It’s always best to mitigate noise in your audio recordings before it can be picked up by a microphone. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen and it’s necessary to soften up that signal noise in post production. Most modern DAW’s (digital audio workstations, AKA audio production programs) use plugins to help with this process. And some DAW’s make finding those plugins a bit of a challenge. That’s why I’ve decided to post a quick tutorial on how to do noise reduction with the ReaFir plugin for Reaper.

Next, double-click the listing for the VST: ReaFir Dynamics Processor plugin. This will add the ReaFir plugin to your track and automatically open the plugin’s settings box. From here, you’ll want to change the Mode drop down menu to Subtract and tick the checkbox next to that menu labeled “Automatically build noise profile (enable during. VST instruments (VSTi) can be used with REAPER by following these steps: Create a new track. Click on 'fx' to open the FX window. REAPER will scan the VST directory listed in 'Preferences (Ctrl+P) FX Plug-ins VST plug-ins' and display a list of the available plugins. Select a plugin and click 'OK'. Testing now with the free vst 2 reaplugs (reaper) inside patchwork. One is very interesting: ReaFIR can remove background noises live. There is also midi support inside patchwork, that's next to test.

Novation bass station vst plugin. Most unwanted noise in audio recordings tends to be constant throughout the length of the piece. Usually, these artifacts come from something in the environment such as a cooling fan or an electrical issue between the microphone and the sound input. When you have this type of continuous noise in a recording, noise-reduction plugins can come in handy as you’ll usually only need to set them once, and then they’ll apply the noise reduction to the entire track or noisy section.

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To get started with noise reduction in Reaper, click the FX button on a track that’s got some unwanted noise. This will bring up the Add FX box, which shows all of the plugins and effects available to your Reaper installation. In the Filter list box at the bottom, type in “Reafir.”

Next, double-click the listing for the VST: ReaFir Dynamics Processor plugin. This will add the ReaFir plugin to your track and automatically open the plugin’s settings box.

From here, you’ll want to change the Mode drop down menu to Subtract and tick the checkbox next to that menu labeled “Automatically build noise profile (enable during noise).” These settings tell ReaFir that you want to remove certain frequencies from your recording and that you’d like the plugin to identify those frequencies automatically.

Now, align Reaper’s playhead so it’s at the beginning of a section of noisy audio but make sure that section doesn’t contain any speech or other wanted sounds. Otherwise, the plugin will think that the sounds you actually want to preserve are part of the problem and it’ll do it’s best to remove those, too! I also like to solo the troublesome track at this point, just so it’s easier to monitor when setting up the plugin.

Once the playhead is in place, click the play button (or press the space bar) and let the playhead go over at least twenty to thirty seconds of the recorded signal noise. Be sure to stop playback before you reach any of the desired sounds that are the intended focus of the recording. (If you were unable to stop playback in time, click the Reset button and start the process again.) Now, ReaFir has built a noise profile and automatically created a filter based on that profile.

Untick the checkbox next to the Mode menu but leave all of the other settings alone. Now, when you listen back to that track, you should no longer hear the unwanted noise.

Posted by Shawn Thorpe

The Case for Noise Reduction

For the last 10+ years, I’ve been producing video training materials on IT systems automation, cloud, containers, and software development. Over the course of these years, I’ve learned many techniques about how to improve both video and audio quality. In fact, I wrote an article about key techniques to produce a great video. One of the techniques I’ve picked up more recently is noise reduction.

No matter what type of microphone you’re using, there were always be background noise. This is well-known as the “self-noise” of a microphone. There are other types of noise besides the internal electronic noise, however.

As a listener, you don’t always realize the amount of effort that goes into producing high quality audio. Listeners hear background noises, wet-mouth, and heavy breathing, but otherwise expect a crisp listening experience.

Some common examples of background noises include:

The constant hum of a fan
Wind whipping against the window
Cars driving past the house or office
Birds chirping outside
Air blowing through HVAC vents

For the past several months, I have been using Open Broadcaster Studio (OBS), to create video recordings. OBS offers a variety of built-in filters for both audio and video streams. These built-in filters include a “Noise Reduction” filter. However, the built-in noise reduction plug-in only does a so-so job.

A Working Noise Reduction Solution

What can we do to solve this problem?

There’s a professional digital audio workstation (DAW) package called REAPER. REAPER itself has a license cost, but the company offers a free plug-in set. ReaPlugs are built on the standard Virtual Studio Technology (VST) interface, which processes audio in the pipeline.

For now, go ahead and download ReaPlugs and install the package on your system. OBS should automatically pick up these plug-ins when you add a VST filter.

One of the VST plug-ins included in ReaPlugs is called ReaFIR. ReaFIR lets you record a noise profile and then apply it in real-time. In fact, you can add the plug-in to your audio filters multiple times, and pre-record different noise profiles. That way, depending on what noises are in your environment, you can enable or disable them at will.

Add ReaFIR to your audio input

Now let’s add the ReaFIR plug-in to your OBS configuration.

Right-click your audio input in OBS and select the Filters option. On the bottom-left of the Filters screen, click the plus sign. Choose the VST 2.x Plug-in option.

You can type any desired name for the plug-in, such as “Box Fan Noise Reduction”
From the drop-down box, select the reafir_standalone plug-in
Click the Open Plug-in Interface button to configure ReaFIR
From the Mode drop-down, choose Subtract
Check the box Automatically build noise profile
Let the background noise build the profile for a few seconds
Uncheck the box and close the window. You’re done!

Now that you’ve completed the configuration of ReaFIR, give it a try. Recording a new video clip and see how well the noise reduction works. You should notice a significant improvement in the clarity of your voice!

Example Noise Reduction Profiles

Now that you understand how to solve noise reduction, let’s explore some common examples of noise profiles.

Desktop Computer

Although I prefer having a silent desktop computer, a high-performance computer will generate heat. Between the CPU and GPU fans, my media production machine creates a little noise. The red line indicates the noise profile that is built by ReaFIR.

Reafir Plugin Vst Free

Box Fan

I have a box fan that I sometimes use to eject heat from my office. This is a fairly inexpensive, noisy, yet effective unit. The box fan’s noise profile covers a much wider frequency range than the desktop computer fan. Although the highest decibel level is around 100Hz, it ranges all the way up to 10kHz.

Keyboard Typing

Although every keyboard will have a unique noise profile, I’m using the Microsoft Sidewinder X4. While typing a few words, this is what its noise profile looks like. As you can see, the high points are around 45Hz and a range from 400Hz to 10kHz.