A common mistake beginning sound designers make - and I was certainly no exception to this, is using too many noisy source elements in the construction of their sound effects. Or not taming that noise adequately enough. Which can often lead to a build up of high frequency content that can be fatiguing and unpleasant to listen to. Even piercing in some cases. Not something that’s desirable for a game audio assets that players may listen to multiple times in a play session. A harsh sounding gunshot would soon get tiresome to listen to over and over again.
Using noise reduction plugins can be a simple way to mitigate this problem. They are typically easy to use and don’t have many controls to bog you down with. Usually just separate frequency bands that you can adjust the focus for the noise reduction taking place.
As well as providing noise reduction, they can also serve a useful role in sound design beyond just typical clean up purposes. Using heavy noise reduction on a sound can have a dramatic effect on that sound. Taken to its extremes, you can often only be left with the tonal components of a sound. Which can quickly turn a naturally recorded sound into something that sounds synthetic. A process that can be very fruitful for Sci-Fi, Glitch and more abstract sound design.
Here are some of my favorite noise reduction plugins that I use daily as a freelance sound designer. While they all do a similar thing, they each have their own characteristic sound when driven hard.
RX Voice De-Noise
Probably one of the more well known noise reduction plugins out there, as RX’s primary function is for audio cleanup and repair. Voice De-Noise is quick and simple to use and it’s the plugin I’ll turn to when I need some quick and painless noise reduction. Maybe you have some source you really like, but it’s just a bit too noisy and unpleasant in the upper frequencies. Such as an explosion, for example. Voice de-noise will clean it up effortlessly so that it’s ready for further creative processing. Now you won’t have to worry about those piercing highs.
Melda RatioMB
MRatio is the plugin I’m more likely to turn to for when I want to push the noise reduction really hard, rather than just simple noise clean up. Although it excels in that regard too.
To push MRation hard so that you’re only left with the tonal content of a sound, click on the Noise/Tonal option on the left hand bar when you open the plugin. You will then see the interface as it appears in the image above. There is a Noise band and a Tonal band. To drive it hard and remove all the noise from a sound, turn the Noise ratio knob all the way to the right so that it’s at 100%.
Doing this can lead to some very synthetic sounding results. Sometimes with artifacts that can actually be useful for some forms of design, like SciFi style content.
Or if you want a more subtle effect, drive it less.
Waves WNS
Much like RX Voice de-noise, this is another noise reduction plugin whose primary purpose is stated as a dialog noise suppressor. It’s an adaptive noise suppressor that aims to reduce the noise of a dialogue recording while highlighting the frequencies of the voice itself. This isn’t the plugin for surgical noise reduction. I use it more for gentle taming. It has a 6-band dynamic EQ engine that you can adjust according to the frequency content of the input signal.
I sometimes like to use this on layered sound effects to tame some of the noise buildup that can be present when you stack multiple processed layers together.
Waves Z-Noise
An oldie and a classic. Probably not best in class, but it can provide some interesting artifacts when driven really hard. Which, like Melda RatioMB can be great for more abstract and futuristic sound design.
Bertom Denoiser Classic
What I like about this one is that it has zero latency and super low CPU usage. Perhaps the lowest CPU usage out of all the plugins here. Like Waves WNS, this also has 6 bands that you can attenuate how you like depending on the source material. Because this plugin hasn’t been specifically created for dialogue noise reduction, I feel that I often get nicer results on using this on sound effects as opposed to WNS.
Best of all, this plugin is free. So why not grab it from Bertom Audio’s website.
The key is not to overwhelm yourself with numerous plugins but to ensure you have at least one reliable noise reduction plugin in your asernal. Consider adding Melda RatioMB and Bertom Denoiser Classic - both free options, to your collection if you haven’t already.
In conclusion, as a freelance sound designer, incorporating noise reduction plugins into your workflow can significantly enhance the quality of your game audio assets. Whether it's cleaning up noisy elements or pushing the boundaries for creative sound design, these tools are indispensable in our arsenal.
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The Author
This article was written by Oliver Smith. A long-time remote working freelance sound designer dedicated to making gameplay enhancing sound for games.