For a while now, Izotope has held the mantle of one of (if not the) best noise reduction plugins on the market. But it also has a price point to match. Well, Sweedish company Klevgr has come up with what may be a product that could steer some voice artists and podcaster away from Izotope’s suite of products and onto a $60 plugin that does the job just as well (if not perhaps even a little better). In this episode we plug it in, add some audio and debate the outcomes.
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this is the pro audio suite podcast
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quick bytes welcome to another pro audio
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suite quick bytes this week we’re
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talking about noise reduction next week
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we’ll do a full shoot out but we’re just
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going to talk about one of the noise
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reduction options and it comes out of
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Sweden it’s called Bruce free and George
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you’ve been playing around with Bruce
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free I have Bruce free is a noise
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reducer that is trying to you know take
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some wind from the sails of others like
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isotope Rx and waves
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NS one and things like that and I’ve
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been only playing around for the short
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for a short time but am I at least my
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initial tests and real-world tests of
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you know recording actual voiceover
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tracks and listening to them back I’ve
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been pretty darn impressed with what it
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can do well you just play this a bit of
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room noise before but we should play it
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for our listeners and just so they can
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hear what happens with rumbling of air
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conditioners and various other artifacts
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of yeah noise so here’s a here’s the
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tail end of a sample of a voice and then
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the room tone that ensues afterward here
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we go we’re here to keep you healthy
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happy and loving life for a lifetime
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so that’s a pretty nice sample of Rumble
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right yeah totally
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this is you know a file that with the
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right processing thrown on to it could
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be usable
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you know producer could take a voice
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track like this apply the right high
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pass filter and other things and get
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something usable out of it but you know
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and I know how to use these tools to get
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a good result but usually I’m gonna run
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it through at least two or three
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different tools to get their end result
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what’s pretty cool about Bruce free is
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they bake in several different
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processing tools into one you know so it
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has a high-pass filter for example which
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is obviously really helpful I mean if
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you’re trying to get rid of Rumble
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having a high-pass filter helps it also
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lets you adjust the the amount or degree
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of noise reduction you’re using which is
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pretty standard fare it also has a
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high-end boost as well which is kind of
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interesting I guess the intention is
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that if you use a lot of this processing
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some of the top-end can get attenuated
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just a little bit so he gives you a
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little dial and lets you add back in a
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top a little bit of the top-end
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and then lastly it’s got an attack a
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threshold and a release which is again
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pretty standard fare but the graphic
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design and how the controls are adjusted
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is very minimalistic yet at the same
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time easy to adjust so what you do is
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you just have it listened to the noise
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in the file you literally play back some
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of the noise you click on the giant ear
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button it learns the noise profile and
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that’s going to be familiar to people
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that use the noise reduction like in
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audacity and then once it’s created that
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noise profile it’s ready to go so here’s
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what it sounds like
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applied to that same audio sample I’m
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gonna play it from right here
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here’s Rumble and then some voice life
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gives you a whole lot to live for
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ends with quantum healthcare okay so
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there’s Rumble with voice mhm and then
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here it is now with the Bruce free
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processing headed on life gives you a
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whole lot to live for
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ends with quantum healthcare pretty
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dramatic difference
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yeah yeah I mean massive so before the
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room tone if I measured the room tone in
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that room to that noise it was peaking
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around minus 37 after bruce free added
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on that same room tone measures at minus
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75 Wow
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and that’s and that’s one thing I like
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about this tool is they made it musical
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and by musical I mean they didn’t make
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it like a hardcore gate it doesn’t take
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away all the room tone it leaves like
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enough room tone in there it’s free to
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go okay there’s something there but
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leaves a little bit behind so that you
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know but it takes out just enough and
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you can just you can determine to remove
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more or less by adjusting what they call
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the edge setting more edge removes more
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room tone so pretty impressive right I
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mean and it’s a $60 plugin for your fur
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and you in the u.s. that’s the u.s.
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pricing well I mean I I kind of see this
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is gonna be worth the test but whenever
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you’re away in our hotel building a
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pillow fort or using a porter booth or
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you know chaotic herbal hoo-ha right you
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know which obviously has its issues as
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well because you end up with that that
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boxiness
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but right this if this does what it
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appears to do and looking at some of the
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videos on the website it also seems to
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get rid of reflections as well which
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means what sends them down a bit yeah
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where you could you could set yourself
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up in a hotel room with minimal sort of
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treatment around you which keeps you the
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openness of the microphone without all
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the artifacts of the room well that’s
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the that’s the dream but does it take
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out the artifacts of the room it’s not
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addy reverberation is it not technically
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no what it’s doing technically is
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applying a whole bunch of downward
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expanders what they call several
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frequency trimmed expanders built on an
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intelligent noise suppressor so some of
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that the room reverb tail will get lost
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in those expanders so here’s here’s the
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sample of a set of a hand
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clap this is from their own demo video
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at the very end of the video they record
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a hand clap with the iPhone they have an
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iPhone version of this by the way for
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$15 us and then they apply that tool and
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you’ll see yes that you can still hear
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that there’s a room but it definitely
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takes away a good part of the reverb
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tail listen to this oh sorry wrong fader
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let’s bring up the right one learning
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curve using my road caster here here we
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go so you know yes there is still a
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reverb tail it’s not taking away all the
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reason so it seems to be getting the
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tail but it’s not really getting those
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early with fret reflections is it so if
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you were in a hotel room say Ray you
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still have to do some padding to keep
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those early reflections down otherwise
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you can end up with something that’s
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probably not quite gonna cut it yeah
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yeah no I mean it’s it’s not the miracle
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device that allows us to ignore
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acoustics oh I need to play the trumpet
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give a man a new toy and look what
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happens
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we’re not quick we’re not quite there
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yet but you know for what it is it’s a
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pretty impressive tool the fact that it
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has an iPhone version could just let you
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get away with a little bit better
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sounding auditions when you’re on the
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road with your iPhone that’s pretty fun
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so there are times when it’s really
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helpful to use some processing before
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your noise reduction like I know Robert
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for example he uses it down would expand
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in some cases before he uses his noise
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reduction so yes rid of all those sort
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of overall artifacts and then uses the
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the noise reduction to get into that
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more specific sort of frequency stuff so
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you could sort of still work around a
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bit that way to continue yeah so this
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one tool is trying to make all that
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user-friendly baked it into one tool and
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do as many of those different steps that
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you would normally have done manually
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automatically and then also a 15
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now plug in for your iPhone that’s
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pretty amazing I mean I I do not down
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want to downplay what you know iZotope
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Rx and waves have developed I mean they
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have incredible tools but you have to
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buy a whole suite of plugins to get that
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one thing and these guys are selling all
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their stuff Alucard well I think that’s
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the thing probably you know and we’ll
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talk about this more in the shoot out
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next time but I mean with the RX suite
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you’re also getting D pop D click you
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know all the other stuff that comes in
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terms of noise reduction not just
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ambient noise but yeah I mean that’s
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pretty impressive as if you if you’re a
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voice-over artist and you weren’t
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worried about the rest you just wanted
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to sort of clean up what you were
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sending someone that’s a pretty
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unbeatable price point isn’t it but I
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reckon it’s fantastic I mean you would
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put that on your laptop when you’re away
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and we save a lot of grief I mean you
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still set yourself up with a few pillows
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or blankets or whatever but you’re not
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sticking yourself inside a boxy box to
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you know to record to try and keep the
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sound out yeah I mean that’s true I mean
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one of the biggest problems we have
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working from the road is we’re trying to
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keep out the noise so if we go inside a
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closet and now we’re in a box and now I
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created a new acoustical problem yeah
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getting low noise and good acoustics
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often are at odds with each other so now
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we can just focus on getting rid of the
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early reflections setting up a few
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pillows in the room just killing off
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those bounces off the walls and the
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desks and then we can now we can dial
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back that room tone to a pretty
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acceptable level but in such a way that
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there’s very minimal artifacting I mean
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it’s very hard to tell that something
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has been done to the file unless you’ve
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heard the original version the real test
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if noise reduction comes once you’ve
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processed the voiceover ready to export
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I mean once you start compressing and e
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cueing see how much of it actually reads
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up its ugly head that would be a good
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test for that to actually send it to
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Robert or Robbo and pretend it’s a
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session so you know you would record and
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then see what you can do with it there
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the other
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when it comes to compressing it and
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whatever else you’re gonna do to that
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file does it have that button where you
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can listen to what you’re actually
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taking out I love that button you know
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what that’s a darn good question and it
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appears that it does not have a way to
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monitor the removed sound right which
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can be very handy when you’re setting
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your settings in rx to be able to
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monitor the processed file and hear what
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it’s removing I especially use that with
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addy clicker wanting to hear what is
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actually being removed yeah it’s helpful
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so no it doesn’t have that feature good
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man convention my kids love that wives
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plug-in sibilance when I put that on I
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love to come in and have a listen to
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just the SS as they go through for some
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reason I think that’s hilarious well
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these guys they you should just even if
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you don’t want their plugins just go to
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clever and se it’s k le v gr a and d dot
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SE and look at the product videos they
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have one for their de-esser and it is
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hilarious right it is so their
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promotional videos are really
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entertaining um you know at least watch
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them because the one for the DSR is
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fantastic for us Spanish Spanish
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listeners well I know what I’m doing
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when we’re done here then we’re done
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we’re done well there we have it we’re
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done so we’ll do the shoot up coming up
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next week or to get your six shooters
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out cuz we’re having a shoot out next
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week then yeah okay sheriff let’s get
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out of here
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that was the pro audio suite if you have
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any questions or ideas for a show let us
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12:00
suite podcast
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you
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.”
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