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Subject:Noise reduction plug-ins
Posted by: dalecooper
Date:7/10/2002 1:48:18 PM

Is anyone using a noise reduction plug-in with SoundForge? I'd love to get one (lots of old tape recordings to clean up) but I don't have $300 to spend. I'm trying to find a good one around $100-- ideally one that I can demo as shareware, and if I decide to register it, I won't go bankrupt.

Subject:RE: Noise reduction plug-ins
Reply by: Rednroll
Date:7/10/2002 2:18:07 PM

You're in a Sonic Foundry forum looking for a referal to other software, you don't have to pay for? Hmmmmm...it's a good thing there's all these other fine folks in here that buy their products so Sonic Foundry can continue to have this forum, so you can come in looking for a freebie.

How about this, get a part time job at McDonalds and maybe in a couple of weeks you can afford to buy the best Noise Reduction Plugin available. "SF Noise Reduction 2.0"

Check under the "Downloads" page and you can download a DEMO of the Sonic Foundry Noise reduction plugin to get you started.

Subject:RE: Noise reduction plug-ins
Reply by: dalecooper
Date:7/10/2002 3:15:06 PM

"You're in a Sonic Foundry forum looking for a referal to other software, you don't have to pay for? Hmmmmm...it's a good thing there's all these other fine folks in here that buy their products so Sonic Foundry can continue to have this forum, so you can come in looking for a freebie."

I own two pieces of Sonic Foundry software-- including (I thought this rather obvious) SoundForge, which is fairly pricy. Pardon me to hell for not wanting to spend another $300 on a freaking noise reducer to use on a handful of home tapes... yeah, that seems like I'm definitely getting my money's worth.

And I didn't say at any time I was looking for a freebie. I'm looking for advice from other SoundForge users on a less expensive plug-in that works WITH SoundForge-- which I may have mentioned, I already purchased-- and which I am well aware I will have to also pay for. But again, to reiterate, the recommended DirectX plug-in is outside my budget. It's a couple hundred dollars outside my budget, to get right to the point.

"How about this, get a part time job at McDonalds and maybe in a couple of weeks you can afford to buy the best Noise Reduction Plugin available."

I've got a better idea: you get the part time job and send me the money. Has to be a better use of your time than spouting judgemental, misguided nonsense.

"Check under the "Downloads" page and you can download a DEMO of the Sonic Foundry Noise reduction plugin to get you started."

That demo, I am going to assume, is save-disabled, which makes it pointless. I may find out that it works, but then I still won't have the $300 to spend on it, will I?

Let me be perfectly clear: I respect Sonic Foundry and I buy their products as I am able. I am not able to spend $300 on this. I am looking for a less expensive, compatible alternative, and I'm using this unrestricted, apparently free message board to ask about that. If Sonic Foundry wants to toss me off for asking that question, they are within their rights to do so; until then, I'll ask if I feel like it, and ignore further flag-waving from the apparently wealthy SF patriots such as yourself who don't understand that other people live on a BUDGET.

Subject:RE: Noise reduction plug-ins
Reply by: seeker
Date:7/15/2002 1:51:45 PM

Dale,

I recently took advantage of a Sonic Foundry special offer to purchase Sound Forge 6.0 and Noise Reduction 2.0 for a heavily discounted price. Otherwise I would not be able to afford Sound Forge and Noise Reduction either. So I understand your position about not being able to afford Sonic Foundry's Noise Reduction set of DirectX plugins. I personally don't have any experience with any low-cost alternatives to Noise Reduction 2.0, but I did do a web search prior to making my purchase, and I have a couple of suggestions for things you could look at.

The following link describes Diamond Cut 32 version 4 as "the World's Best Noise Reduction":

http://www.tracertek.com/diamond1.htm

Recently I noticed a reference to low cost noise reduction in the book, "TechTV Guide to Creating Digital Video Like a Pro," by Deras Flynn, Que 2002, 486 pages + CD-ROM, $24.99. On page 419 it says,

"...Considering both price and performance you really can't beat Cool Edit 2000. Cool Edit 2000 is a shareware audio editor which has one of the best noise reduction filters you will find. Cool Edit 2K is free for thirty days; after that it costs $69 to register."

There then follows a section, "Removing Motor Noise in Cool Edit 2000" that details the use of Cool Edit. Cool Edit is a standalone program. It can use DirectX plugins, but it is not one. In case the built-in noise reduction is not enough, there is an additional plugin bundle, Cool Edit 2000 Audio Cleanup version 1.1, that includes Click/Pop Eliminator, Clip Restoration, and Hiss Reduction DirectX plugins with a registration price of $49 for the Audio Cleanup bundle. For more information, click on:

http://www.syntrillium.com/cooledit/plugins_cleanup.html

I uncovered several lists of links to noise reduction software, some of which are in the form of DirectX plugins:

http://www.sonicspot.com/samplerestorers.html

http://www.recordcollectorsguild.org/rippers.html

http://www.sonicspot.com/daplugins.html

Happy hunting,

-- Burton --

Subject:RE: Noise reduction plug-ins
Reply by: fosko
Date:7/15/2002 2:15:48 PM

Also...
and this may be a bit underwhat you're looking for..
but NERO has Noise Reduction with it's CD burning software. I've not used it and I dont know how it compares to SoFo..but I do know I've had problems burning CDs from SF and No problems at all with NERO.

Subject:RE: Noise reduction plug-ins
Reply by: dalecooper
Date:7/16/2002 4:35:03 PM

Thanks for the responses. I ended up downloading something called DePopper which is actually way less than I was expecting to spend ($18!). I'm still trying it out right now. It has worked pretty well on a couple of my files, less so on others-- I'm going to adjust parameters and see if I can customize it to get a better overall effect. If it doesn't pan out, I'll demo some of the more expensive plug-ins for SoundForge. I've seen several in the $100 range, which is about the most I'm willing to spend on this particular functionality.

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