New plug-in effect - PopMute

[steve]

This is currently an experimental effect.
It does not contain any error checking for invalid input and may have bugs.

The effect is like an upside-down Noise Gate.
The effect can heavily attenuate loud sounds. It may be useful for rescuing recordings that suffer from loud clicks or pops.

Downloads:
version 0.2 (obsolete)
version 0.1 (obsolete)
Current Version


I'm not sure if the "link stereo channels" setting in v.01 is worthwhile as I'd imagine that in most cases it would be preferable to process channels independently.
Comments welcome.
[Update: decided that linking stereo channels was not useful, so removed in final version]

[kozikowski]

Remember this? Heavy suppression of the pops without affecting the rest of the performance at all.

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

Remember this? Heavy suppression of the pops without affecting the rest of the performance at all.

Koz

Is this something to do with a feature in Audacity that no longer works?



Gale

[kozikowski]

No. It's a new tool that Steve wrote. First "in the wild" application.
Koz

[steve]

This was the "in-the-wild" example: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=49854

Koz has asked previously if there could be a "reverse" of my Noise Gate plug-in for muting pops and raised the question again in that thread.
Finally got round to making it: viewtopic.php?f=39&t=50671

[kozikowski]

I like that the "skirts" of the active segment can be tuned so not only the plosive blast goes away, but the slight click before and after as well. That example is far from what I can do with more effort. You can still hear I didn't get the delays quite right.

Given that there is no valuable work at all during the pop, gracefully suppressing them without damaging anything else is a good thing -- and I didn't drill them down to nothing, either. They're just a lot lower than they were and probably a handful of dB down from the overall show volume. They sound like the performer is too close to the microphone, but the pops don't shatter glass any more.

Koz

[Irish]

Looks promising.

I'll play with it a bit and let you know how I get on. I've a very badly damaged copy of Neil Young's "Harvest" (damaged before I got it, I hasten to add) which should make a good test bed.

However, one problem I can see with a record as badly damaged as this, is that there are places where I'm left with gaps where the pops used to be, which is nearly as bad. What about looking at the audio level for, say, 10ms either side of the pop, and setting the attenuation to that level?

POL

[steve]

What about looking at the audio level for, say, 10ms either side of the pop, and setting the attenuation to that level?

If the effect is being used on one pop at a time, that relatively easy to do.
If you mean that you want to be able to process multiple pops with a dynamically changing mute level that follows the dynamics of the music, that is quite a bit harder, and I expect that it would also require the threshold level to also change dynamically.

This is not a "clever" effect, it just blindly attenuates sounds that are above the threshold down to a "floor" level. I'll have a look to see if I can make it a bit more intelligent without it becoming horrendously complex.

[DickN]

Pop Mute is a real time saver. I record church services for CD and podcast, and we have a couple of people who can't remember not to clap in front of a mic. I fade out the mic, but not before I've got a string of spikes in the recording. With this tool I can squash the whole string in one operation instead of manually fiddling with each one. It even works on coughs. Just one simple improvement to suggest: Separate settings for attack and decay. I use a ceiling mic to pick up individuals in the congregation speaking without a mic. Sometimes a cough reverberates, so it has a sharp attack and a slow decay. The separate controls would let me approximate the event envelope.

[steve]

Thanks for the feedback Koz and DickN.

(Topic merged with original "PopMute" topic)

Just one simple improvement to suggest: Separate settings for attack and decay.

There's always a balance to be drawn with this type of plug-in between flexibility and simplicity. As the complexity of the interface goes up, the usability goes down (especially for casual or novice users). My aim was to make this plug-in as simple as possible to use.

I use a ceiling mic to pick up individuals in the congregation speaking without a mic. Sometimes a cough reverberates, so it has a sharp attack and a slow decay. The separate controls would let me approximate the event envelope.

That's a persuasive argument for adding one more slider.

There's been no comments regarding the "Linked Stereo" mode, so I'm guessing that it's not really useful.
I've removed the "Linked Stereo" option in this version, though it can easily be re-enabled (open popmute.ny in a text editor and read the comment text near the top of the file).