August 19, 2025 • 20 mins
This week on The Pro Audio Suite, the team open up their plug-in folders and share their favourites — from free finds to trusty old processors and some surprising new AI tools.
Robbo kicks things off with TDR Nova, a free dynamic EQ/multiband compressor that’s perfect for VO artists working in home studios. Robert digs back into his bag of tricks with Waves C4/C6, still unbeatable for multiband control after all these years. George brings Acon Extract Dialog to the table, showing how modern AI can pull voices cleanly from noisy recordings. Along the way, we debate noise reduction chains, “less is more” processing, and why not every AI fix is the magic bullet people think it is.
If you’re looking for plug-ins that actually help (without emptying your wallet), this one’s for you.
🏷 Hashtags / Tags
voiceover, plugins, audio plugins, vst plugins, audio production, pro tools, audition, twisted wave, waves audio, izotope, acon digital, tokyo dawn records, tdr nova, waves c4, multiband compressor, de esser, noise reduction, clarity vx, source connect, home studio, podcast editing, pro audio suite
🙌 Credits
The Pro Audio Suite is proudly sponsored by TriBooth (use code TRIPAP200 for $200 off) and Austrian Audio — Making Passion Heard.
Recorded via Source Connect. Edited by Andrew Peters. Mixed by Robbo.
Tech support from George the Tech Whittam.
Got your own audio issues? 👉 JustAskRobbo.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Y'all ready to be history?
Get started.
Welcome.
Hi.
Hi.
Hi.
Hello everyone.
To the Pro Audio Suite.
These guys are professional.
They're motivated.
With Tech the VO stars.
George Whitten, founder of Source Elements.
Robert Marshall, international audio engineer.
Darren Robbo Robertson and Global Voice.
Andrew Peters, thanks to Triboo.
Austrian Audio, making passion heard.
(00:20):
Source Elements, George the Tech Whitten.
And Robbo and AP's international demos.
To find out more about us, check theproaudiosuite
.com.
Line up, man.
Here we go.
And welcome to another Pro Audio Suite.
Thanks to Austrian Audio, making passion heard.
And Tribooth.
Don't forget the code.
T-R-I-P-A-P 200.
(00:41):
That will get you 200 US dollars off
your Tribooth.
And big tip, they work.
So if you're looking for a booth, get
one.
And they work better than one you can
make yourself too.
Absolutely.
As I know from experience.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you can be bothered making one.
Now today we're going to talk about plug
-ins.
But I thought we'd start with Robbo.
(01:04):
What's your favourite plug-in, Robbo?
You're going to start with me?
Yeah.
Well, look, it's not my favourite.
But I'll talk about one that I came
across.
And just quickly, I started this little thing
with myself on a Friday afternoon.
Where I've set aside two hours in the
afternoon.
And I have to go and download a
plug-in I've never used before.
And it can be something I've heard about.
(01:26):
Or something I've just discovered on the web.
And I have to open up a session
from something that I've done this week.
And I have to find a way to
use it.
So it's kind of been this little.
It's really opened a whole bunch of things
for me.
Like creativity-wise and sort of learning about
stuff.
So look, this isn't a game-changing one.
But this is one that might change the
game for someone with a home studio.
A voiceover artist.
I discovered this thing.
(01:46):
It actually got recommended to me by Toby
Ricketts.
I'd never heard of it before.
But George knew of it.
It's called TDM Nova.
And it's just a free, George, basically multiband
compressor sort of thing.
Yeah, it's actually TDR, which stands for Tokyo
Dawn Records.
Yes.
I guess it's a record label or a
(02:07):
record production, music production company.
I don't know where the name came from.
But TDR Novas.
And it's, yeah, they have a free version.
It has a four-band, what I would
call a dynamic EQ.
Yeah, with a high-pass and low-pass
as well.
It's really useful.
It's very cool.
I've been playing around with it.
And if you're sort of a voiceover artist
(02:29):
with a home studio who, I don't know,
like we were talking about before, maybe there's
some room resonances or a bit of de
-essing or something like that that you want
to try to get rid of.
Yeah, it would actually be, from what I've
found from playing with it, more than adequate
to do the job.
And it's free.
So that's no game-changer.
But for this show, I reckon that's a
(02:50):
pretty good one.
Because everyone's out there looking for free stuff.
So TDR Novas.
TDR Nova, as in over the radio station
here in Sydney, yeah.
Yeah, I will give a plus one on
that too.
I use that one for all the folks
who do not have any good de-essers
and other tools that are kind of weak
in the toolbox.
(03:10):
It works as a plug-in in Audacity.
It works in Twisted Wave.
It works in everything.
And especially on Twisted Wave, there's no de
-essers that come with an Apple audio unit
plug-in suite.
You know, when you get an Apple computer,
it comes with a decent usable suite of
plug-ins, but it's missing a few things,
specifically a de-esser.
It's got a multiband.
(03:31):
It's got a multiband.
I have a really tough time getting a
really satisfactory result using the multiband.
I just haven't mastered using it for de
-essing and stuff.
Even though it's got a really nice looking
GUI for its multiband.
Yeah, it ain't bad.
Considering it's free and it comes on every
Mac.
Well, it might sound like shit, but at
least it looks good.
Yeah, that's the most important thing.
Yeah, that's more important.
(03:52):
But TDR does a surprisingly nice job.
It's not an easy plug-in.
You know, some plug-ins that you pay
a lot of money for, they're expensive because
they're highly tuned and specific and made to
be easy as humanly possible.
That's true.
So some plug-ins that are free, they
do it for free because either one, they're
super simplistic, or two, they're powerful, but they
(04:16):
have a big learning curve.
And TDR is one of those.
One thing I did miss, and maybe I
don't know whether I missed it or whether
it's just not there, but a solo on
each of the bands as you're going through
would be nice.
I don't believe it has.
Now, they have a pro version of the
plug-in.
That's how they monetize.
Ah, okay, there you go.
So it's got more bands, more functions, and
it may have that.
That may have that.
(04:36):
So if you like it that much, it
might be worth getting the pro version.
Ah, I've got enough EQs.
Yeah, I know, right?
But yeah, nice.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Very good, though.
There you go.
That's my tip.
Robert, you got one?
Yeah, I was thinking, like, what plug-in
am I going to say?
And one of the thoughts that went through
my head was, number one, I have a
lot of plug-ins, and I keep on
(04:56):
using for the last 30 years pretty much
a lot of the same plug-ins.
And I was thinking, like, there's all these
new plug-ins, but really whatever you're doing,
mixing music or whatnot, you basically need three
types of plug-ins to do most everything
you need.
You need a good EQ, a good compressor,
(05:18):
a delay, and a reverb.
And you can get most everything you need
to get done with those things.
And then I was thinking, what's that one
plug-in that I use a lot and
that's really useful?
And I've said it before, and I use
the crap out of Wave C4.
It's a multi-band compressor.
I use it like an EQ.
It can expand and compress.
(05:42):
So it's a multi-band processor, but I
will find myself often compressing the very high
end as a de-esser.
And I'll take the low end, and I'll
expand it to make someone sound more chesty
and big.
And then in the middle, you compress it,
and that gets it out of the way
of a lot of this stuff.
And it's just two things in one.
(06:03):
And I would agree that if you know
your way around a multi-band processor, a
multi-band dynamics processor, whatever you want to
call it, a multi-band compressor or a
dynamic EQ, the lines between these devices are
very blurred in a sense.
You can get a lot done with one
plug-in if you have a multi-band
device like that that's dynamics and deals with
(06:25):
the frequencies.
So I've been using for years the crap
out of Wave C4.
But I'd also agree that there's many.
To go way, way, way back in time,
if you remember, actually Antares, the people that
make Auto-Tune, they used to have a
plug-in called MDT, which was a multi...
Oh, wow.
Yeah, you are going back.
I don't know if you remember that one.
(06:46):
Way, way back in the day.
I mean, back in the sound designer two
days.
But that was one of the first.
And I used to use that a lot
for mastering.
So yeah, multi-band dynamic processors, they're super
useful.
And one device can do three things at
once if you know your way around it.
(07:06):
The other nice one is if you can
sidechain them too, so sidechain your voiceover to
the music bed or whatever and sort of
carve a nice little hole in there too
underneath your voiceover in the mix.
So Waves C6 lets you sidechain a particular
band.
Like one of the bands can be sidechained.
(07:27):
You would use that middle frequency range that
you were talking about in that case for
your mix.
Exactly, yep.
You always love it when the client picks
a music track with like a, I don't
know, is it a tenor saxophone that's in
that voiceover range or whatever, you know?
And you're sort of like, oh, fuck, all
these frequencies all in the same fucking place.
(07:48):
You know, it's like Jesus.
And it's mixed smack dab in the middle.
It's not even far out left and right.
Yeah, that's right.
It's not even on the sides.
Yeah, it's like, fuck!
You arsehole.
Is there a better track, do you reckon?
Maybe that's a good AI plug-in that
they should make, is this like D-Sax.
D-Sax.
Or like D-Kenny G.
(08:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
D-Kenny.
It's the D-Kenny plug-in.
Kenny G banger.
Kenny G banger.
That's what my wife wears on a Saturday
night.
Yeah, lucky you.
That's why you have so many kids.
(08:32):
You're using a multiband, or that's one you've
found?
And George?
Well, TDR, as I said, it's great.
And the one that I've been, I haven't
used nearly as extensively as I maybe should.
But I have recommended and set it up
for a few folks.
There's a lesser known company in a similar
vein to iZotope called Akon, A-C-O
(08:55):
-N.
They've been around, they stood the test of
time.
And, you know, their plug-ins are quite
nice, and they're doing their particular deal right
now, so it's not a bad time to
buy plug-ins.
It says summer sale now, up to 70
% off on their website.
The one that I've been enjoying and finding
easy to use, not overly expensive, and very
(09:16):
effective, is their Extract Dialog.
It's a weird name.
It doesn't sound like it'd be a good
noise reduction tool, but that's what it does.
It's really designed to take the dialog, the
voice, and pull it out of the crud.
And so it's a noise reduction tool.
But I also found, accidentally, whether this is
intended or not, but based on the description
(09:38):
of the plug-in, it clearly is.
It says, the revolutionary plug-in that magically
separates your dialog from various types of background
noise, including wind, rustle, traffic, hums, clicks, and
pops.
So it has this amazing ability to do
a lot of different jobs, including de-clicking.
So in one plug-in, you're doing a
(09:58):
lot of jobs, which can simplify your setup.
I would point out that it's more of
a voice extractor than a de-noiser.
And I think that's the case with a
lot of these new de-noise plug-ins,
where really they're designed to separate the signal
from what it considers noise.
But, for example, it wouldn't be useful if
(10:18):
you had noisy music and you wanted to
take the noise out of the music, because
that thing is very specific about taking noise
out of voice signals.
So a lot of these AI things are
not broad tools.
They're very, very specific as to what they
do.
This one deals with voice.
Same thing with waves clarity.
It doesn't just deal with voice, it deals
(10:40):
with spoken dialogue.
Spoken voice, right, exactly.
Yeah, dialogue more than singing, exactly.
And I kind of realized this this weekend,
I was doing some de-noising for someone's
audio book, and I was just noticing how
the AI noise reduction for the voice was
good, but it wasn't as good as going
(11:01):
back to the old, in this case, I
just went back to Z-Noise, and take
that fingerprint, and it was able to, a
little bit more destructively in imparting a sound,
but it could get in and rip the
noise out compared to just trying to eliminate
the noise in between passages and stuff.
(11:21):
I was like, wow, it was interesting, because
sometimes you have new tools, and then you
write off all your old tools, and you
don't think about those old tools.
But sometimes those old tools, they still do
what they did, and they're good.
That's what I was going to say, the
same thing, sometimes it's worth going back and
finding some really old plugins that you used
(11:41):
to love, and they've been put aside, and
then you play with them again and go,
wow.
So Clarity, exactly what I'm talking about, like
X-Noise is the one I used, which
is old, I mean, 20, maybe not 20,
but at least 15 years old.
Clarity is in the last three years, and
Clarity is amazing, but like I said, it
didn't really actually pull out as much noise
(12:03):
in the actual delivery of the voice.
Do you know what, I'm fast learning, because
I don't use a lot of noise reduction
day to day, but the more I'm using
it, the more I'm finding that, I don't
think there's one, like you might have one
go-to EQ, or one go-to compressor,
or something like that.
(12:24):
I don't think there is a one go
-to noise reduction for stuff, I find that
they all have their own idiosyncrasies, and all
that sort of stuff, and you've really got
to sort of go, yeah, okay, that's not
bad, but I wonder if I can do
better, and sort of pull down whatever you've
got in your library, and try them all
before you settle on one.
Absolutely, and even to the point that I
(12:45):
use, going back to it, I've often used
the C4 as a noise reduction plug-in,
because I'll use it as an expander, and
then you can expand out, and that way
you're not killing everything all at once.
You know that there's Brushfree, was it called?
Yeah, Brushfree.
Right, that's a noise reduction that uses multiband,
and this one, Brushfree, has many more bands.
(13:07):
Or Bertom denoiser, that's another one, Bertom denoiser.
I will use Bertom in sequence with a
standard expander.
I'll even use Clarity VX with an expander
after it, to catch little things that the
Clarity kind of missed.
I will cascade these, I will, yeah.
I'll usually multiband expand, and then go into
something that's more destructive to get the rest
(13:31):
of it, because with many plug-ins, if
you try to use them on their extremes,
the most noise reduction, it's going to start
showing its artifacts more.
But if each one is used a little
bit, you don't pick up on the artifacts.
Well, I was saying before we started recording
today, I've picked up a podcast for a
couple of ladies in Canada that I'm doing
for them, and they're basically just, they haven't
(13:54):
even got studios.
They're just recording in spare bedrooms and stuff,
and I've worked with them and got them
set up as best I can, but my
noise reduction chain for them is that I
use Clarity on both of them, but then
rather than having to overwork it on the
master bus, because I have a, well, not
a master bus, sorry, a dialogue bus, I'm
just using the NS1, but I'd like two
(14:17):
or three.
Which the NS1's an expander.
Exactly, it's just a clean up, and that
just cleans up whatever's left without overworking Clarity,
and it sounds great.
I'll tell you, anybody with an NS1, the
scaling of the control is really kind of
whacked out.
You know, it goes from 0 to 100.
Have you ever used it above 10?
No, I don't think so.
(14:38):
Like 10%, 10%.
Most of these things, little goes a long
way.
I would say one thing I've noticed in
general in the last two, three years since
a lot of these AI noise reduction things
have come out, people think that now noise
is not an issue, that AI can just
(14:58):
take care of it, and it's not true.
It is not harmless.
And even though they are less invasive than
old noise, people are so much more willing
to go, oh, just run it through some
AI and it'll just take out the noise.
It will make it sound fake and slightly
(15:18):
weird in this way that you can't put
your finger on it, but it's not, it's
just weird.
The free one from Adobe, the podcast one,
they have a noise reduction tool in there
that's obviously AI, and it does some extremely
bizarre things.
I mean, it literally takes your voice, makes
a model, and replaces it with the model.
(15:40):
Oh, wow.
So you end up with something that sounds
like you, but just a little off to
the left.
That's a long way around reinventing the wheel,
isn't it?
But you also wonder where your voice is
going.
Yeah, well, in doing so, it's getting rid
of all the noise.
It's supernatural capability.
Because it's remaking it.
(16:01):
Yeah, but it's just like, dude, to what
end?
And they think it's the fix for audio.
I heard the guy speak at PodFest.
He was there demonstrating it.
And I'm listening to the demonstration videos, and
I'm watching his presentation, and I'm listening to
his clips and going, this is not great.
(16:21):
You know, you guys think it's great, because
you built it.
But I'm listening to the audio, and I'm
going, it ain't great.
It is not the same as properly recorded
audio.
And here's my fear.
All of a sudden, just like if you
don't auto-tune your vocals, they don't sound
professional somehow.
Like in certain music contexts, like everything is
(16:41):
so auto-tuned out the other end that
it sounds terrible.
But for the right audience, it's like, that's
the sound of professional.
And I think that some of this ultra
-scrubbed clean AI noise-reduced, it's just fake
sounding.
It imparts the sound that you can't put
(17:02):
your finger on.
It's roboticized, dehumanized.
And this is pop music in a nutshell.
I will say, though, at the same time,
there's a pushback against all that among young
people, I've found.
And my daughter particularly.
And your daughter too, Robert, have great music
ears, so they hear these things.
But if it's overly fucked with, she doesn't
(17:25):
get into it that much.
I mean, it depends on the genre.
Some of it is just purely processed.
But she still loves...
Plastic music, yeah.
Traditionally produced, I wouldn't call it folk music,
but I would say traditionally produced music where
it's people playing instruments.
And so I think kids are going to,
honestly, there's going to be a little bit
(17:46):
of a pushback.
Like, how far are we going to go
with everything being fake?
I hope so.
Because the latest round of AI now is
not just how in music you double your
vocals and layer them, and the trick of
a really good performer is they're able to
sing the exact same thing so closely together
that you can barely tell that it's been
doubled and it gives it that thicker sound.
(18:07):
But unless you're a producer and a music
person, you don't really go, that's doubled.
You just think that sounds thick.
Ozzy is the king of that.
Yes.
But now there's just...
Or was.
Like, Waves has one, and it does it.
But again, it's like every time you pass
all this stuff through the AI machine, it's
like...
Something has lost.
It makes it plasticky fake.
(18:28):
Something has lost.
Yeah.
If you want to hear some amazing harmonies,
Google a video, it's John Farnham, who's like
a legendary Australian vocalist.
We call him The Voice here.
That's basically what we call him.
And two of his backing singers, who are
all equally amazingly talented, but it's Vinetta Fields
(18:51):
and Lindsay Field, and they do an a
cappella version, although there's a sympiano that comes
in later on, but basically an a cappella
version of Amazing Grace.
And it's back in the late 80s, early
90s AP, would it have been?
Yeah, somewhere like that.
Somewhere like that.
So there's no autotune, and they are just
fucking impeccable.
It is so good.
(19:13):
Yeah.
So good.
Yeah, it's true.
Yeah.
So do you believe in sound after processing?
I believe less is more sometimes.
Yeah, I think so too.
Look, yeah, less is more, and especially with
the noise reduction.
I don't think Robbie got that one.
Noise reduction?
Yeah.
Noise reduction wasn't invented to get rid of
(19:34):
barking dogs and noisy kids.
Don't assume.
It was invented to get rid of sound
on set and all that sort of shit,
like just camera noise and stuff.
So don't try and use it as a
magic marker or something.
If you're aware of a problem, fix it,
and don't assume that it can be just
magic wanded away.
What is it, this one?
(19:58):
Yeah.
Just have it go like this.
Gone.
Poof.
Oh, yeah.
Well, that was fun.
Is it over?
Sounds good to me.
The Pro Audio Suite.
With thanks to Tribo.
And Austrian Audio.
Recorded using SourceConnect.
Edited by Andrew Peters.
And mixed by Robbo.
(20:18):
Got your own audio issues?
Just ask Robbo.com.
With tech support from George the Tech Whizzer.
Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
And join in the conversation on our Facebook
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So leave a comment, suggest a topic, or
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Drop us a note at our website.
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Y'all ready to be history?
Get started.
Welcome.
Hi.
Hi.
Hi.
Hello everyone.
To the Pro Audio Suite.
These guys are professional.
They're motivated.
With Tech the VO stars.
George Whitten, founder of Source Elements.
Robert Marshall, international audio engineer.
Darren Robbo Robertson and Global Voice.
Andrew Peters, thanks to Triboo.
Austrian Audio, making passion heard.
(00:20):
Source Elements, George the Tech Whitten.
And Robbo and AP's international demos.
To find out more about us, check theproaudiosuite
.com.
Line up, man.
Here we go.
And welcome to another Pro Audio Suite.
Thanks to Austrian Audio, making passion heard.
And Tribooth.
Don't forget the code.
T-R-I-P-A-P 200.
(00:41):
That will get you 200 US dollars off
your Tribooth.
And big tip, they work.
So if you're looking for a booth, get
one.
And they work better than one you can
make yourself too.
Absolutely.
As I know from experience.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you can be bothered making one.
Now today we're going to talk about plug
-ins.
But I thought we'd start with Robbo.
(01:04):
What's your favourite plug-in, Robbo?
You're going to start with me?
Yeah.
Well, look, it's not my favourite.
But I'll talk about one that I came
across.
And just quickly, I started this little thing
with myself on a Friday afternoon.
Where I've set aside two hours in the
afternoon.
And I have to go and download a
plug-in I've never used before.
And it can be something I've heard about.
(01:26):
Or something I've just discovered on the web.
And I have to open up a session
from something that I've done this week.
And I have to find a way to
use it.
So it's kind of been this little.
It's really opened a whole bunch of things
for me.
Like creativity-wise and sort of learning about
stuff.
So look, this isn't a game-changing one.
But this is one that might change the
game for someone with a home studio.
A voiceover artist.
I discovered this thing.
(01:46):
It actually got recommended to me by Toby
Ricketts.
I'd never heard of it before.
But George knew of it.
It's called TDM Nova.
And it's just a free, George, basically multiband
compressor sort of thing.
Yeah, it's actually TDR, which stands for Tokyo
Dawn Records.
Yes.
I guess it's a record label or a
(02:07):
record production, music production company.
I don't know where the name came from.
But TDR Novas.
And it's, yeah, they have a free version.
It has a four-band, what I would
call a dynamic EQ.
Yeah, with a high-pass and low-pass
as well.
It's really useful.
It's very cool.
I've been playing around with it.
And if you're sort of a voiceover artist
(02:29):
with a home studio who, I don't know,
like we were talking about before, maybe there's
some room resonances or a bit of de
-essing or something like that that you want
to try to get rid of.
Yeah, it would actually be, from what I've
found from playing with it, more than adequate
to do the job.
And it's free.
So that's no game-changer.
But for this show, I reckon that's a
(02:50):
pretty good one.
Because everyone's out there looking for free stuff.
So TDR Novas.
TDR Nova, as in over the radio station
here in Sydney, yeah.
Yeah, I will give a plus one on
that too.
I use that one for all the folks
who do not have any good de-essers
and other tools that are kind of weak
in the toolbox.
(03:10):
It works as a plug-in in Audacity.
It works in Twisted Wave.
It works in everything.
And especially on Twisted Wave, there's no de
-essers that come with an Apple audio unit
plug-in suite.
You know, when you get an Apple computer,
it comes with a decent usable suite of
plug-ins, but it's missing a few things,
specifically a de-esser.
It's got a multiband.
(03:31):
It's got a multiband.
I have a really tough time getting a
really satisfactory result using the multiband.
I just haven't mastered using it for de
-essing and stuff.
Even though it's got a really nice looking
GUI for its multiband.
Yeah, it ain't bad.
Considering it's free and it comes on every
Mac.
Well, it might sound like shit, but at
least it looks good.
Yeah, that's the most important thing.
Yeah, that's more important.
(03:52):
But TDR does a surprisingly nice job.
It's not an easy plug-in.
You know, some plug-ins that you pay
a lot of money for, they're expensive because
they're highly tuned and specific and made to
be easy as humanly possible.
That's true.
So some plug-ins that are free, they
do it for free because either one, they're
super simplistic, or two, they're powerful, but they
(04:16):
have a big learning curve.
And TDR is one of those.
One thing I did miss, and maybe I
don't know whether I missed it or whether
it's just not there, but a solo on
each of the bands as you're going through
would be nice.
I don't believe it has.
Now, they have a pro version of the
plug-in.
That's how they monetize.
Ah, okay, there you go.
So it's got more bands, more functions, and
it may have that.
That may have that.
(04:36):
So if you like it that much, it
might be worth getting the pro version.
Ah, I've got enough EQs.
Yeah, I know, right?
But yeah, nice.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Very good, though.
There you go.
That's my tip.
Robert, you got one?
Yeah, I was thinking, like, what plug-in
am I going to say?
And one of the thoughts that went through
my head was, number one, I have a
lot of plug-ins, and I keep on
(04:56):
using for the last 30 years pretty much
a lot of the same plug-ins.
And I was thinking, like, there's all these
new plug-ins, but really whatever you're doing,
mixing music or whatnot, you basically need three
types of plug-ins to do most everything
you need.
You need a good EQ, a good compressor,
(05:18):
a delay, and a reverb.
And you can get most everything you need
to get done with those things.
And then I was thinking, what's that one
plug-in that I use a lot and
that's really useful?
And I've said it before, and I use
the crap out of Wave C4.
It's a multi-band compressor.
I use it like an EQ.
It can expand and compress.
(05:42):
So it's a multi-band processor, but I
will find myself often compressing the very high
end as a de-esser.
And I'll take the low end, and I'll
expand it to make someone sound more chesty
and big.
And then in the middle, you compress it,
and that gets it out of the way
of a lot of this stuff.
And it's just two things in one.
(06:03):
And I would agree that if you know
your way around a multi-band processor, a
multi-band dynamics processor, whatever you want to
call it, a multi-band compressor or a
dynamic EQ, the lines between these devices are
very blurred in a sense.
You can get a lot done with one
plug-in if you have a multi-band
device like that that's dynamics and deals with
(06:25):
the frequencies.
So I've been using for years the crap
out of Wave C4.
But I'd also agree that there's many.
To go way, way, way back in time,
if you remember, actually Antares, the people that
make Auto-Tune, they used to have a
plug-in called MDT, which was a multi...
Oh, wow.
Yeah, you are going back.
I don't know if you remember that one.
(06:46):
Way, way back in the day.
I mean, back in the sound designer two
days.
But that was one of the first.
And I used to use that a lot
for mastering.
So yeah, multi-band dynamic processors, they're super
useful.
And one device can do three things at
once if you know your way around it.
(07:06):
The other nice one is if you can
sidechain them too, so sidechain your voiceover to
the music bed or whatever and sort of
carve a nice little hole in there too
underneath your voiceover in the mix.
So Waves C6 lets you sidechain a particular
band.
Like one of the bands can be sidechained.
(07:27):
You would use that middle frequency range that
you were talking about in that case for
your mix.
Exactly, yep.
You always love it when the client picks
a music track with like a, I don't
know, is it a tenor saxophone that's in
that voiceover range or whatever, you know?
And you're sort of like, oh, fuck, all
these frequencies all in the same fucking place.
(07:48):
You know, it's like Jesus.
And it's mixed smack dab in the middle.
It's not even far out left and right.
Yeah, that's right.
It's not even on the sides.
Yeah, it's like, fuck!
You arsehole.
Is there a better track, do you reckon?
Maybe that's a good AI plug-in that
they should make, is this like D-Sax.
D-Sax.
Or like D-Kenny G.
(08:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
D-Kenny.
It's the D-Kenny plug-in.
Kenny G banger.
Kenny G banger.
That's what my wife wears on a Saturday
night.
Yeah, lucky you.
That's why you have so many kids.
(08:32):
You're using a multiband, or that's one you've
found?
And George?
Well, TDR, as I said, it's great.
And the one that I've been, I haven't
used nearly as extensively as I maybe should.
But I have recommended and set it up
for a few folks.
There's a lesser known company in a similar
vein to iZotope called Akon, A-C-O
(08:55):
-N.
They've been around, they stood the test of
time.
And, you know, their plug-ins are quite
nice, and they're doing their particular deal right
now, so it's not a bad time to
buy plug-ins.
It says summer sale now, up to 70
% off on their website.
The one that I've been enjoying and finding
easy to use, not overly expensive, and very
(09:16):
effective, is their Extract Dialog.
It's a weird name.
It doesn't sound like it'd be a good
noise reduction tool, but that's what it does.
It's really designed to take the dialog, the
voice, and pull it out of the crud.
And so it's a noise reduction tool.
But I also found, accidentally, whether this is
intended or not, but based on the description
(09:38):
of the plug-in, it clearly is.
It says, the revolutionary plug-in that magically
separates your dialog from various types of background
noise, including wind, rustle, traffic, hums, clicks, and
pops.
So it has this amazing ability to do
a lot of different jobs, including de-clicking.
So in one plug-in, you're doing a
(09:58):
lot of jobs, which can simplify your setup.
I would point out that it's more of
a voice extractor than a de-noiser.
And I think that's the case with a
lot of these new de-noise plug-ins,
where really they're designed to separate the signal
from what it considers noise.
But, for example, it wouldn't be useful if
(10:18):
you had noisy music and you wanted to
take the noise out of the music, because
that thing is very specific about taking noise
out of voice signals.
So a lot of these AI things are
not broad tools.
They're very, very specific as to what they
do.
This one deals with voice.
Same thing with waves clarity.
It doesn't just deal with voice, it deals
(10:40):
with spoken dialogue.
Spoken voice, right, exactly.
Yeah, dialogue more than singing, exactly.
And I kind of realized this this weekend,
I was doing some de-noising for someone's
audio book, and I was just noticing how
the AI noise reduction for the voice was
good, but it wasn't as good as going
(11:01):
back to the old, in this case, I
just went back to Z-Noise, and take
that fingerprint, and it was able to, a
little bit more destructively in imparting a sound,
but it could get in and rip the
noise out compared to just trying to eliminate
the noise in between passages and stuff.
(11:21):
I was like, wow, it was interesting, because
sometimes you have new tools, and then you
write off all your old tools, and you
don't think about those old tools.
But sometimes those old tools, they still do
what they did, and they're good.
That's what I was going to say, the
same thing, sometimes it's worth going back and
finding some really old plugins that you used
(11:41):
to love, and they've been put aside, and
then you play with them again and go,
wow.
So Clarity, exactly what I'm talking about, like
X-Noise is the one I used, which
is old, I mean, 20, maybe not 20,
but at least 15 years old.
Clarity is in the last three years, and
Clarity is amazing, but like I said, it
didn't really actually pull out as much noise
(12:03):
in the actual delivery of the voice.
Do you know what, I'm fast learning, because
I don't use a lot of noise reduction
day to day, but the more I'm using
it, the more I'm finding that, I don't
think there's one, like you might have one
go-to EQ, or one go-to compressor,
or something like that.
(12:24):
I don't think there is a one go
-to noise reduction for stuff, I find that
they all have their own idiosyncrasies, and all
that sort of stuff, and you've really got
to sort of go, yeah, okay, that's not
bad, but I wonder if I can do
better, and sort of pull down whatever you've
got in your library, and try them all
before you settle on one.
Absolutely, and even to the point that I
(12:45):
use, going back to it, I've often used
the C4 as a noise reduction plug-in,
because I'll use it as an expander, and
then you can expand out, and that way
you're not killing everything all at once.
You know that there's Brushfree, was it called?
Yeah, Brushfree.
Right, that's a noise reduction that uses multiband,
and this one, Brushfree, has many more bands.
(13:07):
Or Bertom denoiser, that's another one, Bertom denoiser.
I will use Bertom in sequence with a
standard expander.
I'll even use Clarity VX with an expander
after it, to catch little things that the
Clarity kind of missed.
I will cascade these, I will, yeah.
I'll usually multiband expand, and then go into
something that's more destructive to get the rest
(13:31):
of it, because with many plug-ins, if
you try to use them on their extremes,
the most noise reduction, it's going to start
showing its artifacts more.
But if each one is used a little
bit, you don't pick up on the artifacts.
Well, I was saying before we started recording
today, I've picked up a podcast for a
couple of ladies in Canada that I'm doing
for them, and they're basically just, they haven't
(13:54):
even got studios.
They're just recording in spare bedrooms and stuff,
and I've worked with them and got them
set up as best I can, but my
noise reduction chain for them is that I
use Clarity on both of them, but then
rather than having to overwork it on the
master bus, because I have a, well, not
a master bus, sorry, a dialogue bus, I'm
just using the NS1, but I'd like two
(14:17):
or three.
Which the NS1's an expander.
Exactly, it's just a clean up, and that
just cleans up whatever's left without overworking Clarity,
and it sounds great.
I'll tell you, anybody with an NS1, the
scaling of the control is really kind of
whacked out.
You know, it goes from 0 to 100.
Have you ever used it above 10?
No, I don't think so.
(14:38):
Like 10%, 10%.
Most of these things, little goes a long
way.
I would say one thing I've noticed in
general in the last two, three years since
a lot of these AI noise reduction things
have come out, people think that now noise
is not an issue, that AI can just
(14:58):
take care of it, and it's not true.
It is not harmless.
And even though they are less invasive than
old noise, people are so much more willing
to go, oh, just run it through some
AI and it'll just take out the noise.
It will make it sound fake and slightly
(15:18):
weird in this way that you can't put
your finger on it, but it's not, it's
just weird.
The free one from Adobe, the podcast one,
they have a noise reduction tool in there
that's obviously AI, and it does some extremely
bizarre things.
I mean, it literally takes your voice, makes
a model, and replaces it with the model.
(15:40):
Oh, wow.
So you end up with something that sounds
like you, but just a little off to
the left.
That's a long way around reinventing the wheel,
isn't it?
But you also wonder where your voice is
going.
Yeah, well, in doing so, it's getting rid
of all the noise.
It's supernatural capability.
Because it's remaking it.
(16:01):
Yeah, but it's just like, dude, to what
end?
And they think it's the fix for audio.
I heard the guy speak at PodFest.
He was there demonstrating it.
And I'm listening to the demonstration videos, and
I'm watching his presentation, and I'm listening to
his clips and going, this is not great.
(16:21):
You know, you guys think it's great, because
you built it.
But I'm listening to the audio, and I'm
going, it ain't great.
It is not the same as properly recorded
audio.
And here's my fear.
All of a sudden, just like if you
don't auto-tune your vocals, they don't sound
professional somehow.
Like in certain music contexts, like everything is
(16:41):
so auto-tuned out the other end that
it sounds terrible.
But for the right audience, it's like, that's
the sound of professional.
And I think that some of this ultra
-scrubbed clean AI noise-reduced, it's just fake
sounding.
It imparts the sound that you can't put
(17:02):
your finger on.
It's roboticized, dehumanized.
And this is pop music in a nutshell.
I will say, though, at the same time,
there's a pushback against all that among young
people, I've found.
And my daughter particularly.
And your daughter too, Robert, have great music
ears, so they hear these things.
But if it's overly fucked with, she doesn't
(17:25):
get into it that much.
I mean, it depends on the genre.
Some of it is just purely processed.
But she still loves...
Plastic music, yeah.
Traditionally produced, I wouldn't call it folk music,
but I would say traditionally produced music where
it's people playing instruments.
And so I think kids are going to,
honestly, there's going to be a little bit
(17:46):
of a pushback.
Like, how far are we going to go
with everything being fake?
I hope so.
Because the latest round of AI now is
not just how in music you double your
vocals and layer them, and the trick of
a really good performer is they're able to
sing the exact same thing so closely together
that you can barely tell that it's been
doubled and it gives it that thicker sound.
(18:07):
But unless you're a producer and a music
person, you don't really go, that's doubled.
You just think that sounds thick.
Ozzy is the king of that.
Yes.
But now there's just...
Or was.
Like, Waves has one, and it does it.
But again, it's like every time you pass
all this stuff through the AI machine, it's
like...
Something has lost.
It makes it plasticky fake.
(18:28):
Something has lost.
Yeah.
If you want to hear some amazing harmonies,
Google a video, it's John Farnham, who's like
a legendary Australian vocalist.
We call him The Voice here.
That's basically what we call him.
And two of his backing singers, who are
all equally amazingly talented, but it's Vinetta Fields
(18:51):
and Lindsay Field, and they do an a
cappella version, although there's a sympiano that comes
in later on, but basically an a cappella
version of Amazing Grace.
And it's back in the late 80s, early
90s AP, would it have been?
Yeah, somewhere like that.
Somewhere like that.
So there's no autotune, and they are just
fucking impeccable.
It is so good.
(19:13):
Yeah.
So good.
Yeah, it's true.
Yeah.
So do you believe in sound after processing?
I believe less is more sometimes.
Yeah, I think so too.
Look, yeah, less is more, and especially with
the noise reduction.
I don't think Robbie got that one.
Noise reduction?
Yeah.
Noise reduction wasn't invented to get rid of
(19:34):
barking dogs and noisy kids.
Don't assume.
It was invented to get rid of sound
on set and all that sort of shit,
like just camera noise and stuff.
So don't try and use it as a
magic marker or something.
If you're aware of a problem, fix it,
and don't assume that it can be just
magic wanded away.
What is it, this one?
(19:58):
Yeah.
Just have it go like this.
Gone.
Poof.
Oh, yeah.
Well, that was fun.
Is it over?
Sounds good to me.
The Pro Audio Suite.
With thanks to Tribo.
And Austrian Audio.
Recorded using SourceConnect.
Edited by Andrew Peters.
And mixed by Robbo.
(20:18):
Got your own audio issues?
Just ask Robbo.com.
With tech support from George the Tech Whizzer.
Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
And join in the conversation on our Facebook
group.
So leave a comment, suggest a topic, or
just say g'day.
Drop us a note at our website.
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