Discover the latest industry news and audio post production.
A detailed review of Accentize dxRevive Pro, an AI-powered speech restoration tool designed to enhance dialogue quality by restoring missing frequencies and reducing unwanted noise with minimal effort.
November 3, 2023
No matter the medium, if it involves spoken word we all abide by one rule, dialogue is king. With people around the world still working remotely, often completing tasks such as podcasting, or ADR recording, the importance of an audible and consistent dialogue track seems to only be rising. Paired with a recent boom in AI development, so is the amount of commercially available audio restoration tools. Today on the 344 Audio blog, we’ll take an in-depth look at Accentize’ speech restoration plug-in, dxRevive Pro.
Company: Accentize
Product: dxRevive Pro
Price: £259
Our Rating: 4.9/5
dxRevive is an AI powered restoration tool designed to restore and enhance dialogue that wasn’t captured in optimal conditions or environments. Accentize took a different approach to other commercial offerings with this plug-in. Highlighting its restorative abilities as opposed to its reductive abilities, it’s clear to users that the intended use of dxRevive isn’t just to remove unwanted noise, but to add a level of quality to your recordings.
In their own words:
dxRevive is a versatile speech restoration plugin, dedicated to enriching the quality of various dialogue recordings. Unlike many other restoration plugins, dxRevive doesn’t merely filter the signal. It goes beyond, identifying and reintegrating missing frequency components, yielding studio-like recordings from diverse source materials.
Accentize offers 2 versions of their product, dxRevive and dxRevive Pro. The former includes 4 presets, 100% local processing, and Multi-language/accent processing with their Studio algorithm (designed to enhance your audio quality to sound like it was recorded in an acoustically treated studio). Whilst Pro boasts the Studio algorithm, alongside their Retain Character algorithm (designed to retain the essence of your recordings while eliminating noise and giving it a boost in perceived quality), quick A-B comparison, Spectral Focus mode for fine tuning up to 4 frequency bands, plus 2 extra presets for ‘Restore Phone’ and ‘Restore Low-End’. Today we’ll be taking a look at dxRevive Pro.
Upon launch, you’re met with a very minimalistic layout consisting of 3 adjustable parameters (Mix, Gain In, Gain Out), A/B comparison, preset selector, algorithm selector, and a frequency spectrogram. A hint of blue compliments the black and greys that make up most of the U.I, resulting in a sleek and high end looking interface that doesn’t confuse or overwhelm users.
We used both algorithms on recordings of varying quality. Some captured in rooms with no acoustic treatment, some zoom audio, and some well captured with only minor noise or reverb issues. Below, we've included some before and after examples of dxRevive in action.
The Studio algorithm yields most noticeable results overall, doing a great job suppressing reverb with little to no artefacts, or changes to noise floor level. And, easily dealing with basic issues like hisses, hums and background noise, which were cleared up using the default settings. Even on more troublesome recordings, we were pleasantly surprised at how effective this tool is with minimal parameter adjustments. The worst case we used it on was captured over zoom, with a hiss throughout, in an extremely reverberant room, and a reasonable amount of background noise (A children's sports day nearby in this scenario). We tried the ‘full revive’ preset which has Mix set to 100% by default, and the results were incredible. The studio algorithm managed to resolve most issues, whilst restoring low end and other missing frequencies to a very satisfactory level. On more subtle cases where zoom compression is the culprit of sub par audio quality, we found that starting with either Phone Restore or Default settings and making changes to taste garnered best results.
Being designed for use on recordings captured with better gear, in better environments, the Retain character algorithm offers more subtle results. Used on content like this, it’s great at removing unwanted noise from recordings and making subtle changes to reverb levels and perceived quality. To really see what it was capable of, we tried it on the worst zoom recording, plagued with issues that we tackled with the Studio algorithm, and the results were impressive. You’ll still be able to tell it’s a zoom recording. But aside from the lack of heavy handed frequency restoration in this algorithm and some extreme background noise seeping through, we were left with usable audio.
We would use this plug-in to enhance our Dialogue, or Podcast editing workflows.
There are more commercial offerings available today for audio restoration and noise reduction software than ever before. However, keep in mind that owning more than one plug-in designed for particular tasks is often good practice. Accentize’ choice to primarily focus on the audio restoration quality dxRevive offers, as opposed to noise reduction, sets it apart from other products aiming to enhance speech related workflows. An easy to use interface combined with the well designed and implemented algorithms make this a great tool to have in your arsenal.
Looking to the future, it would be great to see more presets or extra parameters giving users more control over specific use cases. I.e Reverb elimination, absent frequency restoration, elimination of Codec artefacts. Whilst the U.I could benefit from a minor change of colour to differentiate the Output Signal Line from other elements which all share the same colour within the bottom half of the window.
dxRevive and dxRevive Pro are available as VST3, Audio Units or AAX plug-in on both PC and Mac.
For more from Accentize and the purchase information for dxRevive, follow these links:
A comprehensive review of Pro Sound Effects' CORE 5 Standard bundle, analyzing its vast collection of high-quality sound libraries, standout features, and usability for sound designers across various industries.
October 25, 2023
Company: Pro Sound Effects
Product: CORE 5 Standard Bundle
Price: $1,999 (Currently on sale $1,499) for Freelancers.
Our Rating: 4.9/5
Pro Sound Effects latest release brings together some of their most iconic libraries. Including recordings from the personal collections of a number of award winning recordists, CORE 5 Standard is one of 5 options that offers general library bundles for a variety of budgets and experience ranges.
CORE 5 Standard bundle is a compilation of 41 libraries from Pro Sound Effects, 6 of these released in the last year. Inside, you’ll find over 180,000 sounds, covering more than 560 USC categories. Some taken from the personal collections of sound design pioneers, such as; Ann Kroeber, Alan Splet, Mark Mangini, Richard L. Anderson and Richard King over their decades spanning careers. With a total file size of 900GB, there are 3 delivery options available; SoundQ, sound library workflow software developed by Pro Sound Effects themselves, granting instant cloud access to files. Local Download, using a dedicated download manager and your own internet connection. Or finally, A 1TB Hard Drive which is covered by a 3 year warranty. It’s worth noting that, should you choose the physical Hard Drive, you will gain access to SoundQ and Local Download for immediate use of sounds.
The 45,000+ WAV files within CORE 5 Standard, boast royalty free sound effects in a combination of Mono, Stereo, LCR, Quad, 5.1 and 7.1. File formats vary between libraries, but include 16/48, 24/48, 24/96 and 24/192. We suspect the inclusion of 16bit is most probably due to technological limitations at the time of recording.
A large number of these libraries were compiled from sounds captured for specific projects (usually with a Hollywood budget at their disposal), by legendary sound designers. Or curated from their private collections accumulated over the years, and you can certainly hear it. Whether it was an intrigued ‘ohhhh’, or gritting of the teeth, as we listened through the content of CORE 5, we found ourselves having audible, and emotional responses frequently. No doubt due to the love and attention that went into creating these sounds. The variety of intensities, and perspective in recordings will make incorporating them into your workflow incredibly fast, with minimal need for processing or manipulation to achieve the tone your project requires.
Some standout additions are the generous amount of Alan Splet & Ann Kroeber's archive, Ann’s Animals and Cinematic Winds being our favourites. Along with the weird and wonderful Interference by Jason Strawley & Andrew Garraway, including a tonne of great sound design elements. And finally, Sonomar Collection: Bass Machine, abstract recordings of a custom built contraption by Martin Pinsonnault and the team at Sonomar.
For this review we used both SoundQ (free version), and the physical hard drive to explore CORE 5. Navigation of this huge collection of sounds via SoundQ was incredibly easy and straightforward. Just select the library you want and away you go. The ability to sort libraries or search results through channel number, bit depth, sample rate etc makes searching quicker and easier. Since the introduction of cloud sound libraries, and at large, the industries shift into subscription based business models, it’s comforting to see such a respected company still offering physical versions of their products.
Make sure to read our ‘Categories of Irresistible Effects’ section below for our detailed analysis of each library. Please note, we have previously reviewed 2 libraries included in CORE 5 Standard bundle; The Odyssey Collection: Essentials, and Colossal.
The content of CORE 5 itself is amazing. Looking to future releases however, it would be great to see more consistency in the length of Ambience sounds. We noticed a lot of the featured ambiences were under 2 minutes (sometimes less than 1 minute), which doesn’t render these sounds unusable thanks to the 1,100+ Ambience files that are over 3 minutes.
Some small areas for improvement relating only to the physical hard drive, would be folder structure. Some libraries have files separated into dedicated category folders, whilst others only include 1 ‘Sounds’ folder with all content inside. Due to the bundled nature of the product, it would also be great to have a master sound list included. Some libraries include a .XLSX metadata file that could be converted, but this isn’t the case for all of them.
Whether you’re an experienced sound designer looking to combine one of the CORE 5 bundles with your existing libraries, or at the earlier stage of your career looking to utilise them as a starting point for your first general library, there isn’t much that the Standard bundle would leave you wanting. Being captured for project specific needs means the variety of tone and character captured in these libraries will cover most projects you’ll come across.
For more from Pro Sound Effects and purchase information for CORE 5 bundles, visit these links:
CORE 5 Standard - https://bit.ly/470jwlZ
CORE 5 Bundles - https://bit.ly/45DGLkE
SoundQ - https://bit.ly/473nM4c
Pro Sound Effects - https://bit.ly/45FoenX
Check out our verdict of each library, so that you know what to expect:
King Collection: Vol. 1 - 3,400 files, 113GB, 196 Categories:A collection of 15,000+ sounds from the private collection of Academy Award Winner, Richard King. File formats include 24/48, 24/96 and 24/192. Great variation of perspective throughout, especially with the metal destruction sounds. A nice selection of crowd and designed surround recordings is also a welcome addition.
Sound Mountain Collection: Vol. 1 - 1,610 files, 37GB:One of many inclusions curated from the private archives of industry legends Ann Krober & Alan Splet. Captured throughout their decades spanning careers, some recordings in this library could be over 40 years old! And for the most part, they were captured so well that you wouldn’t be able to tell. Aside from some sub 1 minute ambiences, everything here is great content to have access and sounds incredible.
Gen Collection: Vol. 1 - 10,480 files, 208GB, 360+ categories, 16/48, 24/48, 24/96:A collection of 37,000+ sounds captured by recordists at Pro Sound Effects within the last 5-10 years. File formats include 16/48, 24/48 and 24/96. The modern gear used to capture sounds included here would be great to compliment any older libraries or sound which were limited by available technology at the time of recording. Covers a great amount of categories. However, it was surprising to see 16 bit files included in a modern library.
Gen Collection: Vol. 2 - 3,216 files, 168GB, 220+ categories, 24/48, 24/96, 24/192, 32/192:While working on a number of award-winning film and TV projects, Martin Pinsonnault and the team at Sonomar identified sounds that were most needed, but frequently missing from other libraries and set out to fill some of these gaps. Some nice variations of sounds you will have heard covered in other commercial libraries, our stand out inclusions were a good selection of Police station, Cat vocalisations and boat sounds.
Gen Collection: Vol. 3 - 2,276 files, 65.86GB, 170+ categories, 24/48, 24/96, 24/192:The last General Library in CORE 5 Standard. A broad range of sounds. Covering common, everyday sounds whilst hitting some more obscure gems. The bonus addition of 6 impulse responses to create your own reverbs is a great surprise.
Odyssey Collection: Essentials:
Read our full, in-depth analysis of Odyssey Collection: Essentials here.
Ambient Moods - 180 files, 6.15GB, 24/48:
Created with a different emotion in mind for each track, Tim O’Keefe (As I Lay Dying, The Sound Of Fury) crafted 31 fascinating tracks (delivered with 149 stems for maximum flexibility) that blur the lines between music and sound design.
Anime - 657 files, 4.8GB, 24/48, 24/96:
Great collection of sounds that nail the classic anime tone the team set out to achieve. You’ll find 468 unique files, with 189 duplicates which were mastered to tape. Some content included would be great sound design material for not just anime, but games, sci-fi, horror/thriller and more experimental projects.
Ann’s Animals - 115 files, 1.69GB, 24/48:
Recorded by sound design pioneer Ann Kroeber, this library is a fantastic collection of animal vocalisations, spanning Gators to Mice, Elephants to Frogs, and lots between. You can hear the love that went into capturing these sounds. The only downside would be the technological limitations at the time means no 96kHz or above files.
Canines - 648 files, 11GB, 24/192:10 breeds of dog were used to cover a variety of sizes and sounds. Incredibly in-depth and well recorded library. Multiple microphones were used to ensure a great selection of perspectives for the barking sounds.
Cinematic Winds - 98 files, 3.3GB, 24/48:
Another library of legendary sounds, from duo Ann Kroeber & Alan Splet. 3 hours of iconic wind recordings, covering 5 categories. Everything included here is beautiful, and ready to drag and drop into your DAW with zero processing needed.
Colossal -
Read our full, in-depth analysis of Colossal here.
Detonate - 84 files, 2.44GB, 24/96:A nice collection of both designed, and real explosions curated from the private collections of award winners, Mark Mangini & Richard L. Anderson. 42 unique files are delivered in stereo and 5.1 to suit whatever your project needs. We are huge fans of this. Captured and made extremely well, allowing you to have plenty of variety to design your own explosions, or the option to drag and drop pre-designed sounds straight into your sessions if you lack time.
Doors - 125 files, 803MB, 24/48:
Taken from Richard King’s private collection. As expected, the variety in perspectives, speeds, and intensities is great. It would have been lovely to see some metal doors included. Aside from that, most door types you would need are covered.
Ember - 79 files, 2.29GB, 24/48:
Another addition that was curated from Richard King’s archives. This is a beautiful library. Aside from more extreme design work, this inclusion could easily be the only fire library you would need. There’s something for everyone here. From small, crackling campfires, to roaring infernos.
Foley Essentials - 93 files, 400MB, 24/48, 24/96:
Recorded by Mark Mangini & Richard L. Anderson to fill out temp mixes before the traditional foley process takes place. This library aims to cover general foley sounds that may happen off screen, or don’t require synced performance. Being able to cover less important aspects of the foley tracklay is great to allow the artist(s) and mixer(s) more time to give finesse and character to the story driving aspects, without compromising on the level of detail.
Footsteps - 1,499 files, 2.4GB, 16/48, 24/44.1, 24/48:
Features a huge selection of footwear, on both interior and exterior surfaces. If you don’t have the budget or access to a dedicated Foley team, having this library at your disposal would no doubt save you some headaches.
Gators - 75 files, 520MB, 24/96, 24/192:
Recorded over the span of 7 years by recordist Colin Hart. Gators is a truly unique library, and immense tool for any sound designer. The pristinely captured sounds are complemented well by the inclusion of hydrophone recordings. Giving users great flexibility for layering and manipulation.
Industrial Sounds with Soul - 42 files, 638MB, 24/48:
Another addition from Ann Kroeber & Alan Splet. An interesting collection of industrial recordings. Includes some classic machine/mechanical sounds, but seems like it would get more use today as sound design source material.
Interference - 641 files, 10.24GB, 24/96, 24/192:
Using a SOMA labs Ether recorder, then manipulating with a range of modern and vintage synthesisers and instruments. Jason Strawley & Andrew Garraway created a fascinating collection of sounds. Along with the usual suspects you’d find in an Interference library, you’ll find great sound design elements for vehicles, explosions and weapons just to name a few.
Kinetic - 32 files, 40MB, 24/48:
A collection of Woosh, pass-by, and flutter effects custom-designed by Mark Mangini. Steering clear of the generic wooshes you’d find in other commercial libraries, Kinetic focuses on a more abstract, designed style of sounds. Great for projects you might not have as much time as you’d prefer.
Liminal Void - 100 files, 4.49GB, 24/96:
A collection of designed ambiences, rumbles, drones and pulses by Ann Kroeber & Alan Splet. Great to see a library focused more on designed sounds from this duo, and even better to see files in 24/96, granting sound designers more potential for manipulation. If this library doesn’t include the sound you’re looking for, it will certainly include the inspiration you need to go and create it.
NYC Ambisonics - 53 files, 43GB, 24/96:
Beautifully captured using a Soundfield Ambisonic microphone, this library includes all 53 recordings in both stereo and B-Format. Provided your DAW of choice supports Quad tracks, the included SurroundZone 2 plugin allows you to manipulate recordings by pointing ‘virtual microphones’ in any direction. No matter which version of the sounds you chose, you’ll find each location bursting with personality and clarity.
Odyssey Collection: Design Elements - 253 files, 1.61GB, 16/48, 24/48:
Created in collaboration between Mark Mangini & Richard L. Anderson, you’ll find design elements spanning 17 different categories of sounds (Creatures, Weapons, Sci-Fi to name a few). It was a little disappointing to discover some categories only included 1 or 2 sounds, whilst others contained great variety. However, Creatures, Swooshes, and Metal included some wonderful effects.
Pass Bys - 50 files, 381MB, 24/48, 24/96:
Another collection curated from Richard King’s private collection. Packed to the brim with Car (Electric and Petrol), Truck, Bus, and Motorbike pass bys, all captured pristinely. Captured outdoors with no noise or background issues within build ups or tails of sounds. Minimal processing would be needed to make this fit seamlessly into your projects.
Print - 50 files, 2.2GB, 24/96:
An in-depth collection of Printer recordings. Capturing each separate action and component, from multiple perspectives allowed the team behind this to get a range of high detail sounds, with huge potential for manipulation. As a bonus, you’ll also find some pre-designed sounds in both stereo, and surround to show what this versatile library is capable of.
Rain - 165 files, 13.47GB, 24/48, 24/96:
With a range of multichannel microphone set ups, and a custom-built rainshield, Mark Mangini painstakingly captured this library with the goal of avoiding rains that sound like white noise. And boy, did he achieve it. Rain is bursting with character. The unique textures that the impact, and movement of rain in each different location creates shines through in every recording. The inclusion of surround formats adds an extra layer of realism and immersion.
Sonomar Collection: Bass Machine - 720 files, 15GB, 24/96, 24/192:
Martin Pinsonnault and the team at Sonomar built a custom contraption to create this library. Captured using contact microphones and guitar pickups, then experimenting with editing, and manipulation techniques, they managed to bring to life one of the most unique, and inspiring libraries in this bundle.
Sonomar Collection: Crowds - 421 files, 31GB, 24/48, 24/96:
A fantastic collection of ambiences featuring an impressive variety of internal and external locations, from around the world. The inclusion of group walla, in various languages and locations makes this an incredibly useful library to have access too.
Sonomar Collection: Crystal Sing - 46 files, 790MB, 24/192:
Another great addition from Martin Pinsonnault and the Sonomar team. Created using 6 different types of glass, and a pair of Sennheiser MKH-8040 microphones. This could very well be the only library to cover this very distinct sound, not to mention how useful it would be as sound design elements.
Tires - 276 files, 9.25GB, 24/96:
Taken from the world-class Richard King Vehicle series, Tires includes not only external recordings of pass bys, stops, starts and skids, both with great detail and focus on the tire. But on board recordings with minimal engine interference due to great microphone placement.
Urban Elements - 344 files, 1.71GB, 24/48:
Recorded in Los Angeles by Eric A. Norris (Ford V Ferrari, Spiderman: Homecoming).The focus of this collection is bringing the immense level of detail that backgrounds need for maximum immersion. To capture iconic elements of the L.A/U.S soundscape, so cleanly, with such quality is a fantastic achievement.
Useful Interface = 753 files, 420MB, 16/48:
A collection of User Interface elements. Most sounds included are ready to use out of the box or as a layer in your sound design. Having these sounds in 24/96 or above for better quality manipulation would add more usability to this library.
Vault Door - 59 files, 2.01GB, 24/96, 24/192:
Captured by Chris Diebold (Spiderman: No Way Home) & Tobias Poppe (Jojo Rabbit). Being surrounded by concrete in the process gave the duo both isolation from unwanted noise, and massive sounding, natural reverbs. Resulting in a great sounding collection of huge metal recordings including doors, chains, gear rotations and more.
Vehicle Workup: 2001 Saleen Mustang - 11 files, 1.61GB, 24/48:
Every part of the Mustang you could need, was captured by Mark Mangini & Richard L. Anderson, in every perspective you could want for this in-depth library. With the unique sounds these cars make, the only downside to this addition being it’s the only car library to go into such detail included.
Water Flow - 40 files, 1.8GB, 24/48:
A stunning collection of flowing water through both internal and exterior locations. Yet another pristinely captured library from Martin Pinsonnault and the Sonomar team. Every single recording is the highest quality and suffers no issues with noise, even from pesky birds.
Waterphone - 27 files, 420.81MB, 24/96, 24/192:
Captured by Robert Kellough (Dune, Ant Man), this collection of instantly recognisable sounds come from the unusual instruments known as the Waterphone. Perfect for horror/thriller projects, or anything that needs some eerie sound design or tension build ups.
Waves, Wind, Water - 92 files, 21GB, 24/96:
Delivered in both Quad and Stereo to suit whatever your workflow, these carefully recorded sounds captured such great levels of detail, your audience will be transported beach side in an instant.
Wildlife Collection: Bengal Tiger - 150 files, 3GB, 24/192:
Recorded using multi microphone setups, including the Sanken CO-100K (Frequency response of 20Hz-100kHz) enabled Chris Diebold and the rest of the team to capture these sounds in incredible detail. Delivering a full, in-tact frequency spectrum for any sound design you may want to use these for. All the included effects sound amazing just dragging and dropping. Look no further for a Tiger library.
Exploring the profound impact of audio quality on communication, entertainment, and immersive experiences, this blog highlights the importance of sound clarity and technological advancements in achieving an optimal listening experience.
September 14, 2023
Sound plays a vital role in our lives, painting vivid melodies that resonate with emotions and shape our experiences. From the gentle rustle of leaves to the thunderous crescendo of a symphony orchestra, audio quality serves as the brushstroke that gives life to these auditory masterpieces.
This article explores the profound significance of audio quality enhancement, highlighting its role in elevating the listening experience, improving communication, and keeping pace with the relentless march of technological advancements.
Understanding the importance of audio quality is essential for ensuring a seamless and immersive listening experience. High-quality audio enhances the audiences thrill by providing clarity, depth, and richness to the sound. It allows listeners to fully appreciate and enhance intended emotions, dynamics, and subtleties of the music or audio content.
Optimizing your sound quality is the first step on the path to achieving a transcendent audio experience. This is often overlooked in the recording process due to huge technological advancements and the integration of artificial intelligence into audio restoration tools.
One fascinating statistic to consider is that 75% of consumers rate the sound quality as the most critical feature when choosing audio playback devices. Whilst factors such as the capabilities of your microphones, recorders and digital software will have a huge role to play in your audio quality, there are external factors that can be managed to reduce the level of processing your content may need. One way to achieve this is through improved acoustics. Optimizing the physical environment of your recording space will be a huge help in minimizing sound distortion and reflections.
Audio quality plays a crucial role in effective communication. Whether it's ensuring clear and intelligible speech in teleconferencing software, or achieving a clean and consistent dialogue track. The benefits of prioritizing audio quality are evident the world over. Remote working has become a huge part of our lives, allowing people from all over the world to collaborate. It's common for directors to attend sessions via software such has Zoom, in these scenarios both sides broadcasting and receiving high quality audio is crucial for successful conversation or collaboration. Even outside of the audio post production landscape, high profile court cases such as the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard case brought mainstream attention to how important audio quality can be in, no matter how irrelevant it may seem.
The pursuit of optimal audio quality serves to transport individuals into a realm where sound becomes a vivid tapestry, seamlessly woven into the fabric of their entertainment experience. Improving sound quality as early in the creative process as possible will allow engineers at all stages of the process to work to the best of their abilities. Producing more unique, mind-blowing worlds for audiences to be immersed deeper into, whether music, movies, video games or audiobooks.
Immersive and engaging audio experiences can transport listeners into a multi-dimensional world of sound, enveloping them in a rich sonic landscape that captivates the senses. The question of how much it costs to achieve this kind of sound can vary, but the resulting experience is often considered well worth the investment.
Through surround sound technology, immersive soundscapes are created by allowing the placement of audio elements in a three-dimensional space. This technology elevates the overall audio quality by offering a more realistic and authentic listening experience. With the ability to accurately reproduce sound from various directions, comes the ability to tap into our most primal human emotions and reactions. This level of immersion enhances entertainment value and allows for a deeper connection between the audience and content. Moreover, it stimulates the imagination and creates a sense of presence, allowing for a more captivating experience.
Through continuous advancements in technology, and a recent boom in artificial intelligence development, audio enhancement is constantly evolving. As technology progresses, audio advancements become more sophisticated and offer enhanced tools to restore and manipulate audio.
This necessitates constantly improving audio quality to meet the evolving demands of consumers. It empowers engineers to use cutting-edge techniques and tools that elevate their sound design skills.
Audio quality is significant in various aspects of our lives. Striving for audio greatness will supplement the audience listening experience, improve communication, and enhance emotional responses to entertainment.
Acoustica is Acon Digital's all in one audio editor, packed to the brim with excellent audio editing features, effects plug-ins, and restoration and mastering tools.
September 4, 2023
Recent technological advancements have revolutionised the tools available for a sound designer to add to their arsenal. Digital audio editors are incredibly important tools. Offering audio editing, restoration and manipulation in one piece of software. However, they can often be accompanied by huge price tags. Enter, Acoustica by Acon Digital. Acon offer both a Standard and Premium edition of Acoustica. Today on the 344 Audio blog, we’ll be looking at the Premium edition.
Company: Acon Digital
Product: Acoustica Premium
Price: £160
Our Rating: 4.8/5
Acoustica is Acon Digital's all in one audio editor. Packed to the brim with excellent audio editing features, effects plug-ins, and restoration & mastering tools (Restoration Suite 2, Mastering Suite). Some of which demonstrate the benefits of Acon’s admittedly impressive deep learning algorithms. The latest 7.4 update also added DeBird, DePlosive: Dialogue and DeClick: Dialogue plug-ins, and Dolby Atmos functionality (Upto 7.1.2) into the Premium edition. With both editions gaining the Rotate Phase tool. Proving once again why Acon are a company to keep your eyes on in the near future.
In their own words:
”Acoustica is our solution for audio editing, post-production, podcast creation, mastering and audio restoration – with no compromises when it comes to audio quality and workflow. Whether you choose the fully featured Premium Edition or the budget friendly Standard Edition, you will get a fast and intuitive audio editor with an extensive set of high-quality processing tools and support for all common plug-in formats.”
Upon loading you’re greeted with a layout similar to that of Izotope RX. The essential toolbar, clip editor and level meter take up the top half of the window. Underneath this you’ll find a fully customizable section, made up of smaller modules. The default layout includes a media file browser, processing chain, loudness meter and spectrum analyser. All of these can be removed, swapped with other tools, re-sized or simply re-arranged. However, aside from a lack of colour, some of these options could be slightly more user friendly. After removing a module by mistake, it required some searching through the user manual to get it back. All in all, a great addition that grants users incredible customization and workflow enhancement options.
Due to the vast amount of tools included and use cases Acoustica Premium boasts, we’ll be covering only the elements we would use in audio post-production scenarios. Acoustica's functionality as an editing software is something we were impressed with more than expected. Our DAW of choice is Pro Tools, so naturally shortcuts are a huge part of our workflow. After a short amount of time testing which shortcuts work in both software’s, we made some surprising discoveries. You’re able to perform all the basic editing functions well, with the extra ability to spectral edit and also work with multitrack source material. Acting in a similar way to shuffle mode in Pro Tools, once you’ve made an edit in your audio file, any content remaining after the edit point will automatically shift to the end of your previous edit. Not only that, but it seems to smooth the transition between the 2 points to some extent, before any manual crossfades are needed. We tested the editing features out on an unedited podcast episode, and heard no artefacts as a result of any edits we made.
You will find a mind-blowing amount of tools included with Acoustica for the price tag. One thing we love about Acon Digital after reviewing 2 of their products (Deverberate 3 and Extract:Dialogue), is their approach to designing plug-ins. It’s clear they value functionality and end results more than flashy, overcomplicated U.I or features. And this is a trend that continues with Acoustica. The noise reduction offerings, including a bunch of Dialogue specific variations such as DeClick:Dialogue and DeBuzz:Dialogue (even a DeWind: Dialogue plug-in is included!) all do their jobs fantastically. Needing minimal changes to controls after just a few minutes dialling in your desired settings, quite often leaving us with the most natural sounding results of any noise reduction tool.
Provided your DAW of choice has ARA2 support, the new ARA plug-in allows the editor to be integrated into your workstation, with complete functionality. For Pro Tools users, an AAX plug-in is included. Allowing the transfer of audio clips for processing from Pro Tools, to Acoustica, then back into your session.
It’s also worth noting that both Standard and Premium editions of this software come equipped with an EBU R-128 compliant Loudness Meter.
Digital audio editors generally have a wide range of use cases. With the release of Acoustica’s 7.4 update including the caption editor feature (aimed at video production or content creators), it’s clear that Acon are testing the waters outside of strictly audio. Whatever the future holds for their products, we can see a future with them at 344 Audio and for our students.
We would use Acoustica as part of our workflow for dialogue, podcast, and field recording editing.
Deciding on audio editing or restoration software can be an overwhelming investment. Not only is there a huge number of options on the market today, but a large amount of crossover between what stand alone software and DAW’s can offer us. Not to mention, ‘industry standard’ products being recommended for no reason other than that. We believe that Acon Digital’s Acoustica is one of the best choices available now.
As a company, they have a great track record of investing time and money in the right areas of product development. The integration of A.I algorithms has already boosted the efficiency of their tools, with the future potential of deep learning, future Acon products could be a cut above anything else on offer. The value for money is also excellent. Offering most of the features and functionality of the most expensive products out there. Often, to the same, if not better standards. A feature we would love to see in future updates is an offline loudness analyser to compliment the already included real-time meter.
Acoustica Premium is available as a stand alone plug-in, VST, AAX and AU.
For more from Acon Digital and the purchase information for Acoustica, follow these links:
https://acondigital.com/products/acoustica
We reflect on the widespread impact of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes and the importance of upskilling during uncertain times
August 28, 2023
Over 170,000 combined members of Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) & Writers Guild of America (WGA) are currently on strike for the first time in 60 years. Next to no progress has been made since talks about pay, working conditions, and safeguarding jobs from ever-advancing A.I began in May, leaving negotiations at a stalemate.
On August 11th, after 102 days on strike, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) who represent Hollywood’s leading studios released a summary of their proposals to the media & public. In response, the WGA issued a letter to members expressing disappointment and frustration toward the “single and only counteroffer” they received, stating:
We explained all the ways in which their counter’s limitations and loopholes and omissions failed to sufficiently protect writers from the existential threats that caused us to strike in the first place.
Productions in the U.S have seen the immediate and most severe effects. However, Hollywood’s global reach means ripples are being felt worldwide. Due to involved trade unions being American organisations, only productions funded by U.S studios, that also include union members are being effected. This has led to productions being halted both temporarily and indefinitely, writers rooms being shuttered, and release dates for highly anticipated titles such as Dune: Part 2 shifting into 2024. Demonstrating how long the effects of these strikes will be seen.
Even countries like the UK, which has seen huge industry growth in recent years, are not immune. Still recovering from economic issues such as Covid-19 and Brexit, whilst also being in the midst of a cost of living crisis. The fallout of the strikes is placing a huge strain on the UK workforce. A number of large scale US productions such as Deadpool 3, Wicked!, and How To Train Your Dragon are currently filming in the country, and are said to be impacted.
In times like this, one of the best ways to prepare yourself for similar situations that may arise in the future is to upskill. One huge upside of our craft is that sound is everywhere. Just a few years ago, we were all thrust into a global pandemic which led to huge changes and uncertainty in Film & TV production. Yet we still emerged on the other side.
Podcasting saw a huge boom in popularity during quarantine, which it has maintained to this day. Both independent and studio backed shows are in no shortage today, with every one of these needing at minimum, an editor. Some even need more advanced skills such as composition, or sound design. In a similar vein, Audiobooks have been around for a long time. Even Audio Drama’s have started popping up on streaming platforms recently. The long form nature of Audiobooks is great news for editors, and great practice for anyone with a desire to gain skills as a dialogue editor.
Game development is mostly unaffected by the current strikes. Meaning not only is it an industry which is incredible valuable and continually growing economically (Projected to make US$384.90bn in 2023), but it’s also seen steady hiring practices throughout recent turbulent times. All the skills we poses to perform audio post production roles are needed in the gaming sector, the main difference being Reaper is the DAW of choice for most developers. The biggest step you would need to take is learning audio engine software such as Wwise.
An area we see mentioned less often in situations like this, is Field recording. Not only is this a great way to either boost your personal sound libraries, or create sound libraries to sell. But it’s a great way to experiment with recording techniques and get the most out of your equipment.
If you’re interested in upskilling yourself, the sound design course we offer at 344 Audio is delivered within an active UK Audio Post workplace. And focuses on bolstering skills to perform any role in the post-production craft to an employable level, Guiding students through the process of securing professional work. For more information on our Audio Post Essentials Course, visit our website here.
While the immediate worldwide effect of the strikes can be a worrying thought, it’s important to remember that this will pass. Historically, when industrial action leads to setbacks, the comeback is greater. Our unwavering dedication will see a resurgence of opportunities, and collaboration, ushering in a sustainable new era to this beloved craft.
