..Audio Restoration Plug Ins..

Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:15 pm

I was looking at getting some audio restoration plug in (ie:Waves Restoration Bundle) recommendations. I realise that there are many but for those of you that have used the Waves stuff how do you like them and would you recommend them over whats out there? Any opinions and suggestions on the Waves or other is greatly appreciated as I will be purchasing a bundle in the next few days. Thanks in advance.

Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 2:02 am

We have the Restoration bundle here. I haven't used anything better, or that much else at all in the way of noise reduction, but I find this is definately satisfactory.

We primarily use Xnoise for tape noise reduction. It is very worthwhile for plain old tape hiss / white noise. But you have to be very subtle and not be greedy with how much noise you are busting, or the high end starts to disappear, and you introduce artifacts akin to streaming audio or a poor mp3. For some reason I have had more luck with the default white noise profile than by shooting the noise into the plugin.

Xclick is pretty frigging incredible, but there are limits! The click has to be of a very quick duration. This means the small and medium pops you hear on good to fair condition vinyl get pretty gone. This has also worked on the clicks that can result from recording audio via a digital input while clocked to the internal crystal.

Xcrackle another pheneomenon, just turn it up and listen to the magic! The paper crumbling sound heard on older, worse condition vinyl (and, for some reason, dictaphone cassetes) is miraculously lifted away.

But apply as little as possible to get the results. Noise reduction is a big game of give and take. You have to decide how much sonic degradation (if any) is acceptable for the amount of NR you need / are getting.

Go ahead and practice some compromise. Your significant other will probably appreciate it !

Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 5:22 am

DUDE007 wrote:

Any opinions and suggestions on the Waves or other is greatly appreciated as I will be purchasing a bundle in the next few days.

I've got the Waves Restoration Bundle, and it's pretty good, but not amazing, from a mastering point of view... you can overdo it real easily.

You might try the demo, before you buy.

I know Waves has a new "Z noise" bundle that's supposed to be better.

Haven't tried it yet.

I recently demoed the Sony Oxford noise reduction plugs, not too bad.

There's always old reliable No-Noise for Sonic and now for Pro Tools.

If you want expensive, I hear the ReNOVAtor stuff is great.

Depends on what your gonna be using it for, tape noise or vinyl clicks or hum.

Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 6:54 am

I've never used WAVES, so I can't speak for what it can do. I'd recommend you check out Adobe Audition. It has (IMHO) very good noise reduction, hiss reduction, declicking tools, and awsome spectral editing tools. At $350 it's a bunch less than the WAVES bundle - a demo version is available on the Adobe web site. I also use Jeff Klein's ClickFix add-in for AA, which compliments the native tools quite nicely.
http://www.jdklein.com/clickfix/index.htm

Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 10:16 am

What do you want to accomplish is the first question.

For "noise/hiss" I never go to a restoration plug unless Ive tried Wave Q10, and C4 first.
Declicking, decrackling calls for a plug.
They all work a little differently from each other.
Cedar is the best by far.
Sonic NoNoise is a close second.
Sony, not too shabby.
Waves follows Sony.
The theres SoundsoapPro, which is the least expensive, but in the right hands is pretty decent.

Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:08 pm

I second the CEDAR-is-the best motion. I know a restoration guy that loves CEDAR.

Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:41 pm

Obviously CEDAR is the best, and most expensive option. But it sounds like to me that Dude007 is looking for a more affordable option for his audio arsenal.

Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 7:12 pm

I'm surprised no one mentioned the Algorithmix restoration suite.

Including reNOVAtor, it's admittedly pricey, (more than the others, but perhaps not as bad as CEDAR). The restoration tools are quite amazing (esp reNOVAtor) and their Mastering EQs (Red and Orange) are really fantastic, too. Worth looking into before you make your decision.

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 5:30 am

Well Im open to suggestions within reason or atleast what my bankroll allows me to be lol. Anyways, I am looking for the best bundle for hiss/noise and crackle removal. You should also know I am running a G5 dual 2.7 with pro tools Le and Logic 7.1 as my software soooooo I would like to stay within those platforms? Thanks for the heads up on everything so far.

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:04 pm

I do a lot of remastering of old reel transfers (cassette and LP as well) with a touch of SoundSoap (not pro) ussually does the trick, you just have to watch how far you push it, it can be over used, and sound like hell. Besides mostof those old recordings are supposed to have noise and hiss on em, thats what makes them good !

-gil

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:29 pm

AFAIK, the Algorithmix stuff is for PC, although reNOVAtor is now available as a plug for Pro Tools. (Smart move, that....)

Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:29 am

second vote for cedar.

but looking into a little more affordable plugs, i have also good, satisfactory results with the waves restauration bundle, if used appropriate and as mentioned not overdone, or wonders being expected.

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 12:09 pm

I use a combination of Waves restoration, Equium by Elemental Audio Systems (For notching out and harmonic parametric notching), and a Dolby Cat. 34A. I've heard amazing things done with the Cedar DNS 2000.

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:03 am

If anyone's looking for Cedar Tools "Retouch" I'm selling it here:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Cedar-Tools-for-Pro-Tools-PC-Audio-restoration-software_W0QQitemZ270039828498QQihZ017QQcategoryZ51346QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem [/url]

I won it in a magazine competition, but I can't use it as I'm a Mac user.

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