Steinberg Wavelab Elements 8 Manual
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Plug-in Reference Sonnox Restoration Toolkit 361 Sonnox Restoration Toolkit The Sonnox Restoration Toolkit consists of the De-Clicker, De-Noiser, and De-Buzzer tools. The tools are for restoring old material, removing clicks, pops, buzzes, and background noise that can occur in new recordings. Sonnox DeBuzzer Sonnox DeBuzzer allows you to remove hum and buzz noises from audio material. Sonnox Menu Options button Opens a menu where you can select the following options: • Duration of the input/output meter clip lights hold (indefinitely, 2 s, 5 s) • Knob behavior • Information about the version number and build date Input Level meter This meter is designed to give exactly 1 dB per LED for the top 18 dB of dynamic range, and 2 dB per LED thereafter. This gives a clear and intuitive impression of the working headroom. Trim Input Level Allows you to adjust the input signal level by up to ±12 dB.
Plug-in Reference Sonnox Restoration Toolkit 362 Frequency Knob and touch pad (Hz) The DeBuzzer has an active frequency range for the buzz fundamental of between 20 and 440 Hz. In Auto mode, this knob sets the frequency from which the buzz detection circuit starts to hunt for buzz components. In Freeze mode, this knob sets the exact frequency of the buzz fundamental. The knob is graduated around the circumference, and clicking on any labeled graduation sets the frequency to that graduation. Fine Adjust button Enables fine tuning of the buzz frequency control. The graduations around the circumference of the frequency knob re-draw to a finer scale, and scrolling the touch pad enables very quick fine tuning of a hunt frequency. Scrolling past an end-stop continues to scroll the frequency and the marked graduations re-draw appropriately. Fine Adjust mode forces Freeze, so that the selected frequency can be specified exactly, without the Auto circuitry hunting for a stronger fundamental. If entering Fine Adjust mode from Auto, the Freeze button flashes and the plug-in reverts to Auto when Fine Adjust mode is exited. Tone On button Enables an audible tone generator, which can be used to aid location of the buzz fundamental. While the Tone button is on, a touch pad appears above the button and becomes a Tone level control. It defaults to -18 dB, and has a range of -6 dB to -96 dB. Sensitivity knob and touch pad (%) Controls the sensitivity of the buzz detection circuit. Fully sensitive might allow the detection circuit to lock to inaudible and possibly undesirable frequencies. Stronger buzzes, which typically would be removed first, require a less sensitive setting. Hum/Buzz Mode button Control switches between Hum mode and Buzz mode. In Hum mode the bandwidth limit for harmonic removal is 0 to 800 Hz. In Buzz mode the bandwidth limit for harmonic removal is 0 to 4000 Hz. Hum mode is less damaging, and should be used when possible. Enable button Enables the buzz removal processing. It allows glitch-less comparisons with and without the buzz removal. When Enable is deactivated, the buzz detection circuit is still enabled and the Detect display still shows the degree of buzz detection. Reduction display Indicates the level of audio that is being removed from the signal.
Plug-in Reference Sonnox Restoration Toolkit 363 Attenuation knob and touch pad (dB) Determine the level of attenuation that the buzz removal circuit apply, up to a maximum of 96 dB. Generally this should be set so that the buzz is just inaudible. Excessive use of attenuation can degrade the signal unnecessarily. Auto button Enables Auto mode for the buzz detection circuit. In this mode the buzz detection is continually calculated and a slow drift in the buzz fundamental frequency automatically follows. This mode is useful for material with a time-varying buzz component. In this mode the removal filters follow the detected frequency. Freeze button Enables Freeze mode for the buzz detection circuit. In this mode the buzz fundamental is fixed to the frequency shown in the touch pad window. This mode is useful for material with fluctuating buzz level, but with a constant buzz frequency. In this instance, Auto mode would suffer when the buzz level drops and would typically re-hunt for a different buzz fundamental. In this mode the removal filters follow the nominal frequency. Detect display Indicates the degree of detection that the buzz detection circuit has achieved. Output Level meter (dB) This meter is designed to give exactly 1 dB per LED for the top 18 dB of dynamic range, and 2 dB per LED thereafter. There is a peak-hold feature that holds the highest peak, helping to give a better impression of the working dynamic range. Trim Output Level Allows you to reduce the output level by up to 12 dB. Dithering is applied after output gain control, so it may be necessary to reduce this value by a small amount to avoid clipping. Using the Sonnox DeBuzzer •Find the nominal frequency. Start with Sensitivity and Attenuation controls at the default positions (90 % and -48 dB). • If you know the rough frequency of the nominal, select that frequency using either the knob or by typing into the touch pad. •In Auto mode, allow the detector time to drift towards the actual fundamental. The Detect display indicates confidence of hum detection. Auto mode should be used if the fundamental drifts over time.
Plug-in Reference Sonnox Restoration Toolkit 364 •Freeze mode should be used to select a specific frequency that might be variable in strength. Fine Adjust (which forces Freeze mode) can be used to increase the resolution of selecting the fundamental. • If you are still having difficulty finding the fundamental, use the Tone control. • The Hum mode removes harmonics up to 800 Hz. If you can hear harmonics that are higher in frequency, select Buzz mode, which removes harmonics up to 4000 Hz. If there are no harmonics above 800 Hz, be sure to use Hum mode to preserve as much original audio as possible. • In order to cause as little damage to the audio as possible, back off the attenuation until you can just hear the buzz, then increase it until the buzz is inaudible. • Then reduce the sensitivity until the buzz is inaudible. Sonnox DeClicker Sonnox DeClicker allows you to remove clicks from audio material. Sonnox Menu Options Button Opens a menu where you can select the following options: • Duration of the input/output meter clip lights hold (indefinitely, 2s, 5s) • Information about the version number and build date Input Level Meter Gives exactly 1 dB per LED for the top 18 dB of dynamic range, and 2 dB per LED thereafter. This gives a clear and intuitive impression of the working headroom.
Plug-in Reference Sonnox Restoration Toolkit 365 Trim Input Level Allows you to adjust the input signal level by up to ±12 dB. Sensitivity Fader and Touch Pad (%) (DePop, DeClick, DeCrackle) Controls the sensitivity of the detection circuits. Fully sensitive might allow the detection circuit to react to low level signals and possibly mis-classify programme as pops or clicks. Stronger pops and clicks require a less sensitive setting. In Button (DePop, DeClick, DeCrackle) Enables the pop, click or crackle removal processing. When In is deactivated, the pop, click, or crackle detection circuit is still enabled and the detect display still shows the degree of event detection. Detect Meter Display (DePop, DeClick, DeCrackle) Combines two indications. The main rising column indicates the sum of the energy of events that have been detected. With the In button de-selected (i.e. the repair circuit disabled), this column is colored orange/red. With the repair circuit active the column is colored blue. The bottom segment of the meter is an indication of each individual detected event. Output Level Meter (dB) Gives exactly 1 dB per LED for the top 18 dB of dynamic range, and 2 dB per LED thereafter. There is a peak-hold feature that holds the highest peak, helping to give a better impression of the working dynamic range. Trim Output Level Allows you to reduce the output level by up to 12 dB. Dithering is applied after output gain control, so it can be necessary to reduce this value by a small amount to avoid clipping. Using the Sonnox DeClicker •We recommend repair the larger and more energetic events first. • If there are large displacement events in the programme material, enable the DePop section and raise the sensitivity fader until the largest events are detected and repaired. • For clicks, enable that section and raise the sensitivity fader until they are detected and repaired. • Finally, if there is crackle left, enable that section and raise its fader to remove the crackle.
Plug-in Reference Sonnox Restoration Toolkit 366 • There is necessarily some degree of overlap in the detection circuits of clicks and crackle. Decreasing the DeClick sensitivity can increase the apparent detection of crackle and increasing the DeClick sensitivity can indicate less crackle. Best results are likely if the two controls are balanced. Sonnox DeNoiser Sonnox DeNoiser removes wide-band noise from audio material. Sonnox Menu Options button Opens a menu where you can select the following options: • Duration of the input/output meter clip lights hold (indefinitely, 2 s, 5 s) • Knob behavior • Information about the version number and build date Graphical display Shows the real-time frequency/gain curve of the program material. It is graduated from 0 to 20 kHz and from 0 to -144 dB. The yellow line is the calculated noise spectrum level, and in Adapt mode continually follows the noise in real time. Everything below this contour is assumed to be noise, and everything above the line is program signal. Input Level meter This meter is designed to give exactly 1 dB per LED for the top 18 dB of dynamic range, and 2 dB per LED thereafter. This gives a clear and intuitive impression of the working headroom. Trim Input Level Allows you to adjust the input signal level by up to ±12 dB.
Plug-in Reference Sonnox Restoration Toolkit 367 Sensitivity fader and Trim touch pad (dB) The sensitivity fader defaults to 0.0 dB, which is the midpoint of its travel. It adjusts the sensitivity of the noise detection circuit, and the visible effect of this is to move the yellow noise contour line up and down. The sensitivity level can be changed by up to ±18 dB. To reduce the sensitivity and make the DeNoiser less reactive to the noise component, move the fader down. The noise contour displaces downwards, showing less noise component in the detection circuit. If the sensitivity is set too low, little noise reduction occurs. To increase the sensitivity and make the DeNoiser more reactive to the noise component, move the fader up. The noise contour displaces upwards, showing more noise component in the detection circuit. The default setting is for the noise contour to lie just below the peaks of the signal. Making the detection circuit more sensitive to noise decreases the signal component, possibly pushing the contour up towards the peaks of the signal. In this case, it is likely that processing artifacts are heard, as the noise removal circuit acts on the signal component as well as the noise component. Adapt button Enables Adapt mode for the noise detection circuit. In this mode the noise fingerprint is continually calculated and updated. This mode is useful for material with a time-varying noise component. Freeze button Enables Freeze mode for the noise detection circuit. In this mode the noise fingerprint is calculated. This mode is useful for material with a constant noise component, and would typically be sampled when the signal is absent and only the noise component is present. In button Enables the noise removal processing. It allows glitch-less comparisons with and without the noise reduction. When In is deactivated, the noise detection circuit is still enabled and the graphical display still shows the real-time frequency display and the noise contour line. HF Limit knob and touch pad (Hz) Displays and controls the frequency beyond which the attenuation is applied nondynamically. Scrolling the frequency down from the default of 22 kHz shows a red region in the frequency display that has a fixed attenuation. To the left of the HF Limit line the noise removal circuit behaves as normal. To the right the signal is attenuated by a fixed amount set by the attenuation fader. This mode is useful for band-limited program material.
Plug-in Reference Sonnox Restoration Toolkit 368 A good example is a low bitrate encoded signal, which might be band limited to 12 kHz. Due to the sharp discontinuity, the noise removal circuit can introduce audible artifacts around the band limit, and setting the HF Limit frequency slightly lower than the band limit removes those artifacts. Attenuation fader and touch pad (dB) Determine the level of attenuation that the noise removal circuit applies in the range 0 to -18 dB. Generally this should be set so that the noise reduction is pleasing. Excessive use of attenuation can degrade the signal unnecessarily. Output Level meter (dB) This meter is designed to give exactly 1 dB per LED for the top 18 dB of dynamic range, and 2 dB per LED thereafter. There is a peak-hold feature that holds the highest peak, helping to give a better impression of the working dynamic range. Trim Output Level Allows you to reduce the output level by up to 12 dB. Dithering is applied after output gain control, so it can be necessary to reduce this value by a small amount to avoid clipping. Using the Sonnox DeNoiser •Start with Sensitivity and Attenuation controls at the default positions (0.0 dB and -4.5 dB). • Select Adapt mode if the noise varies in time. Select Freeze for a defined and static noise fingerprint. • Adjust the Sensitivity to find the correct balance between being too low (not enough noise is removed) and too high (too much signal is removed). • Adjust the Attenuation to find the most pleasing audio. Too much attenuation can impair the audio, either by reducing brightness or by introducing low-level distortion. You might be working with bandwidth-limited material, possibly as a result of sample rate conversion or lossy compression (for example, limited at around 10 kHz). If you experience distortion around the limit try reducing the HF Limit control. Adjust until it lies just to the lower frequency side of the limit (around 9.5 kHz in our example).
Plug-in Reference Legacy Plug-ins 369 Legacy Plug-ins Under Windows, a set of plug-ins is provided for compatibility with audio projects that referenced these effects when using earlier versions of WaveLab Elements. An audio montage which referenced these plug-ins would otherwise require cumbersome user intervention to open, for example. Their use with new audio projects is not recommended and they are not documented. Dithering Plug-ins Dithering plug-ins add small quantities of noise to a signal to reduce the audibility of low level distortion in a digital recording. A small amount of random noise is added to the analog signal before the sampling stage, reducing the effect of quantization errors. Internal Dithering This is a built-in plug-in that provides a simple way of adding a small amount of noise to the rendered signal to improve the apparent signal-to-noise ratio of the output. The following parameters are available when selecting Internal. Noise Type Sets the noise type for adding to the signal. •In No Noise mode, no dithering is applied. • The Noise Type 1 mode is the most all-round method. • The Noise Type 2 mode emphasizes higher frequencies more than Noise Type 1. Noise Shaping Increases the apparent signal to noise ratio by altering the spectrum of the low-level audio signal which results from lowering the number of bits. The higher the number you select here, the more the noise is moved out of the ear’s mid-range.
Plug-in Reference Dithering Plug-ins 370 Bit Resolution Allows you to specify the intended bit resolution for the final audio, after dithering, regardless of whether you want to render the settings or play back in real-time. Dithering changes the sample resolution, but not the sample size. For example, when dithering 24 bit to 16 bit, the file will still be 24 bit in size, although only 16 bits of information will have significance. When rendering to a 16-bit file, specify the file resolution to avoid wasting space.