Re: [AV Media Matters] Eliminating machine noise on audio tapes

[riegle@svsu.edu]

Thanks so much.  I'll make the phone calls you suggested tomorrow.  Someone
somewhere in Michigan must have this stuff!

Moderators Note:
There are actually many vendors other then those that Jim Wheeler mentioned
that sell computer workstation based noise reduction. As one other poster
noted - Sonic Foundry is a system that supports several "plug in's"  for
various types of functionality.  Steinberg also uses plug in's to their
workstation products as does others - and there are now third parties
making audio plug in's.  This very much follows the Adobe Photoshop model
where the availability of plug in's allows the user a very wide level of
flexibility in choosing the particular tool(s) for any given.  Some of the
plug in's I have heard recently are pretty amazing.

There are also some systems that have a more specialized market in mind
that provide different types of filtering also - Diamond 32 is a product
that I use for forensic work that has yielded some very impressive results.
 Ceder (or is it Cedar - I always goof up their name) for many years has
offered another level of technology that many feel is the finest.  In
particular their de-noise and de-clicking technology is quite incredible.
These systems have been dedicated and not software based - although they do
run in real time - and have been very expensive.  Last year they started
making software plug-in's for other systems and I believe that Sadie has
Ceder noise reduction and no doubt many more will as well.

While the cost that Jim Wheeler mentions may apply for SOME software
systems, when considering the entire platform the cost is generally much
higher, and in many cases like Sonic Solutions and Ceder - much, much,
much, much higher

AND let us not forget the conventional digital and analog tools as well -
Art Shifrin has been known to make Dolby equipment do strange, unusual and
wonderful things - and I have had great success with Orban parametric
filtering - an oldie but a goodie.

Indeed - perhaps one thing to remember is that all these toys CAN be
capable of doing some incredible stuff - but they are also capable of doing
nothing - or worse - sometimes MUCH worse then the original - so the
abilities of the sound engineer are an extremely important element in the
solution of a problem like this.

jim

Jim Wheeler wrote:

>Rosalie
>
>Your audio engineer is probably using low-pass filtering to eliminate the
>high frequency noise.  That works sometimes but you appear to have a
very bad
>noise problem.  Coppola's movie "The Conversation" shows how Gene Hackman
>uses low-pass filtering to clear up a recorded conversation.  A great movie!
>
>There are two computer systems that are designed to reduce audio noise.  One
>is Sonic Solutions in San Rafael, CA with their "No Noise" system.  A
cheaper
>(but not as good) system is called DINR (Digital Intelligent Noise
Reduction)
>by Digidesign in Palo Alto, CA  650-842-7900.  Digidesign is owned by AVID.
>Both systems will be shown at NAB.
>
>I believe No Noise works on a PC and DINR works on a Power-Mac.  You can
>figure at least $2,000 for this kind of software/hardware so it is better to
>have a professional do it for you.  Call Sonic Solutions or Digidesign and
>ask who in your area owns their equipment.
>
>Jim Wheeler
>
>
>