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Subject:SL3 - Is It Good For Suppressing Wind?
Posted by: Sneddy
Date:9/4/2015 1:45:52 PM

A couple days ago I created a webpage
http://www.bobcroquet.com/spectral.htm
to host spectral repair examples which
includes a file from a SL forum member.
I just put another one up with wind. I am
eager to see if any SL3 users could
deal with it without compromising
the overall sound? Special thanks
to anyone willing to try and share with us all.

Message last edited on9/4/2015 1:46:27 PM bySneddy.
Subject:RE: SL3 - Is It Good For Suppressing Wind?
Reply by: Dexcon
Date:9/5/2015 8:30:08 AM

I tried removing the wind noise with SL3 but I wasn't successful. The big problem is that the type of wind noise on the sample recording extends up to around 5 khz (after the dialogue has finished). Doing an aggressive noise reduction under SL3's restoration sequence resulted in occasional (and annoying) clips of noise, but very much to the detriment of dialogue quality - the voice ended up sounding like he was speaking through an aquaphone (phase and azimuth way out).

My experience with this type of wind noise is that it is largely impossible to get rid of. If the noise is below 500 Hz, SL3 is rather good at removing that noise by erasing the under 500 HZ frequencies and replacing with it with an SL3 noise spray. If the low freq wind noise is intermittent, cloning the 'good' sections over the wind affected sections often works.

With badly wind affected audio, perhaps ADR might be a consideration.

If anybody has any SL3 workflows to get rid of this sort of wind noise, I'd be very grateful to learn about them.


Subject:RE: SL3 - Is It Good For Suppressing Wind?
Reply by: Sneddy
Date:9/6/2015 8:40:24 AM

Thank you very much for trying! I sent another wind example to Cedar and they were able to tame it reasonably well but not perfectly - this with a beta program (program name I don't know).
Did you get a chance to hear the other examples on the webpage (extraneous noise removal on the decay of a guitar). I'm curious to get opinions on whether the treatments I applied using Adobe Audition or iZoptoe RX4 Advanced would have worked in a final master? Thanks again.

Subject:RE: SL3 - Is It Good For Suppressing Wind?
Reply by: UKharrie
Date:9/7/2015 7:39:11 PM

Always up for a challenge I guess you guys were expecting to win.
However, wind-noise is ( I understand, pse correct ), a resonance thing....like blowing across a bottle - only there, it is only one resonance ( Helmholtz style ).

Whereas when a Microphone is being excited by the moving air particles, there is no defined resonance ( so it is "broadband" as it were.).

I suspect, but cannot be certain, that normally "Wind-noise" is broadband it will be very difficult to remove at any time in the process - far better to remove it at the start - although in theory that's impossible.... it's only a matter of "degree" - if the wind-noise is 3dB down then you have lost any speech. If it's 6dB down then you may still have music ( since we "lock-on" to the tune ) - if it's 12dB down then speech should be reasonably clear,
However, to be rid of the "Wind-noise" it really needs to be 20dB down - it's still adding "Ambience" but it will not interfere with listening.

Of course that all depends on your listening surroundings and your ears - as you get older the frequency range and ability to "filter-out" unwanted sounds becomes more difficult.

Can you post a snap (jpeg) of the spectrum for wind-noise in different conditions?
The effect of adding a "Dead Cat" would be interesting, since the microphone remains the same. It might be necessary to mark-up where you think the bands are for those of us without the benefit of using SL3.

Many microphones have a LF-cut feature - can any of you produce a sound-spectrum that demonstrates that it really works? There will have to be some "speech" included, but for an experiment, this could be limited to a tuning fork, so its frequency and level remains reasonably consistent through various tries.
Personally I find wrapping a fluffy scarf round the microphone, is mighty effective, - so I don't use the electrical feature.

Message last edited on9/7/2015 7:44:38 PM byUKharrie.
Subject:RE: SL3 - Is It Good For Suppressing Wind?
Reply by: Sneddy
Date:9/7/2015 9:07:28 PM

I heard back from Cedar regarding the program they used to "fix" the file I sent them:

"The software used for your sample last year has now been released as one of the functions within Retouch 7 (which is one of the options in the CEDAR Studio 7 range). The particular function in question is called ‘Cleanse’. CEDAR Retouch 7 can work as a plug-in for AVID Pro Tools, or it can be used as a completely stand-alone process."

I have uploaded a .jpg of the spectral view from RX 4 Advanced onto www.bobcroquet.com/spectral.htm A .wav of the wind example is there as well.

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