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...
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.
And if you’re not careful, many times the software can and will add things that weren't there in the first place!
I know. I’ve been there. Long ago....
In the beginning there were high end (and expensive solutions):
Then along came more companies like these:
Finally in 2012 we have even more choice:
To name but a few! This list is constantly changing and growing.
So what is it that brings ‘tears to the ears’?
Here are four layers of the "noise onion":
What can they do?
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.
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?!
The process of removing the layers of noise requires patience.
It requires ears that are critically sharp and keenly focused!
It requires the right tools. Noise reduction software - like Waves, Voxengo, and Sonnox - have been part of my tool-set for quite a while now.
But most important, it requires knowing how to use them!
The noise reduction saga is not a hopeless one.
I know.
You can remove the false sounds.
You can reveal the long lost beauty of a track.
The truth: It can be made it a little less ugly - no tears needed!
To Listen To Samples
Click "Hear":
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