![]() In contrast, all three noise-reduction technologies try to identify the background noise and eliminate it throughout the entire recording. This produces a noticeably artificial effect, since you can hear the hum when the subject's speaking, but not when she's quiet. ![]() However, noise gates do nothing to reduce the audible hum while the subject's speaking. When the speaker paused for breath in our test recording, a noise gate reduced the volume to zero, eliminating the hum during the otherwise silent period. When the volume goes under the threshold, it assumes the audio is noise, and simply eliminates it, reducing volume to zero. When the audio exceeds the threshold, the noise gate filter assumes it's audio that is supposed to be heard and leaves it alone. Noise gates work by setting thresholds for noise. Briefly, the machine hum from my office equipment was most noticeable during the short periods between spoken words in the original recordings, though you can also hear it throughout the recording. Note that true noise-reduction filters work differently from inexpensive functions typically called noise gates. Third was the noise-reduction capability that comes with Adobe Audition, a complete audio editor that retails for $299, though it's much cheaper in several Adobe bundles. Second was BIAS' newly released SoundSoap Pro for Windows ($599 retail) from BIAS, a DirectX plug-in we ran within Sound Forge. We surveyed our labs and checked recent press reviews, and rounded up three products.įirst on our list was Sony's vaunted Noise Reduction filter for Sound Forge, which costs $280 direct, but requires Sound Forge ($399 direct) or another DirectX-compatible audio editor to run. The software generally works best with regular, consistent background noise such as machine hum or tape rumble, as opposed to irregular noises such as cheering crowds or traffic noises. Once we heard the background noise present in even our highest-quality recordings, our thoughts quickly turned to noise-reduction software. Our thinking was pretty obvious: how can you possibly test a shotgun microphone's ability to ignore ambient sound without lots of ambient sound? Also, since few interviews or other types of videos are shot in sound booths, the noise also provided a lovely dose of reality. When we created our test setup for this project, we deliberately left our computers, routers, printers, and monitors running, producing a consistent din of ambient noise.
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