Noise Reduction Software
The Ugly Truth

Noise Reduction Software will banish all unwanted noise forever!!

Well.....

...not quite.

The plain ugly truth is that there are still tracks that can’t be fully recovered. I'm talking about all the loud ugly clicks and crackles of 78 RPM discs, the hiss of tapes, the hum and buzz that can accompany them....

Yeah...

This Can Make You Cry!

The process of noise reduction has been likened to slowly peeling an onion. You carefully remove a layer of noise only to find out....

It’s been masking some uglier, even nastier noise!

So, like an onion, you start to work at peeling away these layers. All in the hopes of recovering a rare gem.

More Tears!

And if you’re not careful, many times the software can and will add things that weren't there in the first place!

De-clickers pushed too far can create more clicks.
Hiss reduction software, pushed too far, can create what’s affectionately known as space-monkeys. (Or birdies chirping).

I know. I’ve been there. Long ago....

Some History about Noise Reduction Software...

In the beginning there were high end (and expensive solutions):

NoNoise
Cedar

Then along came more companies like these:

Cube-Tec
Algorithmix
Waves
Voxengo

Finally in 2012 we have even more choice:

iZotope’s RX software.
Sonnox’ Restoration Bundle

To name but a few! This list is constantly changing and growing.

Back to the layers...

So what is it that brings ‘tears to the ears’?

Here are four layers of the "noise onion":

What can they do?

Hum can layer over and obscure everything if it’s nasty enough.
Clicks layer over the crackles.
Crackles can layer over hiss.

Our onion-layers analogy actually provides us with a pretty good tip. Because that's the order I generally use to best approach the noise problem.

Words of Explanation:

Hum is a low steady state tone and can be tackled quite simply.

Clicks make it hard for 'de-crackler's to pick out and remove crackles. So get rid of them!

Clicks can also falsely trigger the way dehiss programs work. This create more unwanted sounds. Remember those space monkeys? For that same reason, decrackling should come before dehissing. So get rid of the crackles.

Then deal with the hiss.

Simple. No?!