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DeNoiser
User Manual
The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does
not represent a commitment on the part of Steinberg Digital Audio GmbH. The
software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may
not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License
Agreement. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise
transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by
Steinberg Digital Audio GmbH. All product and company names are trademarks
or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

© Steinberg Digital Audio GmbH 1996. All rights reserved.

Welcome!
We'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your pur-
chase of Steinberg DeNoiser. This plug-in allows you to for example:
• Suppress noise without affecting the general sound quality.
• Improve noisy live recordings.
• Remaster old recordings.
The DeNoiser removes broad band noise from arbitrary audio material
without leaving any "spectral finger print". The algorithm that this
plug-in is based on has the ability to track and adjust itself to varia-
tions in background noise. This means the noise can be diminished
without side effects, preserving the spatial impression, and without
letting the result become “colorless”. More than five years of research
were invested in developing the methods used.
Enjoy the DeNoiser plug-in!

Your Steinberg-Spectral Design team.

Table of Contents
2 How DeNoiser works
2 Computer Requirements (WaveLab only)
3 Selecting Stereo or Mono (WaveLab only)
4 The DeNoiser window
4 The Display
5 The Parameters
6 Using the A/B setups
6 Tips and Tricks

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How DeNoiser works
DeNoiser is based on spectral subtraction. Each section of the fre-
quency spectrum, that has an amplitude below the estimated noise
floor, is reduced in intensity by use of a spectral Expander. The result
is a noise reduction that does not affect the phase of the signal.
The figure below shows the signal flow:
Noise Reduction

Level Ambience

noise Ambient Transient

floor Analysis Analysis

Noise
Input Reduction Output

The solid line represents the actual audio signal, while the dotted lines
represent control signals
The signal is continuously analyzed by the first module in the chain, to
estimate the noise floor at any given time. This is sufficient when the
noise level is constant or modulates slowly. When the noise level var-
ies rapidly, the Ambience- and Transient-analysis help adjust the re-
sponse of the noise reduction unit, allowing transient-rich material to
maintain its liveliness and natural ambience.

Computer Requirements (WaveLab only)

To run DeNoiser in WaveLab (mono output, realtime processing), the
following equipment is required:
• Pentium 133 MHz or better.
• At least 16 MB RAM, preferrably 32.

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 ¶ The requirements above are for using DeNoiser with mono output. To run
the plug-in in realtime stereo (see below), you need a faster processor.

Selecting Stereo or Mono (WaveLab only)

DeNoiser accepts input signals in mono or stereo. However, you can
choose whether the output from the plug-in should be mono or stereo.
This is done when you insert the DeNoiser plug-in in WaveLab’s Mas-
terSection:
• If you just select the plug-in from the pop-up menu as usual, output
will always be mono.
• If you press the [Cntrl]-key while selecting the plug-in from the
pop-up menu, and keep the key pressed until the plug-in settings
dialog appears, output will be in stereo if the input is in stereo.
These options affect the realtime processing only - when you use
background processing, the output will always be of the same type as
the input, i.e. stereo output for stereo input, etc.

¶ Please be aware that the realtime stereo processing requires a powerful pro-
cessor.

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The DeNoiser window
Opening DeNoiser brings up this window:

¶ The screenshot in the picture is taken from the WaveLab version of De-
Noiser. Versions for other platforms may vary slightly in design, but have the
same features, unless explicitly stated below.

The Display
The large display to the left in the DeNoiser window is crucial when
making settings. It contains the following three elements:
• The dark green spectral graph.
This shows a snapshot of the spectrum of the audio currently being played
back. The x-axis shows the frequency (linear scale) and the y-axis shows the
amplitude (logarithmic dB scale).
• The yellow line.
This is a spectral estimation of the noise floor. The average of this value is
shown numerically below the display.

• The light green line.

This is simply a graphic representation of the Level parameter.

The light green Level line should be adjusted so that it appears as

close above the yellow noise floor graph as possible. The dark green
spectrum plot is there to help you fine-tune the Level setting, so that
only the noise is removed, not parts of the signal (ideally, the light
green line should be between the yellow line and the spectrum plot).

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The Parameters

¶ You can change the DeNoiser parameters while the audio material is played
back, and the changes take effect more or less immediately (depending on
your system). This allows you to experiment to get a feeling for how the set-
tings interact.

DeNoiser supplies the following parameters:

Bypass
When this is activated, the signal passes through the plug-in without
being processed at all. Use this to compare the sound with and without
processing.

¶ The analysis is always performed, regardless of the Bypass switch, allowing

you to monitor the noise floor, spectrum and level in the spectrum display.

Level
This parameter serves as a threshold, governing the overall level at
which the noise reduction is performed. For optimal noise reduction
with a minimum of sound coloration, this parameter should be set to a
value slightly above the noise floor level. To help you do this, the level
value is shown as a light green line in the spectrum display, while the
noise floor is shown as a yellow line.

Reduction
Governs the amount of noise reduction. The higher value, the more
noise will be removed. The final result also depends on the Ambience-
parameter, and on the automatic Ambience- and Transient-analysis of
the original material, as described earlier.

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 Ambience
This parameter is used to specify a balance between the noise suppres-
sion and the amount of natural ambience, which is essential for a nat-
ural result. With a low Ambience setting, the sound can become
somewhat lifeless and sterile. A high setting, on the other hand, pre-
serves more of the ambient character of the sound, but the noise sup-
pression is less effective.

Using the A/B setups

With the A/B buttons you can make instantaneous switches between
two different DeNoiser setups, allowing you to quickly try out and
compare different configurations. You can also use this feature for sep-
arate settings for two different sections of an audio recording. Proceed
as follows:
1. Make the settings you want for setup A.

2. Click on [Store] and then on the [A] button.

3. Make the settings you want for setup B.

4. Click on [Store] and then on the [B] button.

Now the two setups are stored, and you can switch between them simply by
clicking [A] or [B].

Tips and Tricks

When you process audio in DeNoiser, the plug-in will need a short
time (less than a second) to analyze the material and set its internal pa-
rameters. Since you would not want to include this short “startup se-
quence” in the final result, you should make it a habit to first play back
a short section of the audio, thereby letting DeNoiser “learn” the
noisefloor, and then stop and start over again from the beginning. The
plug-in then remembers the settings internally.

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