microphone was too far from the source or the wrong type of microphone was used.

I see there are many plug ins that can do this, which one is best for dialogue recorded in a kitchen (with the annoying kitchen ambience)?

Ideally software that has a free trial so I can see which works best for me.

Thanks

Seems like you have reverb plus ambient sound to deal with? Izotope RX is your best bet. But as has been mentioned it's far from ideal. Maybe try the demo before going with ADR? As well as de-reverb (which as James said only really works with long RT60) the Dialogue Isolate module might help too. I imagine Dialogue Isolate followed by De-Reverb would be the best approach.

But ya, ADR and foley really.

[sonics]

I watch very little TV, but an AppleTV series I'm taking in has the most appalling dubbing. Sync issues abound, replacement words not matching those spoken by the actors, and bad or non-existent foley. Really low-quality stuff.

I have a tough dialogue job to work on soon, and will be trying a couple of the recommendations from this thread. I normally use RX; it'll be interesting to see if it can be beaten.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

I watch very little TV, but an AppleTV series I'm taking in has the most appalling dubbing. Sync issues abound, replacement words not matching those spoken by the actors, and bad or non-existent foley. Really low-quality stuff.

Is this something that's been dubbed into another language? It's usually awful for stuff translated to English. Seems to be much better for English to other languages. The voice actors are celebrities in their respective countries. We've had a few students in a row get the full time job of doing the foley for the Irish language TV station TG4, they do a great job. Excellent voice actors too. The Muppet Show was done particularly well!

[sonics]

Is this something that's been dubbed into another language?

These are American actors rerecording their own lines. I know they do capture the dialogue on the set, because I have heard it switching in and out (with a very big change in tone!). I don't know if it's due to directorial changes or engineering/editing. It's just annoyingly shoddy IMO.

[Tomás Mulcahy]