Video: Reducing Wind Noise with iZotope Plug.

Grazie wrote on 9/3/2013, 2:08 AM
I've had this kicking around and thought my chums here and those new to Vegas and the possibilities of iZo RX usefulness would be interested. I was stunned with the results.

My bad experience of not having a shielded Windjammer on my Canon SX50, I was stunned (I shouldn't have been, iZo is amazing!) to get these results in real-time while editing in SONY Vegas using iZotope RX, and wanted to share with those who may have wind issues on their "must keep". or "need-to-use" footage in an important client video.

I now have a Wind Jammer for my PnS SX50 . . . . It works, but I will still use iZo RX Plug for those "needed" areas of wind noise reduction.



Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 9/3/2013, 12:12 PM
That is a very misleading demonstration. The source material consists of birds chirping, and nothing else. Therefore you don't notice that virtually all frequencies below 2,000 Hz (where most of the human voice resides) are gone. If you look at the NR settings, he has basically turned the RX2 denoiser into nothing more than a dime store high pass filter: all of the frequencies below 2,000 Hz are being trounced by the filter. If you actually had a person speaking, their voice would sound extremely unnatural after this treatment.

I've used RX2 many times to reduce the rumble portion of wind noise (< 100 Hz.), and I do that with the spectral repair tool by attenuating the wind rumble. The hiss and whistle are still there, and the bass components of your source material will be gone. That compromise is usually OK to listen to, and the loss of the low frequencies simply makes the voices sound a little "thin," but certainly not unnatural.

There really isn't any way with RX2 to do anything more than filter rumble. This demonstration does not reveal any hidden magic or undiscovered capability.

Grazie wrote on 9/3/2013, 1:16 PM

JM: " . . he has basically turned the RX2 denoiser into nothing more than a dime store high pass filter:"

John, it was "me", Grazie. And thanks for your knowledge and indication where I can do better. Always willing to learn chum. I'll also have a go at the <100hz. If I had had a person speaking then I would have done something "other" - but there wasn't. It was just very very noisy wind and those birds chirping.

JM: "This demonstration does not reveal any hidden magic or undiscovered capability."

Well it astounded me when I did it. But I'll try the <100Hz.

Always willing to learn.

Toodles

Grazie
johnmeyer wrote on 9/3/2013, 1:48 PM
John, it was "me", Grazie. Oops. I apologize for the tone of my comments. I would been a little more circumspect and diplomatic if I'd realized it was you. I thought it was simply a demonstration you happened to find, probably while looking for a demo of the widely-anticipated RX3.

To be a little more positive, what you did is actually quite appropriate, given that the clip doesn't contain many bass frequencies, and it demonstrates that any kind of restoration always must be adapted to the specific issues of a given clip. In the case of the bird chirping, since the source doesn't contain any significant bass, you can do exactly what you did an achieve really good results. In that sense, it is a little like a noise gate, where you suppress all audio once the average volume goes below a certain level. This works for source material that contains nothing but silence in between program material, such as narration with no background music.
Grazie wrote on 9/3/2013, 1:58 PM
JM: "Oops. I apologize for the tone of my comments. "

Nah, no harm done. I have a tough hide, and an even softer heart . . but don't tell my accountant! Anyway, John, tomorrow you can make it all good by wishing me "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Now, back to the techie stuff: I just did a Spectral on it and it works quite nicely, but as you say, and as I was kinda foreseeing, the bass notes are mangled into anything that I would want to keep, and Spectral would not do anything with it. PLUS there was a friggin' jet coming overhead - douh!

. . .and yes, I really really wanna get my hands on RXIII !

Toodles

Grazie

farss wrote on 9/3/2013, 4:23 PM
Like JM I watched that and thought the same but I decide to keep quiet.

John is correct but I think both of you have missed something.
Out of the box Vegas doesn't have the kind of high Q filters needed to pull this off. Agree there's nothing magic in what's being done but if all you have is Vegas it does seem like magic as Vegas limits us to 18dB/octave filters. One can add NR2 to Vegas but the way Rx works leaves NR2's GUI in the cold.

The most dramatic tool I've used with Rx is hum removal and from memory it combines both high Q filters and "smart" gating to get the job done. One could probably build something like that in other audio app but not Vegas. Vegas lacks Side Chaining.

Of course there is no magic, only illusion however some of the tools in Rx allow a user to pretty easily pull of illusions as impressive as any master of the art.

Bob.
Grazie wrote on 9/3/2013, 4:57 PM
Bob, while I was doing this I was thinking of the, in comparison, tortuous GUI that NR has, and remembering all the time I spent going this way and that, puling those "strings" in the SONY NR GUI. iZo RXII - total revelation.

I am certainly NOT missing SONY NR.

If what I've done, may have lifted the veil ever so slightly on what IS possible with iffy audio, then I am content.

One hour left and I'm 62! Yay!

Grazie

farss wrote on 9/3/2013, 5:48 PM
[I]"while I was doing this I was thinking of the, in comparison, tortuous GUI that NR has."[/I]

Indeed. SoFo had the technology, they just failed at making it accessible.


[I]" One hour left and I'm 62! Yay"[/I]

Happy Birthday.

Bob.
gpsmikey wrote on 9/3/2013, 11:03 PM
Happy Birthday Grazie (I am still ahead of you by a year ... you'll never catch me !! )

mikey
Duncan H wrote on 9/3/2013, 11:08 PM
Happy birthday Grazie, thanks for all your contributions.

Duncan
ushere wrote on 9/3/2013, 11:36 PM
bloody kids!!!

a couple of years in the army will sort him out.

i'll throw another shrimp on the barbie in honour.... mind you, don't think she'd like it.

Grazie wrote on 9/3/2013, 11:52 PM
WAh! Just getting my First Coffee of the day.

Thanks guys for the best wishes.

Am so luvin' that shrimp Leslie!

Grazie