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Sooner or later, every editor deals with video noise. Here’s how to get rid of it.
- This one is a high power noise reduction plugin that comes with a good range of controls to eliminate and reduce the noise. The capabilities that this plugin possesses goes beyond the borders than an average noise-reducing plugin. It can be of great use in your production process.
- Download Neat Video Pro plug-in for Premiere for free. Neat Video Pro plug-in for Premiere - Neat Video is a filter specifically designed to reduce visible noise in digital video clips produced by modern digital video capturing devices as well as digitized from traditional film or VHS records.
- Bertom has released Denoiser, a freeware noise reduction effect in VST3 and AU plugin formats for digital audio workstations on PC and Mac. Denoiser is a noise reduction plugin for removing noise from audio recordings, including music, post-production, spoken word, and dialogue. It features a simple user interface that is beginner-friendly and optimized for quicklyRead More.
- Subscribe to my Channel: TO PLUGIN: https://www.crumplepop.com/product/fcpx-premiere-video-deno.
Cover image via Shutterstock (noise added in post).
Whether it’s footage that another videographer gave you or footage that you shot yourself, you’re going to see some noise now and then. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, especially in documentary-style projects that involve shooting conditions beyond your control.
However, thanks to companies like Red Giant and Neat Video, we can all breathe easy when we see noise in our dailies. Even After Effects features a Remove Grain effect (more later).
Sometimes the grain is subtle, and you may only need a little bit of polish. Other times, you’ll need to bring out the big guns. So which Denoiser should you use in which situation? I took some footage and created some of the grainiest nightmare images I could (using grain elements from our Emulsion pack), as well as some more natural and subtly grainy images, and compared the results. Here are my thoughts.
After Effects Remove Grain
Footage via Shutterstock (noise added in post).
After Effects has an effect called Remove Grain (pictured above). A major limitation of using this effect for noise removal is that it’s only available in After Effects. If you’re in Premiere, you’re going to have to send your footage over to After Effects by right-clicking and selecting Replace with After Effects Composition and then go back and forth. You can read about the process in this PremiumBeat post).
The limitations don’t end there. The biggest thing that holds this effect back is that it’s extremely slow. The plugin defaults to showing you a preview region, so to view the final output, you have to change the Viewing Mode to Final Output. However, once you do this, you’ll notice that it takes forever (preview options always slow things down). For some of the more grainy shots (like the one above), to get an even passable result, you need to turn up the Noise Reduction level to at least 2 or 3 and raise the Passes to around 3 or 4. This slows things down severely. At times, with some of the most grainy images, it would take almost thirty seconds to view one frame of the final output.
If you fiddle around with the settings a bit and try to find the best of both worlds in terms of performance and natural-looking images, you can get good results. You just may have to wait a while, especially if you have multiple shots to process.
Red Giant Denoiser III
Footage via Shutterstock (noise added in post).
Back in October of 2016, Red Giant launched their new Magic Bullet Suite 13, which included a new version of their Denoiser plugin.
I gotta say, this new version is phenomenal. The biggest thing this new version has going for it is that it renders on the GPU, which means that the results come almost in real-time. It is by far the fastest noise-reduction solution. For this new version, the developers completely re-wrote the entire plugin with speed in mind. It’s pretty much a drag and drop effect. For most scenarios, the default settings on the plugin will get you where you need to go. However, if you have a particularly noisy shot, you’ll need to mess around with the settings a bit.
While this plugin is very good for speed (and is particularly useful for situations involving minimal noise), sometimes it struggles if the noise is particularly bad. Every once in a while, you’ll get some images that look a bit blotchy and unnatural. However, this usually means there were some pretty serious noise problems in your footage to begin with.
The full version of this plugin is $199, but that will get you access to the plugin in After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Final Cut Pro X. There is also an upgrade path ($99) if you own previous versions of the software.
Neat Video Reduce Noise
Neat Video has been around for a while (they are currently on version 4) as a go-to noise reduction solution. It’s always been very powerful, and over the years, it has only gotten better.
It works by creating a Noise Profile, which it uses to get rid of the noise while leaving the majority your image unchanged. To create a Noise Profile, you have to select a decently sized area of your image that is uniform. For example, the gray street area in the image above would be a usable area. The plugin then takes that information and decides exactly what the noise in your image looks like, and then denoises it accordingly. This is really useful because it tends to keep your image looking nice and natural.
There are only two drawbacks to this plugin compared to other solutions. One: every once in a while, you won’t be able to find a uniform area in your image. Sometimes there is just too much going on in your background to find any sort of area that is acceptable for the plugin to analyze. So, it may be a good idea to find a gray wall or solid surface in your scene and record a plate of it for later use (if you think your footage may be noisy). This way, you can apply a noise profile from one shot to any other that you like. Two: it’s a bit slower than the Red Giant Denoiser. It’s nowhere near as slow as the After Effects Reduce Grain effect, but it can still take some time to render in certain instances.
This plugin is definitely good with extreme noise. There has been a time or two in my career that it has completely brought a shot back from the graveyard. This is the plugin to use when you need to bring out the big guns, as it still somehow achieves a pretty natural-looking image.
This plugin costs $99 for the full version; however, you’ll have to buy a new copy of it for each bit of software you want to use. So if you want to use it in After Effects and Premiere, you’ll need to pay twice. However, they also have an upgrade path for $50 if you own previous versions of the plugin.
Which Is Best?
I don’t know, to be honest. They both work really well. To me, it comes down to your needs. Most of the time, your noise is just a by-product of lowlight shooting that needs a bit of cleanup. For general purposes, you’ll almost always get away with using Red Giant’s Denoiser III. It’s fast, and it’s easy — and it can occasionally be good in some pretty noisy scenarios.
If you have an extremely noisy shot, and you just need something that will make an image usable, then Neat Video might be the way to go.
When it comes down to it, I think you could make an argument for owning both and deciding to use one or the other based on the situation and the amount of time you have — because when you consider the alternatives (blowing an entire shoot) the cost is pretty low for both options.
What is your preferred denoising solution? Let us know in the comments.
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Are you not appeased due to noise in the background?
Want to get rid of it, but don’t know how?
When producing music, noise reduction is an essential part; it’s like butter to its bread, can’t go on without it.
Being more specific, buzzless, and noiseless audio is what everyone is looking for.
If you are someone who deals with sound recordings on an everyday basis, you know that the struggle is real when even after complying with all the rules, you have to edit the recording to clear out the noise in the background.
However, there is a way you can save yourself from this long and boring task: get a noise reduction plugin.
A sound reduction plugin helps you get rid of the unwanted noise or sound that ends up in your audio tracks.
With such software application, you can easily remove sounds like clicks, hums, ground buzzes, and crackles from the audio.
But how are you going to find one of the best ones that suit your needs?
Lucky for you, we’re going to talk about some of these top-rated plugins.
So sit back, relax, and read away.
iZotope RX 7
Before the release of version 7, iZotope RX 6 was widely used and loved by the music producers all over the globe.
The reason being is that it can clean up the foulest recordings.
Hence proves that version 7 is no far behind.
RX 7 comes in with better features that help you in audio repair.
It has a spectrum of spectral repair tools and analyzers, which enables you to keep a check and remove noise from the audio tracks.
Features:
- Repair Assistant software to cleverly identify the noise, clips, clinks, whir, and other audio oddities
- AudioSuite plug-in, Music Rebalance, for quick identification and adjustments of each element of a mix.
- Pitch and Time Changer lets you set the pitch without harming the audio time, and contrariwise
- Save yourself from ADR sessions with Speech Contouring
- Speech De-Reverb for reducing echo in speech track
- Can assist Multichannel
- Spectral repair for in-depth audio analysis
- Amplified UI
Sonnox Oxford DeNoiser
Sonnox Oxford DeNoiser is specifically designed to eliminate unwanted noises.
Many of the features it possesses are considered useful since it cleans up even the slightest of noises such as a merged de-hisser.
It comes in with three noise reduction effects Oxford DeClicker, DeBuzzer, and DeNoiser.
With the DeClicker plugin, you can edit the audio without disturbing the rest of it.
Whereas, the DeNoiser comes in with a ‘warmth’ feature that is where you can fill in some of the frequency that vanishes as soon as you apply the noise reduction to the audio.
Features:
- Partitions to remove the hissing sound can detect and remove noise
- Spot on resolution layout of sound profile and input signal
- Can fine-tune the noise threshold and reduce it by using the frequency bias curve
- Mid-side feature
- After the process, audio warmth can be restored by using warmth control
- A/B comparison is facilitated by Make-up gain
ReaFIR by Cockos
Cockos is widely known for a feature called Reaper.
Reaper gives outstanding shareware free of cost that would normally cost hundreds of dollars.
This stands tall from many other plugins due to its flexibility and wealth pro features.
The features make it capable for ultra-precise sound shaping.
Users tend to find it very useful for mixing processes and different stages of production.
Features:
- An FFT-based plugin with a size range of 128-32768
- FIR gives out a variety of functions revolving around FFT spectrum analysis.
- EQing and dynamics processing for reducing noise circuitry
- Serves as a gate, a compressor, and a dedicated EQ
- Flexibility of the operating system
- Responsive UI
Redunoise by Voxengo
This one is a high power noise reduction plugin that comes with a good range of controls to eliminate and reduce the noise.
The capabilities that this plugin possesses goes beyond the borders than an average noise-reducing plugin.
It can be of great use in your production process.
Redunoise focuses more on repairing the noisy single tracks, although it also works well with mixes.
You would be surprised by the result; it won’t let you down.
Features:
- High-resolution audio spectrum assessment
- Eliminates the sound without affecting the rest of the signal.
- Redunoise comes with two types of filtering: analog-prototype and linear-phase.
- Sound learn function for easy and quick cleanup of audio material.
- Both type of scale switches, linear and logarithmic
- Reverse option with every parameter
- Comparison features
Waves W43
An audio engineer would surely know about this one.
Waves have been around for quite a while and is a major plugin used across the globe.
The design of this software was inspired by the legend Dolby Cat43, a prototypical hardware noise reduction unit back in the 70s.
Like its ancestor, it would be wrong if you wouldn’t set your standards high for Waves.
W43 belongs to the Waves suit ‘intelligent’ plugin; it comes with a feature that allows you to distinguish the sound and catch it from the audio signals.
The difference between the manual and intelligent plugin is that the intelligent plugin works faster with zero latency.
In much simpler words, it means if you use it on your audio track, you won’t lose the sync, which is an obvious time saver.
You can set your thresholds high for this one.
Features:
- Relatively low priced
- Don’t have to be a pro to play around with it
- No latency at all
- Possibility of more than one instances
- 24-bit/192kHz resolution
Antares SoundSoap 5
An app that stands alone. Antares has come a long way since it’s past owned by BIAS back in 2012.
Antares is the cheapest and fastest option on the list for noise reduction.
If you are having trust issues since the switch of the owner, you should know that the CEO of Antares is the very same genius behind BIAS.
Antares has a wide range of audio processing tools that also includes Auto-Tune.
This is an excellent noise reduction solution that can work with any professional audio and video processing software.
Since it joined hands with SoundSoap, you can expect even better and higher results.
Features:
- New and improved removal of the ‘hum’ sound
- Can detect noise automatically*
- It can set the location of the noise*
- A waveform video exhibit *
- Better versions of media controls*
- Can underwrite FLAC and MP3*
- Full bypass can facilitate A/B comparison*
- Reset button
Waves Z-Noise
This is another sound reduction plugin that works under the banner of Waves.
This one comes in with new algorithms that clear the background noise without adding in artifacts or damaging the sound quality.
The Z-noise is part of the ‘manual’ plugin from the Waves suit.
The version is a little older, but it does justice to sound control.
It wants you to identify the targeted sound print, which will then allow you to ride off the unwanted sounds with the start point and band controls.
Features:
- Improved algorithms for music
- Active sound profile
- Has a 5-band EQ
- Can create a noise profile from any audio by using Extract mode
- Operates in Real-time
- Saves low frequencies
- Enhances the high-frequency details
- Can extinguish “smearing”
- A true broadband processor
Accusonus ERA Bundle
This audio restoration plugin bundle includes the ERA-N feature.
Noise Reduction Premiere Plugin Downloads
Accusonus is one of those unheard companies in terms of audio repair; however, they offer affordable and easy to use features with quick results.
Accusonus provides you with the distinctive capability to reduce the sound through a single knob control.
The benefits of its tools are that you can work with them in real-time and end up with instant results.
Even if you are new at this, the knob feature is very easy to handle by almost anyone out there.
It’s surely worth it for video editors and indie filmmakers, even audio engineers who require the fastest solutions to their problems.
Besides the ERA bundle, it also has the ERA-D bundle.
The difference between the two is that ERA-D works as a 2-channel ‘intelligent’ sound reduction.
This means you can add in 2 channels such as boom and lav, and the two channels would work together, making it an easier and denoising process with minimal artifacts.
So, don’t confuse the two versions of doing the same thing.
There is a slight upgrade in the ERA-D version.
Noise Reduction Plugin Premiere Pro Free
Features:
- New algorithms for de-noising
- Five types of presets that can be used to focus on specific frequency bands
- Reflex sound profile estimation
- Reduce sound with a single knob
Conclusion
To sum it all together, all these noise reduction plugins come with their very own unique features for you to explore and work with.
The iZotope RX 6 tops them all since it meets all the high standards of what a noise reduction plugin should possess.
It’s flexible, fast, and convenient to use.
However, the rest of them follow through as well.
It all depends on your taste and what you are comfortable with the most.