A High Quality Noise Reduction Plugin?

[Nippi]

Hi KVR,

I've been an amateur audio editor for well over 10 years now. I'm by no means a professional, but I know my way around some things and can usually figure things out myself. I've run into some troubles however, so I've decided to ask here. I listen to alot of old music, so alot of my time is spent making it sound as good as possible for my own personal listening. So, audio restoration / mastering, I guess. With alot of older music, I try to use noise reduction tools, but often times I prefer not to use them at all or use them very sparingly, as the built-in noise reducer on Audacity does the job, but sometimes it sounds "overdone" or has that "too filtered" look and sound after using it. Audacity has been the most accessible noise reducer tool for me, and Audacity is basically what I've taught myself on and know. I've experimented a little bit with other plugins, and have used Adobe Audition a few times, and of course I have found that something like Adobe Audition is similar, but superior in quality. I noticed this especially when editing vinyl rips I had made of some records I like. Audition costs money however, so I was searching around to see if there was any sort of free or affordable plugin I could use in Audacity that's comparable or better. I actually had Voxengo Redunoise under my effects but have never really used it, but when I figured it out, I was actually blown away by the results. It managed to clean up so much hiss without affecting the sound at all. I was however extremely disappointed to find that this plugin is only in demo form, and so whenever I applied it to the full track, there would be 1 second sections of silence applied throughout the track as well. Voxengo has discontinued this plugin apparently, and I have not seen a free version floating around without the demo limitations. I was pretty disappointed! I also downloaded a trial of the very expensive iZotope tools, however I could not figure out whether they used VST, or if I had to use their DAW, which obviously I am unfamiliar with, and honestly I wasn't impressed with their Spectral Noise Reduction Plugin. It's crazy to me how something so simple can be so complex and so difficult to refine! If I could just find a working version of the discontinued Voxengo plugin I'd be thrilled, but I'm stuck with a plugin that gives fantastic results but renders the music unlistenable basically. Any recommendations and/or links to tutorials would be greatly appreciated. I've read alot of good things about reafir and LOVE their EQ, but I wasn't able to figure that one out with Audacity: it seemed to not be functioning properly for me based on the tutorials I was trying to follow.

Anyways, thanks for reading, and please make a recommendation if you know an easy to use/learn plugin that's just as good or better than the Voxengo one I was so impressed with!

[nathanj]

Hello, long time audio editor lover here. Too bad for you cool edit is no longer available I recommend you check out Acon’s Acoustica Preimum. It’s not free or cheap but it’s extremely good value. The included plugins are worth the fee alone.

But the spectral editing and barebones editor make it one of my favourite tools to use. It’s an absolute joy.

I’m sure there’s a demo.

Nathan

[ramseysounds]

https://www.waves.com/plugins/x-noise

[Ploki]

iZotope RX7, probably the best in the industry - also the most widely used, for a good reason

[himalaya]

Izotope RX7.
I rely on de-noising tools daily. Have been using such plugins for over 14 years now in a professional capacity. In my time, I've used lots of de-noising plugins (starting with Virtos on PC moving on to Samplitude's internal plugins, then Voxengo, CleanBoy, Logic's de-noiser, and others the names I can't remember now) however once I bought RX (at version 3) I've stopped using my other plugins and have stopped looking for new ones too. RX is like magic. Leaves your audio pristine. Could not live without it for all the editing that I need to do (de-noising, de-clicking, de-clipping).

and honestly I wasn't impressed with their Spectral Noise Reduction Plugin. It's crazy to me how something so simple can be so complex and so difficult to refine!

The spectral engine in RX is supreme. You must have done something wrong.
It's also very easy to use. All you need to do is to click 'LEARN' in the Spectral De-Noise plugin and then preview the audio! If you need more reduction simply adjust the Threshold and/or Reduction sliders to taste. Where is the issue here?

I'd recommend that you look out for sales as RX is on sale very often. There is nothing better for the money.

[.jon]

Izotope RX Elements is currently for sale for 29usd, I bought it a few days ago to clean up my field recordings.

[jamcat]

This.
https://acondigital.com/products/restoration-suite/

It blows Waves Restoration Bundle (X-Noise/Z-Noise/X-Click/X-Crackle/X-Hum) away.
And it does it without the latency.