How Do I Enhance Dialogue and Clean Up Ambient Noise When Boosting Gain - RX 11

garioch7
garioch7 Member Posts: 4 Newcomer
edited November 23 in Other Software & Hardware

I am an Izotope RX 11 Standard "newbie," having purchased it just this week. As an unpaid volunteer, I was asked to "enhance" a 1989 portable cassette recording that was converted to a CD in 1994. I am an AV hobbyist, mostly doing video projects for many years. I have Cybelink Audio Director 6 (2014), but it was totally unequal to the task I am facing. It had always been equal to the very simple audio enhancement tasks I formerly encountered.

The CD is a recording of the funeral of a prominent parishioner, destined for the Diocesan Archives after I have done what I can to improve it. The portable cassette recorder was left on a pew in the Choir Loft of a large old Church during the Funeral to record the ceremony. All of the organ music is understandably quite audible, but the speaker system in the Church left a lot to be desired. The result is that the voices of the priests and Lectors on the altar cannot be heard in the present state of the recording without boosting those audio dialogue portions.

Boosting the dialogue portions of the audio when the organ and Choir are silent results in an annoying low rumble and lots of ambient noise.

I am reading the Help files. I have no formal training in sound engineering. I concede that I am overwhelmed by the various tools at my disposal and unsure of which one, or how many, I should use and how to enhance this recording so that the altar dialogue is audible with a minimum of rumble and unwanted ambient noise.

As a participant in many computer security Forums since 2013, another hobby in retirement, I help the Forum posters with their issues, as and when I can. It occurred to me that I should reach out here to the pros for suggestions and guidance as to how to best proceed rather than stumble around like the newbie I am to Izotope RX 11 Standard.

My sole aim is to provide the best copy of what is presently an audio mess to the Diocesan Archives. They are particularly interested in hearing the entire Funeral, not just the organ music and Choir.

Thank you all, who take time to read this first post of mine and offer to assist me with suggestions and guidance.

Have a great day.

Regards,
Phil

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Best Answer

  • Sunborn
    Sunborn NKS User Library Mod Posts: 3,090 mod
    edited November 23 Answer ✓

    Few things for you to start.

    The work of audio restoration is a demanding task, one that you have to master through years of experience.

    And you must understand that a "perfect result" is rare. At some point you will probably need to sacrifice some frequencies for the "greater good".

    To be clear, even though the name "audio restoration" suggests otherwise, is, by its very nature, a destructive process. What I mean by that is that eliminating, for example, the 60Hz hum in signal, it also has some impact on everything else going on at that frequency.

    All the restoration tools (in this case, iZotope's) can do an incredible job of minimizing this impact, often to the point of rendering them completely imperceptible, but when working with any of them, always keep your ears open for any weird artifacts and frequency anomalies that the processing might also introduce.

    It’s important to understand that, while audio restoration plugins and applications are amazingly good at what they do, the endlessly variable nature of sound recordings means that there will always be cases where a damaged recording or sample can only be repaired to a certain degree, or even not at all. Sometimes, you just have to learn to live with a bit of noise!

    So… go slow and experiment. Trust your ears equally as you trust the software!

    Now, in your case, you should start with removing hum and hiss and do some noise reduction in general. When you are satisfied with the result, then (and only then) move forward to enhance the signal etc.

Answers

  • garioch7
    garioch7 Member Posts: 4 Newcomer

    I am new here. I have a question about using Izotope RX 11 that I recently purchased. I posted here:

    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/38941/how-do-i-enhance-dialogue-and-clean-up-ambient-noise-when-boosting-gain-rx-11

    Would a Moderator be so kind as to point me to the right Forum to receive assistance and merge the topics? I am new to these Forums, having only joined yesterday.

    Thank you, and have a great day.

    Regards,
    Phil

  • Sunborn
    Sunborn NKS User Library Mod Posts: 3,090 mod
    edited November 23
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/193065#Comment_193065

    Your first post was in the wrong forum (forum category actually) indeed, while the second one was correct, thus i merged them in one discussion, on the correct forum category. :-)

    However, about receiving assistant, you 'll probably have to wait until Monday, weekends have less user traffic and NI employees are not working too.

  • Sunborn
    Sunborn NKS User Library Mod Posts: 3,090 mod
    edited November 23 Answer ✓

    Few things for you to start.

    The work of audio restoration is a demanding task, one that you have to master through years of experience.

    And you must understand that a "perfect result" is rare. At some point you will probably need to sacrifice some frequencies for the "greater good".

    To be clear, even though the name "audio restoration" suggests otherwise, is, by its very nature, a destructive process. What I mean by that is that eliminating, for example, the 60Hz hum in signal, it also has some impact on everything else going on at that frequency.

    All the restoration tools (in this case, iZotope's) can do an incredible job of minimizing this impact, often to the point of rendering them completely imperceptible, but when working with any of them, always keep your ears open for any weird artifacts and frequency anomalies that the processing might also introduce.

    It’s important to understand that, while audio restoration plugins and applications are amazingly good at what they do, the endlessly variable nature of sound recordings means that there will always be cases where a damaged recording or sample can only be repaired to a certain degree, or even not at all. Sometimes, you just have to learn to live with a bit of noise!

    So… go slow and experiment. Trust your ears equally as you trust the software!

    Now, in your case, you should start with removing hum and hiss and do some noise reduction in general. When you are satisfied with the result, then (and only then) move forward to enhance the signal etc.

  • garioch7
    garioch7 Member Posts: 4 Newcomer

    @Sunborn ,

    First, thank you for merging my topics. I was not trying to "bump" my first post. It occurred to me, upon reflection and going back to read the topics in Native Access Forum that I mostly likely picked the wrong Forum getting started. I was expecting to see an Izotope Forum. I am happy I selected the correct Forum the second time. 😉

    Thank you for the background on audio restoration in general. I did advise my friend that I would not be able to transform that incredibly flawed recording as if it had been recorded properly, but only try to make the Altar dialogue audible, albeit with a lot of noise. To achieve even that limited aim required the best possible audio restoration software, which I believe I have found in Izotope RX 11, based on my online research.

    I had not thought of using my good headphones, but that was stupid of me. I always used headphones when converting LPs to CDs over the years because you "hear" so much better. I must be getting rusty.

    Based on your cogent advice, I will start over with this recording. My proposed workplan will be to initially focus on noise reduction, hiss and hum removal, then boost the parts of the recording where the Altar is inaudible, as you have suggested.

    As a newbie, I went at this backwards.

    After that, based on an Izotope Tutorial video, I think that I should use the "Dialogue Isolate" component to eliminate the reverb (recorded in an old, large Church) and the noise in the dialogue.

    Your guidance and suggestions are so very welcome. I also look forward to hearing from some of your learned colleagues as well. I have SO very much to learn, as you have pointed out, and I am always eager to learn. I will never be an audio engineer, but if I am able to salvage some of this awful recording, I will be more than satisfied, as my friend will be as well.

    Thank you again. Have a great day.

    Regards,
    Phil

  • garioch7
    garioch7 Member Posts: 4 Newcomer

    @Sunborn ,

    I finished the project and learned a lot. RX 11 did a commendable job rendering the dialogue audible. I credited Izotope RX 11 and Native Instruments on the CD case inserts. The recipients are all very pleased with the improvement in audio quality compared to the original CD.

    Thank you for your assistance and guidance. You got me going in the right direction. Have a great day.

    Regards,
    Phil

  • Sunborn
    Sunborn NKS User Library Mod Posts: 3,090 mod
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/197692#Comment_197692

    You're welcome, happy to be helpful :-)

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