Help ! Need dynamic range expander ???

Thomas-Monks wrote on 6/15/2024, 6:45 PM

Greetings Everyone !

Ok, here's the situation, during graduation, sound board failed. I only had my in camera microphone. Add to that some 60hz buzz which I removed (fairly well) with a denoise AI plugin, but left some phasing-sounding residual. ALSO, because I couldn't get a decent level recorded, It came in around -15db. I thought a dynamic range expander (opposite of a compressor). I would think it would bury the residual noise deep in the signal and increase the spoken word dynamic range level. Any ideas ? Thanks, Tom. BTW running VP 19. on my PC Laptop.

Comments

Zaither-P wrote on 6/16/2024, 9:21 AM

You just gotta find a compressor-expander vst plugin that lets you have less than a 1:1 ratio. (0.5:1 would double the dynamic range)

Also, if the audio is stereo, you might be able to just take either the left or right channel and make one of them mono- that might sound better

rraud wrote on 6/16/2024, 9:44 AM

You could try SpectraLayers Pro to separate voice for the other elements and then process with the necessary dynamics. iZ's RXv Advanced can also separate voice from other content, Then are free un-mix processors available, but I have not tried them.
In any case, it will still not sound any wheres as good as a feed from the house system.

DMT3 wrote on 6/16/2024, 11:26 AM

You shouldn't need the noise sample to minimize 60hz buzz. You should be able to roll that off with an EQ. That way you won't get that weird phasing.

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 6/16/2024, 5:00 PM

@Thomas-Monks The Vegas Graphic Dynamics FX can do either compression or expansion... there's no supplied preset for expansion but it can be achieved manually by inserting break-points along the neutral transfer function line... upward slopes are expansion while the opposite are compression. In the example below, the original recording was recorded at -6db and I added a break-point sloped for expansion (gain) using no attack or release delays. I pulled the expanded track back into the project on the track just below the original recording to show the difference.

If you have hum or other noise at a known lower level, you can also try throwing a break-point farther down to lower gain for a combination that realizes upward peak unloading with downward compression. Eq up front should make it more manageable.

Thomas-Monks wrote on 6/17/2024, 1:27 AM

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER !!!

Sorry I was wrong, wasn't 60hz...but many frequencies. I neglected to say this was a graduation with music, etc... So the first thing I tried was "BL DENOISER" during a brief break in speech. That got rid of it (almost) but left residual electronic 'phasing sounds' at around -30db. I used Graphic Dynamics, made the regular line from 0db to -28db, then straight to -inf for anything below that... magic :-)