This is our 3rd article on iZotope’s audio repair tool RX 7.
We will continue to look at editing using different modules.
Though many modules are included, I have chosen a few which I find personally useful and common to take a look at.
Jan 20, 2005 Steps in RX Audio Editor: Open the audio file in the RX Audio Editor or send it via RX Connect. Select the region with the hum present and open the De-hum module Shift +3. Click Learn to determine the noise profile of the Hum, or choose a preset from the menu if it is a traditional 50 or 60 cycle hum.For this example, we’ll choose the preset 60 Hz Wide Reduce. IZotope RX and Sound Design: 13 Tips with Matt McCorkle Feb 05, 2020 Sound designer Matt McCorkle shares tips for creating soundscapes with iZotope RX, including how he captures ambience profiles and his tips for effective EQing.
First take a listen to this sample.
https://sleepfreaks-dtm.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Hum_Crackle_pre.mp3
We can hear a low humming noise as well as a constant crackling sound as well.
Lets try to get rid of these.
We will be using De-hum to remove the hum noise.
Hum noise is usually based around low frequencies in the 50-60Hz range, and is a noise that contains a number of harmonics.
We could select 50 or 60Hz from Base Frequency, but if you want AI to make the choice for you, click the Suggest button at the top.
This will analyse the sample and Free mode will allow it to set a more accurate frequency.
The hum noise can been reduced greatly but if the voice has been negatively effected as well, we can lower the number of harmonics down right on the brink of effecting the main sound. We can do this from the Number of harmonics fader.
Next lets adjust the amount of cut. You can make changes from the screen, but the frequency points can get shifted in free mode so we’ll enter numerical changes below.
Find a point where the noise isn’t noticeable yet the vocal remains clean.
For the low end, you can cut up until the point where it starts effecting the vocal. We will turn the High-Pass Filter on and cut under 100Hz.
Though you most likely won’t be using the Low-pass-filter, it may be necessary depending on the type of noise present.
If we want to make more detailed edits on the harmonics we can choose a different Linking Type.
For the default ALL setting, moving the slider here will have a slope effect on all frequencies.
By selecting Odd/even you can control the odd and even harmonics separately.
The Slope slider will help lower the reduction effect on higher frequencies.
When None is selected the link is removed, allowing you to control the Gain of individual harmonics.
Next lets look at getting rid of the crackling pop-like noises.
We will be using De-crackle.
For noise that couldn’t be completely removed, we can try using Spectral De-noise which we took a look at in our previous article.
https://sleepfreaks-dtm.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Hum_Crackle_processed.mp3
As you can hear, we have been able to clean up the audio.
Now lets change the sample audio and take a look at the unique De-reverb.
As the name implies, this helps remove reverb and room reflections in a recording.
First lets hear the sample for this example.
https://sleepfreaks-dtm.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Reverb_pre.mp3
We can clearly hear the reverb in this sample.
We will be using De-reverb on this audio.
Though all of these parameters may seem confusing, we can utilise RX 7’s special feature here and get some automatic settings using the Learn button.
To dive a little deeper into the editing, we can leave the Reverb Profile frequency settings set by Learn as is, and adjust the Reduction and Tail length to yield big results.
The resulting audio after adjusting each parameter is as follows:
https://sleepfreaks-dtm.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Reverb_processed-1.mp3
Though its not a completely dry signal, a considerable amount of reverb has been edited out.
Next, if we happen to accidentally distort audio during recording we can use De-clip to remove clipping noise.
We have a sample prepared for this as well.
* Be aware that this sample is louder than the previous examples.
https://sleepfreaks-dtm.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Clip_pre.mp3
In de-clip we will first setup the threshold of clip sounds. We will use this histogram as a reference but it looks like nothing is displayed at the moment. The histogram will be updated depending on the selected area, so lets first select the portion with vocal audio contained.
If you still don’t see anything, zoom out in the Histogram. Because the majority of sound is clipping, we can see quite alot reflected in the higher volume areas.
By pressing the Suggest button, it will automatically set the Threshold to the suggested point.
Its clipping to the point that that nothing is visible in the center, so it’s set to 0dB. If the audio isn’t this distorted, we would set the threshold a little below the clip.
The remaining parameters work as follows:
Lets hear how the sample sounds after making adjustments.
https://sleepfreaks-dtm.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Clip_processed.mp3
The sound is much cleaner and its hard to believe it was distorted.
This completes our look at some commonly used modules in RX 7.
RX 7 covers a vast field of noise/reverb related issues, so be sure to try it out for your own recordings!
RX6 from iZotope is the latest evolution of the company's powerful audio restoration and repair tool and in this short video, expert trainer Joe Albano is here to explain to you the finer points of dealing with noisy vocal takes. We've all been there: your take has interference of some kind on it - well with RX6, that's no longer a problem!
Using a practial example of a noisy air conditioner that's been captured as part of a take, Joe shows you how to use the specialised vocal de-noising tools to identify, isolate and then remove the offending part of the signal using spectral processing. You can even choose to optiise the algorithm for spoken word or music. Check out the other videos in the course to become an RX6 master!
iZotope RX is by far the king of audio repairs. It’s really that good! In this advanced Unofficial Video Manual, Joe Albano, leads the way by explaining what each module does best, how they operate and, most importantly, why you need to know them.
Joe starts the course with an in-depth look at the standalone RX 6 application where you learn to navigate and customize its unique spectrogram view and user interface. Joe also explains how you can load the RX modules right from your DAW, and how to transfer audio back and forth using the convenient RX 6 Connect plugin.
Next, Joe dives into the heart of iZotope’s RX 6 by giving a thorough description and practical demonstration of every module. You learn how to de-clip, de-plose, de-ess, de-click, de-crackle audio in every possible way! Want to remove some annoying lip smacks and mouth noise on a voice recording? Check. Need to reduce clothes noise on a lavalier mic recording, or wind noise on an outdoor recording? Check. What about removing background hum, or unwanted ambiance? Check! Using lots of in-action audio examples, Joe explains exactly how to use RX powerful modules to fix all those audio issues... and more. After covering all repair tools, Joe concludes the course by looking at RX 6 utility modules, such as EQ Match, Time & Pitch, Loudness and Leveler to name a few.
So join expert audio engineer Joe Albano in this comprehensive course, and learn everything you need to know about audio restoration with iZotope RX 6!