Updated De-Clicker and new De-esser for speech

planetlizz · August 13, 2018, 5:42am

Aloha…I downloaded DeClicker.php (bc thats the way it was offered to me, even using “SAVE AS”. Once it was on my mac, i right-clicked “Info” and Changed the extension from DeClicker.php to DeClicker.ny and tossed it in the Aud Plugins folder. Seems to be processing the file though its a 24-min file and has 30:49 to go. Doesnt resolve the problem but SEEMS to give access to the plugin.

steve · August 13, 2018, 9:54am

You would probably have received help quicker if you posted on the Mac board (https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewforum.php?f=47)

It’s a well known issue that Macs do not like files to have unknown file extensions, and the “.NY” file extension of Nyquist plug-ins is not widely recognised (it is specific to Audacity). Macs will frequently add a known file extension in these cases, so we often hear of Mac users running into problems because macOS has changed the file extension from “.NY” to “.TXT”.

In your case, the extension “.PHP” adds a new twist to the story, but basically the same issue of macOS trying too hard to help you.

blinkyblinky · October 24, 2018, 8:56am

I’ve just started using the de-clicker and it’s cleaning up my voice recordings, but unfortunately it’s also de-clicking the ends of words such as “said” and “it” etc. I don’t really understand the settings - what settings (if any) would reduce this? Or, for example, is there some way to set the plugin so as not to de-click if the click is followed by a length of silence (i.e. at the end of sentences)?

tah · October 30, 2018, 12:45am

@blinkyblinky: Can you post sample where it is de-clicking the ends of words, along with your plug-in settings and your audacity version/platform?

blinkyblinky · November 2, 2018, 11:37am

Hi tah, thanks for replying. I will do when I get time. Just to be clear, it’s de-clicking the “duh” and “tuh” sounds at the ends of words like “said” and “pit”, etc. It’s not so noticeable in the middle of phrases, but very noticeable at the ends of phrases. It’s clearly treating them as clicks, which they are really - but necessary clicks. I can’t see how this could be avoided unless there could be some instruction in the program not to declick if the click is followed by a short silence. I read about the settings, but as I often find with many settings in plugins, the descriptions of the settings are rather brief and difficult to understand.

blinkyblinky · November 28, 2018, 11:02am

Hi, here are some samples of the final ‘d’, ‘t’ etc. sounds disappearing or becoming very faint after using de-clicker. It’s still a useful plugin, but I find I have to go through the audio once more re-inserting these sounds in. If it’s a 10-hour audio book, that’s a lot of work.

blinkyblinky · November 28, 2018, 11:06am

and some more

blinkyblinky · November 28, 2018, 11:07am

It also de-clicks the beginnings (see attached)

Trebor · November 29, 2018, 12:29am

Try restricting the declicker to high-frequency & short-duration …

''given'' settings.png

DevonMScott · January 12, 2019, 3:11am

Hi!

Can anyone provide some more “for dummies” type explanations of the various settings on these plug-ins and how to use them? If you have recommended settings for ADX mastering, I’d welcome those, too. Thanks.

Thanks in advance!
Devon

steve · January 12, 2019, 11:56am

The only “documentation” for this effect is here: Updated De-Clicker and new De-esser for speech

ukqueen · April 23, 2019, 2:54pm

Here are the latest improvements to the plug-in I am developing for filtering out of wet mouth noises and clicks from my narrations. I also present a de-esser using similar methods that fell out as a by-product.

De-Clicker is designed for filtering of natural but undesirable noises that take a few milliseconds to decay, not for repairing spikey damage to a digitized signal. I did not intend this for music or vinyl repair, but I would like to hear whether it has unexpected other uses.

The default settings in both tools are the ones I favor now for treatment of whole tracks. Do you have different opinions about good default settings? Let me know.

I successfully treat most of the more resistant clicks by hand with a single pass and double the number of bands: NOT by lowering the dB threshold control. But such settings may be too slow and too aggressive for batch treatment. Yet the nice thing is that you do not have to select the interval around the click very narrowly. The surrounding signal is usually unaffected. So select it and fix it and move on, don’t fuss with zooming in and out.

I treat typically no more than a half hour at once. Compute time does unfortunately go nonlinearly with length of the track to some extent. Not sure why. (I’ll blame garbage collection.) But I have improved performance much over the previous version.

As mentioned below, do low-frequency rolloff (highpass filtering) before De-Clicker for slight improvement of some results.

Detailed advice about settings:

In either tool, choose Apply Changes to hear just the results. Or, choose Isolate Changes to hear only what is subtracted from your signal. You don’t want to hear a lot of “murmur” so that you almost understand the words: your settings are taking overtones out of your vowels and muffling the voice. You may notice that the attack of many consonants is somewhat affected, but you might judge that this is acceptable and sometimes even helpful.

If you duplicate a track, then isolate changes in one, you can listen to the tracks together to hear the repaired sound (the isolated clicks interfere destructively), or mute one to hear just the original or just the subtractions. You might silence corrections you don’t want before mixing. I don’t do any of this once I find settings I trust.

Both tools specify a range of frequencies and a number of frequency bands (of equal width in log-frequency) for detection and repair. Impatient for results? Use fewer bands, or raise the bottom of the range. I find it valuable to repair the low frequencies too in speech (certain lip-closing thumps and rattles in the sibilants get removed) but the lower frequency bands do take more computation time. De-esser performance is not too bad with many high frequency bands: but very few bands may give poor results, affecting vowels.

Both tools specify a step size for precision in identifying the intervals to repair. You might trade precision for speed.

Both tools specify another time period for cross-fading of repairs around each clicky interval. Make it too short and you introduce undesirable artifacts. This setting should not affect computation time significantly.

The De-Esser has a dB threshold which is the amplitude within each frequency band, to which, the band is trimmed back. -20dB is my default setting, and -20dB and above is also what appears white in spectrogram views with default settings.

De-Clicker has a threshold in dB which is not absolute, but relative: a band must rise so much over a short interval for a click to be detected. I repeat, subtle clicks may be treated better not with a lower threshold, but with more numerous and narrow bands.

De-Clicker specifies a minimum separation between clicks. Make it too small, and more clicks will be identified, but there may be too much damage to voice when it drops in pitch. There is also a dB threshold (for the entire signal) below which closer clicks may be detected. This may help clean up crackles in de-voiced intervals and breaths. Use low-frequency rolloff effects first for better results!

De-Clicker can specify a number of times to repeat treatment, and a maximum click length in steps, which need no explanation.

De-Clicker can also just make labels around clicks without repairing them. This information may be useful, for instance, if you want to find dB threshold setting just low enough to detect certain of the clicks.

HI all… I notice this very useful and informative post is 4 years old… Can I still use these plug ins or is there an update available? Thanks in advance

steve · April 23, 2019, 3:36pm

The plug-ins should still work in the latest version of Audacity. There are no updates for these plug-ins.

ukqueen · April 23, 2019, 8:24pm

Awesome thanks much. SO I clicked it and the image is a small paper with the small triangle in the top corner. I don’t see an actual application… Is there a link with instructions on how to download properly please?

steve · April 23, 2019, 8:26pm

Instructions for installing Nyquist plug-in for Audacity on a Mac, are here: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/installing_effect_generator_and_analyzer_plug_ins_on_mac_os_x.html#nyquist_install

ukqueen · April 24, 2019, 2:44am

In the event of sounding like a broken record… I thank thee

ukqueen · April 24, 2019, 3:24am

So I’m not as savvy with this stuff as I would like to be so please forgive my #studentdriveronboard questioning. So I clicked on the De-esser link provided and what appears on my Mac is a turned corner paper. I believe I placed it in the plug-ins folder but I’m still not seeing the option when I open Audacity. SO I did a search and found an older version of Audacity 2.0.6 that does have a de-esser. Should I just use the older version of audacity or what steps have I missed to have it available on the 2.3.1 version?

steve · April 24, 2019, 10:11am

Nyquist plug-ins are just plain text files, with a file name extension of “.ny” (rather than “.txt”)

In current versions of Audacity, after moving the plug-in file into Audacity’s plug-in folder, you need to enable the effect in the plug-in manager: Plugin Manager - Add / Remove Effects, Generators and Analyzers - Audacity Manual

If the plug-in does not appear in the plug-in manager, then you’ve probably not put the plug-in file into the correct folder.
The correct folder is:

~/Library/Application Support/audacity/Plug-Ins

Note the squiggle (tilde) at the beginning. “~/” means your home folder. Use “Go” (main Mac Desktop menu bar) and copy/paste the address to open it in Finder.

ukqueen · April 24, 2019, 12:00pm

and what appears on my Mac is a turned corner paper.

Nyquist plug-ins are just plain text files, with a file name extension of “.ny” (rather than “.txt”)

I’m still not seeing the option when I open Audacity.

In current versions of Audacity, after moving the plug-in file into Audacity’s plug-in folder, you need to enable the effect in the plug-in manager: Plugin Manager - Add / Remove Effects, Generators and Analyzers - Audacity Manual

If the plug-in does not appear in the plug-in manager, then you’ve probably not put the plug-in file into the correct folder.
The correct folder is:
~/Library/Application Support/audacity/Plug-Ins
Note the squiggle (tilde) at the beginning. “~/” means your home folder. Use “Go” (main Mac Desktop menu bar) and copy/paste the address to open it in Finder.

yep. Did all that. Everything is enabled. I copied and pasted the entire library address… So strange. I followed these directions to a T but it’s still not showing y up up in audacity. I tried to add a screenshot from my phone but the file is too big. I’ll try a different way

ukqueen · April 24, 2019, 12:04pm

Screen Shot 2019-04-24 at 7.01.49 AM.png