Audio Noise removal in Davinci Resolve 14

Hi. I have the Davinci resolve 14 and I can't seem to find any way to reduce audio background noise in the software. Any help or ideas. Thanks.

Resolve does not come with noise reduction software. There are various noise reduction plug-ins available to purchase such as the Izotope RX family.

Waves also has a plethora of noise-reduction options. iZotope RX is the Mercedes of this product category, but I'm more a fan of using their products in standalone mode, rather than as plug-ins.

Not sure if this will help you, but my GoPro Hero5 audio has terrible white noise / hiss on every video. It's maddening, but I stumbled on a way to remove it in the Fairlight tab in Resolve 14. Here's how:

- In the Fairlight tab, select the audio track where you want to remove the hiss
- In the Inspector, be sure to toggle "on" the Clip Equalizer, which turns the line from gray to blue
- There are 4 circles. Move #4 to the left until the hiss dissipates. I usually have to move it just to the right of the #3 circle to get the hiss to disappear.

Hope that either helps or gives you some ideas.

I tried adjusting the fairlight EQ, but it didn't really do much for microphone hiss (Rode VideoMic). I also tried running my files through ffmpeg using highpass and lowpass filters, but the best by far is extracting the audio into Audacity (you need Audacity, ffmpeg dll and liblame installed), doing NR there and then importing the .wav back to Resolve.

It's a bit painful if you need lipsynch. Either the NR or the file formatting means the processed clips run slightly shorter than the original (fraction of a frame per minute). So I had to cut the imported clip into bits and use Alt + left arrow, Alt + right arrow to match the wave form to the original. But it does a good job.

Taking a screenshot of the frequency map in Audacity, then comparing to the frequency map after noise reduction, at first I thought only frequencies over 9000hz were being affected, and I should able to fake that with the EQ in resolve. But looking more closely the frequency map is being changed in subtle ways throughout, so proper NR is more than just low pass/high pass filtering.

I found the defaults for NR good while the file was in Audacity, (-12db, sensitivity 6). But I dropped this down to -8db, sensitivity 4, because on some clips my voice was turning into the King of The Fish People when I finally exported the video. Don't know where that is coming from, so playing it safe and dealing with 80% of hiss rather than 99% seems better to me.

Actually, I've found a better way for dealing with audio noise (source Curtis Judd on YouTube).

http://auphonic.com/ allows for 2hrs a month free processing, based on source clip length, although clips < 3 mins count as 3 mins each. You can import and export as uncompressed .wav files. It does general noise reduction, hum elimination and normalisation. Certainly for dealing with microphone hiss the default settings have produced much better quality then I managed with two days of tweaking settings in Audacity. Mostly the clip length stays the same, although one did vary by about 1/4 frame over 1 minute, (easily fixed).

They apparently have a paid desktop version, maybe they could turn that into a Resolve plugin?

EDIT: Neither Audacity or Auphonic have changed the timing of my audio. I've just realised the problem projects have a 24fps timeline, with 23.976fps footage. DOH!

I'm working on a project right now with tons of audio issues and Izotope RX is a lifesaver. It's actually more than that, it's crazy voodoo magic.

Izotope is having a Black Friday sale, even if Advanced is a bit too expensive, the Standard edition has everyone most people need. Once you use it, you won't want to use anything else.

https://www.izotope.com/en/store/deals.html

I'm working on a project right now with tons of audio issues and Izotope RX is a lifesaver. It's actually more than that, it's crazy voodoo magic.

Izotope is having a Black Friday sale, even if Advanced is a bit too expensive, the Standard edition has everyone most people need. Once you use it, you won't want to use anything else.

https://www.izotope.com/en/store/deals.html

Hi,

Not so black this Friday ... go to a full Product Name: Elements Suite
Thank you

I'm working on a project right now with tons of audio issues and Izotope RX is a lifesaver. It's actually more than that, it's crazy voodoo magic. Izotope is having a Black Friday sale, even if Advanced is a bit too expensive, the Standard edition has everyone most people need. Once you use it, you won't want to use anything else.

Absolutely -- iZotope RX is truly crazy-voodoo-magic. I've seen it pull out astonishingly good results from pretty marginal material.

But: this does not excuse shoddy production values where the filmmakers can't either hire a guy who does decent audio and/or find a way to get the mics close to the actors. It's not rocket science to do. Putting even a $100 microphone right on an actor will generally sound much better than spending 10 hours trying to denoise camera audio recorded 15 feet away from the actor.

There is also a point where you just have to do ADR and replace all the audio in the studio. It's possible to do this affordably if you have some connections and access to talent.

... go to a full Product Name: Elements Suite

Did you mean this: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/bun ... suite.html? Or do I actually just need this for audio clean-up: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/rep ... ments.html?

The individual components do not list Resolve as a supported product but it does work then (and not just as a standalone app)?

For audio cleanup, RX Elements. Elements Suite adds Neutron Elements, a mixing tool, and Ozone Elements, a mastering tool.

I have RX Elements, the plugins run fine inside Resolve 14. I'd say that if you can spare the extra for RX Standard it'd be worth getting.

I have RX and like it. Waves also has a Restoration pack that I've seen pretty regularly on sale for $99.

Thanks guys, I'll get RX Elements then! Wish it would be as simple to buy Resolve online

I have RX Elements, the plugins run fine inside Resolve 14. I'd say that if you can spare the extra for RX Standard it'd be worth getting.

Fine, thank you, because on one hand they provide a list but on the other one Resolve is not part of it, it's a bit confusing...

FWIW I was faced with a similar issue. I wound up using Audacity to remove background noise. It was quite simple to do.

I have RX Elements, the plugins run fine inside Resolve 14. I'd say that if you can spare the extra for RX Standard it'd be worth getting.

Fine, thank you, because on one hand they provide a list but on the other one Resolve is not part of it, it's a bit confusing...

Just remember that there's a difference between "it works" and "they officially support it".

... go to a full Product Name: Elements Suite

Did you mean this: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/bun ... suite.html? Or do I actually just need this for audio clean-up: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/rep ... ments.html?

The individual components do not list Resolve as a supported product but it does work then (and not just as a standalone app)?

Hi Håkan,

a little late (sorry ),
it's good: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/bun ... suite.html
(Neutron Elements, Ozone 8 Elements, RX 6 Elements)

In addition to VST, there is RX 6 Audio Editor (64-bit) and RX 6 Audio Editor (32-bit) in standalone.
(windows 10)

For now it works in DR V14.1.

(I discover all the potential ...)

This might not be exactly what you are looking for but Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net) is a great audio editor with excellent noise reduction and is completely free.

It would, of course, mean exporting the audio, removing the noise and then bringing it back in but if you don't want to spend $$$ then this is at least an option.