Adobe Audition noise reduction

[DaveN]

I am fairly new to Audition and have been experimenting with the same needledrop for days. The idea is to reduce the noise between tracks to near zero without actually generating silence. I am also trying to find the best settings for eliminating clicks and pops without destroying any of the 'air' in the recording.

While trying to solve problem #1, I discovered that you can select a bit of the file and save it as a 'noise reduction profile'. I did this with the 'silence' between two tracks. Then I applied noise reduction, using this pattern, to another track space. It worked great! Inter-track noise was inaudible without inserting silence. The transition from one track to another was much smoother and there was no surface noise. So far, so good.

Then I noticed that you could apply the same profile to the entire file. I am guessing that the theory is that the same surface noise exists on the entire record but is only audible during very quiet moments. I assume that applying the noise filter with the captured sample essentially 'subtracts' the same type of noise throughout the entire file. Do I have that right? Are there any drawbacks to doing this?

Finally, what are good settings for removing clicks and pops. I successfully killed one click by isolating it manually and then clicking 'remove single click'. But what settings would achieve the same thing for the file without destroying the sonics?

Thanks for the help.

David

[turniton1181]

Then I noticed that you could apply the same profile to the entire file. I am guessing that the theory is that the same surface noise exists on the entire record but is only audible during very quiet moments. I assume that applying the noise filter with the captured sample essentially 'subtracts' the same type of noise throughout the entire file. Do I have that right? Are there any drawbacks to doing this?

Theoretically, it will remove whatever frequencies fall into that profile without affecting the rest of the audio (especially at higher volumes). In my experience, however, this can induce some unwanted artifacts (highs and lows can take on some ugly shapes).

You should give it a try and if you don't like it, undo it. That's how I learned. :)

[BobbyS]

I have Adobe Audition and it's a fine editor. Unfortunately the noise reduction offered is pretty useless in my estimation. I've played around for ages with setting noise profiles and no matter how I set it, way too much actual music content is affected. For needle drops your best option is purchasing Click Repair which can be amazing at times.

http://wwwmaths.anu.edu.au/~briand/sound/

It's a cheap program ($35) which is very user friendly once you get the hang of it.

[DaveN]

I am listening to the NR'd file and I note that the quiet places are really quiet. The rest of the music does not seem to have noticeable suffered. I even cut the first part of a song from one file and the second part from the other. When mashed together, I couldn't tell the transition from the NR'd file to the original. (With music. Quiet passages are quite another story.)

[BobbyS]

I should mention that one thing the noise reduction in Audition is great for is removing 60 cycle hum.

[DaveN]

I have Adobe Audition and it's a fine editor. Unfortunately the noise reduction offered is pretty useless in my estimation. I've played around for ages with setting noise profiles and no matter how I set it, way too much actual music content is affected. For needle drops your best option is purchasing Click Repair which can be amazing at times.

http://wwwmaths.anu.edu.au/~briand/sound/

It's a cheap program ($35) which is very user friendly once you get the hang of it.

Do you have any guidance on best settings for this program? I used it against the same file with the stock settings and the results were unspeakable! Too many people like this program for it to be a total dog. Clearly, I did something wrong with it.

[mavisgold]

try clickfix
free trial http://www.jdklein.com/clickfix/

[BobbyS]

Well, no! But the stock setting are overkill according to most of the comments I've seen here. It depends on the disc and what kind of shape it's in. For a record in pretty nice shape I'd use very, very low settings - less than 10 for instance with no crackle. For a totally trashed album I would try anything. I recently declicked my totally abused mono Sgt. Pepper with click set at 50 and crackle set at 40. It came out sounding great - and I mean great! Play with it trying different settings. Also, it won't remove every click no matter what. You've got to zoom in with Audition and take care of that yourself. It's very easy to do and quite rewarding.

Bob



Do you have any guidance on best settings for this program? I used it against the same file with the stock settings and the results were unspeakable! Too many people like this program for it to be a total dog. Clearly, I did something wrong with it.

[Elk]

I am not familiar with Audition's NR so this may not be applicable, but many NR programs have a way to listen to what is being removed in real time. You can then adjust the settings to try to remove only the noise and not the music.

Unfortunately really good NR and click removal programs are dreadfully expensive and are often not even available on our PC/Mac based platforms. Thus, there are compromises.

I don't do many needle drops. However, I tend not to perform any noise reduction and just remove those few big pops (if any) that truly distract from the music. If the noise between tracks bothers, I quickly fade to zero at the end and fade up again just prior to the beginning of the next track. While the fades are near instantaneous I find they are less noticeable then dropping and raising the level to zero instantly.

[markshan]

Second ClickRepair. Amazing app.

[markshan]

Do you have any guidance on best settings for this program? I used it against the same file with the stock settings and the results were unspeakable!

Can you elaborate on "unspeakable"?

The way I use it is I start with the stock LP setting, then watch the wavform and red marks. If I see that it is marking rhythmic information and not just random info, I lower it and try again. Sometimes I do 8 or 10 "test runs" to get the right setting, but it is worth it.

It may seem like a lot of work, but if you've ever declicked something with a pencil tool, you know that this is really no work at all.

I hardly ever use the "decrackle" as I find it much more agressive than the declick. On something that is really beat I'll use low settings.

[markshan]

I should mention that one thing the noise reduction in Audition is great for is removing 60 cycle hum.

That is not a particularly challenging task. Even Soundsoap does that well. All you need is a notch filter set at 60hz.

[BobbyS]

Well, of course. Even analog equipment does that job quite well. I was just pointing out that I had found a use for Audition's noise reduction. My problem with Audition's noise reduction is the most unwelcome phase swirlieness it adds to most any job it does.

Bob


That is not a particularly challenging task. Even Soundsoap does that well. All you need is a notch filter set at 60hz.

[jdmack]

Which version of Audition are you using? Here are some things that work for me in AA 1.5.

First of all, let me repeat the url for ClickFix listed above:

http://www.jdklein.com/clickfix/

This plugin is very fast compared to the click pop eliminator built into AA, and juts as thorough if not more so. I generally use the "33 1/3 Normal" setting.

After I run Click Fix on the whole album, then I will zero in on the spaces between the songs, including a small bit of the fade out of the previous song.
On this segment, I will apply AA's auto click pop eliminator, using the "heavy" setting. This is a very aggressive crackle remover, and since there's no music in between the songs, it works very well.

At this point, you can capture a noise profile of the silence between two songs and use it *only* on the silent segments between the other songs. If you use it on the whole file, you will definitely hear artifacts on the high frequencies. I set the noise reduction level to 80%, the FFT to 8192, the "Reduce by" to 20 db, the precision factor to 9, and the smoothing amount, the transition width and the spectral decay all to 0. If I experimented with these settings further, I might get better results, but having already spent hours on this, I'm not inclined to do so. Others here may have a different opinion on these settings.

Here is an alternative method of noise reduction for the lazy restorer, such as myself. While looking at the silent section between two songs, switch the view to Spectral View. Zero in and select several milliseconds of the sound between 0 and 300 - 400 Hz. Then open up noise reduction, and capture the profile. You now have a noise profile of only the lowest frequencies, which include such things as turntable rumble. Use this noise profile on the whole file at 100% for a quick way to remove the majority of the bothersome noise. In my own experience, this does not adversely affect the low frequencies of the music.

J. D.

[jdmack]

That is not a particularly challenging task. Even Soundsoap does that well. All you need is a notch filter set at 60hz.

Not necessarily. Sometimes hum has not only a fundamental frequency of 60 Hz, but several harmonic frequencies as well. I find AA noise reduction to be a faster solution for this sort of hum than a series of notch filters.

J. D.

[Grant]

David, I won't comment on clicks, because there are a million ways and opinions on this. There are with NR too, but i'll comment.

I fade the songs using the envelope tool. Other times, I use a noise gate. I DO use NR, but it takes a certain amount of skill.

One hint: NEVER use default settings! They won't work. If you take noise profiles, make sure ALL you have is noise without music. Never use 100% settings, and try increasing the spectral rate to 85%.

[pbthal]

Do you have any guidance on best settings for this program? I used it against the same file with the stock settings and the results were unspeakable! Too many people like this program for it to be a total dog. Clearly, I did something wrong with it.

I use 22 for click and 14 for crackle

[bordin]

Sony Sound Forge seems to offer "better" NR features than Audition's.

You may get the trial version (SF 9c) at:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Editors-Recorders/Sound-Forge.shtml

One thing I learn is to always do NR on the original wave files, not on a compressed format.

[Jack Theakston]

In my humble opinion, if you're going to do any sort of noise reduction, do it manually, unless you don't care about fidelity. I know it is tempting to use filters (past something like an RIAA curve), but trust me, if you want to keep the sound of the record at all intact, stick to manual declicking. I've yet to find an auto-filter that I've ever been satisfied with.

For example, let's say you're doing some rock stuff. How does the filter know that a fast, high-range drum breat isn't some sort of pop or hiss? It doesn't, really, although in reality a drum beat usually lasts longer than a pop. The same applies to other noises within the audio that SHOULD be there. You might inadvertently erase it.

Of course, cleaning the source material is what saves you time on all of this. Give the record a good cleaning and make sure everything is set correctly. If you can get a clean recording to begin with, you'll end up saving trouble "sweeting" things.

[DaveN]

Thanks to everyone for the help!

I solved part of my problem by using clickrepair along with the setting suggestions above. I settled on Click = 10 and Crackle = 0. This seemed to fix the obvious non-music clicks without killing transients and creating distortions. (My original setting was Click = 50 and it destroyed the music.)

I also used the noise filter to create a smoother transition between tracks. The combined approach has left me a file that has the full content of the original file minus most of the vinyl artifacts.

BTW, the album is The Decemberists Five Songs/The Tain. This is a very dynamic record for a standard release. Getting the needledrop right has been quite the challenge.

[mermaidautopsy]

Considering what forum this is, I find it very surprising that people are seriously considering any NR at all. Using click and rumble filtering at the highest setting only on the silence between tracks will take care of the most obvious vinyl artifacts.

[OcdMan]

Audition, ClickRepair, ClickFix - they are all great. I continue to use Audition because I feel it gives me the most control over the end result. I don't know about anyone else but for some projects I prefer to remove all clicks and pops while retaining all of the actual musical transients. Unfortunately, none of the above declickers will let me do that perfectly.

What I need to do is a visual verification of the spectrum. First, I let Audition do its job and remove what it identifies as clicks and crackle based on my settings. Then, after a series of invert/pastes and copies, I create two new files: one file with the original unprocessed left channel information on one side and the "clicks only" on the other side, and another file with the original right channel on one side and the clicks/crackle on the other.

I then zoom in to about 1.5 seconds (using the spectral view) and scroll the entire length of the file (flipping one "page" at a time using the "Page Down" key). At that point, it's obvious to me what are actual clicks and what are musical transients. So I delete all the musical transients from the "clicks only" channel and then invert/paste that channel over the original untouched channel thereby removing all clicks while leaving the music fully intact. Finally I cut/paste the left/right channels back into one stereo file. It may sound like a lot of work but I'm fast enough now at identifying transients that I can often do it in better than real time (per channel).

[adhoc]

Maybe instead of fixing a problem with another problem, you guys might want to consider picking up 1. fine line styli and 2. clean your vinyl? Just a thought. :)

[markshan]

Thanks to everyone for the help!

I solved part of my problem by using clickrepair along with the setting suggestions above. I settled on Click = 10 and Crackle = 0. This seemed to fix the obvious non-music clicks without killing transients and creating distortions. (My original setting was Click = 50 and it destroyed the music.)

I also used the noise filter to create a smoother transition between tracks. The combined approach has left me a file that has the full content of the original file minus most of the vinyl artifacts.

BTW, the album is The Decemberists Five Songs/The Tain. This is a very dynamic record for a standard release. Getting the needledrop right has been quite the challenge.

Excellent! I still can't believe how much time can be saved with ClickRepair.

[markshan]

Considering what forum this is,

Am I supposed to deny what my ears and eyes tell me just because I am on Hoffman forums? This is my opinion, it doesn't change based on url.