** The audio sample used in this tutorial is the introduction part of an interview with a psychologist speaking to parents of children who attempted suicide. While the dialogue doesn't cover any details, this could be triggering for some people. Proceed with care.
LOVED what you said at 0:23, "If you're coming here and want just a set of numbers...you're dismissed," because that's EXACTLY what I was intending. You called out my laziness, and instead of leaving, I watched the whole video and subscribed to your channel!
I am literally mixing a podcast interview with 3 people in it right now and 2 of them were on a stream chat and this video made my life sooo much easier. I can't believe i've never utilized this feature.
Can you do one of these for all the most used tools in Rx? There’s a few I don’t even attempt because of how greatly they can change things. Getting a better idea of how these modules work would be great, and you have a great way to easily explaining it that I haven’t seen before :)
Thank you for that information, as a long term RX Advanced User i didn't know that. I will try it out on my Podcast and Radio Edits i have to do. On Bigger Movies or Series i will stick to my Pro Tools Workflow, i don't want to piss of the Rerecording Mixer.
Thanks, Curtis. I didn’t know this tool was even in RX and I’ve been using RX for years. I had either been adjusting the clip gain manually (for large segments that were different), or been using compression to try and get similar-ish levels. This is going to be a major time saver, and should help make my audio sound even better. Cheers, mate.
I don’t know if it’s RUclipss AI but I was just about to search how to improve my audio and this video popped in my feed. Saw it was you and knew it would be good. Thanks
this is such a helpful channel. Thank you for putting these tutorials out. They are immensely specific and to the point. They give such a good tour and use case for this software.
@@lukejackson1116 The leveler, if memory serves back to version 7, only in the advanced version of RX in the Utilities section. But it's been a while since I used version 7 so I might not have the details right on that.
This is great! I love Izotope's products but their tutorials could use a little...something, something. For example, I did not know about the Clip Gain view! Thanks for the work!
Excellent tutorial. Of all the plug-ins that are gated to RX8 Advanced exclusively, I find it rather puzzling Leveler is one of them. Perhaps not quite up to the same par as iZotope, plenty of DAWs have very capable leveler plugins stock native that very much do a solid job and never leave me wanting. So it’s not like iZotope is withholding something that is a super special sauce you can’t attain elsewhere well enough. Yet they don’t keep something like guitar de noise exclusive to Advanced, which you’d think would be more boutique and premium for it’s relative novelty. Something that is special and not exclusively gated to RX8 Advanced is the current Loudness Control plug-in. Yes, many other DAWs also have representative versions of the same, but the RX8 Loudness Control - at least in my personal experience - is extremely exacting. Takes a surprising amount of time to render as well, but it’s with it. There is no going back after using that one.
Totally agreed re: the leveller. That was one of the things I thought 'eh? Why is that only in Advanced?' - I own RX Standard. Totally understand the AI stuff or the matching room tone of clips and all that are specialist and also maybe really complex to do - but levelling is to me a fairly basic task. It should be in Standard.
Izotope Audiolens just released and is free until Nov 22nd 2022. It’s primarily a music mixing reference app but it might be a good idea to look into to see if there could be any use for it in film audio processing.
Thanks for another high quality tutorial. Much appreciated. I just would like to gently point out that you frequently use the phrase aimed at some class of viewer that they are "dismissed". I wonder how many people find this a harsh and unpleasant phrase? Would it not be more polite to just say "this might not be for you" instead? Small point no doubt, but why not make your great vids that little bit friendlier? Of course if you disagree, then you are dismissed. :)
Hi Paul, thanks! Good point. It isn't meant to be unkind, but I see how some could see it that way and at some level, it is a reaction to lots of mean comments about how I've wasted peoples' time. Thanks for the grounding suggestion!
Before even getting 40 seconds in I just want to say how much I love the "you're dismissed, we don't do that here." Hahahaha that really got me. God bless you and this channel, I can't express how much you've helped me by the way! And you even replied to a specific microphone question (encouraging me to ditch the Rode NTG4+ for the Sennheiser MKE600) and wooooow that alone has been incredible. Thank you!
This is truly amazing! Thank you for sharing this fantastic tutorial. I have a question: can I describe the responsiveness on the leveler as being similar to the attack in the compressor?
I wish the "Responsiveness" control was re-labeled e.g. to "Smoothness", so that higher values gave more of "what it says on the label". Or even "Window Length", as that's what it is in engineering terms.
That was so well explained! RX can be quite intimidating 😅 Is there anything like this / any way of doing this directly in Premiere? Would the results be comparable?
Thanks Paul. I don't know of anything off the top of my head in Premiere, but I just started editing in Premiere again for the first time in about 7 years. Leveling is generally an offline type of process so likely not.
Hi Curtis, your videos are rocking my world. Thank you so much. What is the difference between leveling and loudness normalization? Would you recommend leveling first before editing, to get the sounds more even, then normalize at export? I guess I'm confused with when to level, compress, and normalize.
Thanks! I generally only level when things are pretty wildly inconsistent. The difference between leveling and compressing is that leveling can push things up and down while compression only pushes peaks down. They each have their strengths and weaknesses, but usually I only pull out the leveler if for some reason there is a lot of inconsistency in perceived loudness in an audio clip. I use a compressor regularly.
Would you recommend doing this for a monolog? When I record videos my voice is sometimes loud, sometimes quieter. I tried your loudness tutorial but it doesn't seem right to only use the compressor for that purpose. Do you have a video on how to properly post process audio from A to Z? Like for example what is your order for post processing your audio for reviews and so on? Do you have a good order for Phase correction, compression, leveler, loudness control?
Yes, if your loudness is quite variable, then this is a good tool to help even things out. I cover my RUclips audio workflow here: ruclips.net/video/SsRexob7faM/видео.html and I have courses on Adobe Audition and Izotope RX over at school.learnlightandsound.com
Thanks a lot dear Curtis, working in RX 10 advanced, I have difficulties making this work. Trying to level out an audio track where one of the transmitters died during the take. In 10% of the attempts I get indeed the drawn keyframes.... for the rest it goes through the calculating and then leaves everything unchanged. Have no idea if this is a user error or something else.
I’d have to see the audio clip, but it sounds like the type of situation that would be better to fix manually with key frames. This is more for addressing differences in natural speech patterns vs dropouts
Thank you for the information. I am currently working on the audio of a book being read by the author, and this helps. I have a lot of leveling to do in the first chapter and this answers some of my questions. Which video would I need to watch to cover some of the other tips that you didn't have time for in this segment?
We have an Izotope RX course over at school.learnlightandsound.com. Or if you prefer, several RX tutorials here on RUclips. A search for “Curtis judd Izotope RX” should pull those up for you 👍
Interesting and something I would use but I only have the standard version of RX8 and could no way justify the $800 to upgrade. Unfortunately it seems always the case with RUclips videos on Izotope products you have to own the maximum package to use it. It would help if Izotope sold add on units as 90% of what is in the standard version I have no use for and this would apply to the full version also. Curtis would it be possible to make some video on dialogue sweetening for us video editors using items that are in the either theElements or Standard versions? Great video though and very clear explanation.
@@curtisjudd Thanks Curtis. I look forward to them as I have been a fan of your RUclips Channel for many years and I really could do with a little help on using RTX8 on dialogue.
I have RX 9 and do not have a section for "Leveler" so I can't follow along with this. I have "Loudness control". Any help out there ould be appreciated. Thanks
So the leveler seems like a upward compressor and a downward compressor acting together. Am i right? or are there any differences? Would you prefer to use leveler on each audio clips for dx edit or use a insert on DAW like waves mv2,fab c2
Yes, I've got one covering the modules in RX Elements and Standard and will have one covering the advanced modules in the future: ruclips.net/video/PudErY77WQM/видео.html
Thank you for another wonderful video Curtis. Newbie question - what's the difference between this method and using a compressor? Is it just that we are using LUFS instead of db?
Curtis: I'm curious why you couldn't use a garden variety limiter with a make up to level that conversation ? I don't know anything about the izotope sw, but it looks interesting, and I enjoyed your video. thank you. regards, Dan
You can, but the leveler manages this on a more dynamic basis - boosting and attenuating different amounts through the entire clip vs. static settings on a compressor/limiter.
Agreed, it does depend on where you're starting. And for tricky situations like a recording made on a statically boom mic for two people, I find a leveler works a little better.
@@curtisjudd Yeah, I must admit you demonstrate that pretty well. I mean you can do the leveling manually, but your approach makes so much more sense from a workflow, especially for a long interview, especially where the mic stand is placed in the wrong place, and you get really badly imbalanced subject audio levels....it would be far less time and work to use your approach for sure !!! No doubt the pros will spend a little to buy this software package and reduce the time on task.
Hi Curtis,, Great video, well explained,, i have a question, is levelling normally the first step in audio repair,, before we proceed with de noise, de click & others,, is there any sequence ?
Thanks, that helped tremendously to understand the process. One leetle question: what if the Min RMS is -Inf (e.g. when there are absolute silences in the audio)? How do you quantify the range or how much the leveling has changed the averages?
@@curtisjudd You talked about the difference between the min RMS and the average (e.g. -4 ave and -50 min). But what if the min RMS is -Inf? What is the difference then between -4db, say, and -Inf?
Thanks for this Curtis, had a question for you. What's the difference between using a compressor vs a leveller? Would it be worthwhile upgrading to Rx advanced to use their leveller or am I fine just using a compressor in audacity or nectar. Thanks!
Hi Jonny, a compressor only reduces the higher amplitude bits while a leveler reduces and boosts depending on the amplitude of the waveform at any given point.
Hi Curtis. I've bought a few of your courses but I couldn't find the answer to this question. Can I get the most out of the Mix Pre 3ii 32bit float files on Resolve Studio or do I need RX, RX elements or another plugin or piece of software to get the most out of the range of the 32bit recording? Thabks in advance.
@@curtisjudd thanks for the quick response. All my files seem to come across a bit quiet and I can't seem to boost their levels up as far as I would like. When I saw you using RX you seemed to have a lot more room to raise and lower levels.
@@morgan-films Hi Morgan, in Fairlight, you can boost the levels by 30dB per clip. You might need to round trip to another app or look into an amplification or gain plugin.
I have two old countrymen b3 lavs. The connection on it has a taf4 wired for EV (electric voice). It doesn't have the new pin feature were you can just change it with an adapter. I'm wanting to convert them to a Sennheiser 3.5mm so I can use it with my Tascam and Rode wireless go. What do you recommend I do?
Nice video Curtis, is it possible to use the leveler in a 5.1 file?, and if I use that for targeting Netflix and tv specific levels even if I don´t have the best calibration?
what are your thoughts on using ai noise removal? I have been using it on loud outdoor construction job site interviews to get ride of all the crazy background noise. Do you think izotope can remove noise better?
Great video! I'm a bit stuck. I have a RODECaster Pro 2 unit with my mic attached to it. I can record audio using any app (Adobe Audition, Adobe Premiere, Apple Keynote, etc), but can't seem to get any audio when using RX 9 to record. I went into RX 9 prefs and selected the correct input device (RODE Connect System), but when I press record it's just blank. Any reason why? Is there something else in the prefs that I need to select besides what I did? Let me know what you can please, thank you.
In the Izotope Preferences, I choose RODECaster Pro II Main Multi Track as the input and it works fine. If this isn't an option for you, probably best to contact RODE support. They should be able to get things sorted out for you. Best wishes!
@@curtisjudd I just deleted my reply to you and figured out what my problem was. I think I chose mono when I should’ve chose stereo for my recording. Then I went into preferences and chose RODECaster Pro II Main Stereo and it worked! I should’ve chosen to set up for stereo first because I think that was my main issue to begin with. Thank you again for your help!
@@curtisjudd I was also curious of something else that's related to using the RCP2. Is there a way to directly connect your iPhone to the RCP2 to be able to record your livestream call, or are you just relegated to using bluetooth connection to make that happen. I ask this because using Bluetooth connection, at times there can be vocal delays where it can miss the first 1 or 2 seconds of the person speaking on the phone each time they speak from time to time. I was thinking using a USB C to Lighting cable I think would prevent that and get a cleaner and better recording. Let me know what you can please if there is some kind of workaround on this. Thank you.
@@punknugget561 For calls, based on our tests, you can only do that via Bluetooth. The quality seemed as good as a mobile call typically is (not amazing), but it didn't seem like the fact that it was coming in via Bluetooth that it was any worse.
@@curtisjudd Actually I just found out through googling it that there was a person who is able to post a Reddit article that talked about this very situation. It looks like somebody found a solution and was able to use a 3.5mm TRS to Dual 1/4” TS Mono Y-splitter and then adding the lightning to earphone adapter and it works with audio phone calls. But you have to use two line-in XLR ports (3&4), on the back of the RCP2, configured as a stereo pair. Since I don’t use all four XLR inputs anyway and only use one, this totally works for me. I hope what I shared makes sense and I’ll look forward to testing it out because I was able to order this particular cable on Amazon for $7.99.
Hi Curtis! On a Yamaha MG12XU, is it possible to have a mix minus going on Aux1 and still send FX to that Aux1 send output? Because the channel knob has to be on 0 on Aux1 (mix minus) I can't get the FX to go out on Aux1 send output... The only way I got the FX going out of Aux1 send to the other person was to use the Aux1 master volume knob above the FX fader but the mix minus stopped working. The other person could hear himself with the same FX I was trying to apply on my voice! Probably this is a good idea for a video: mix minus setup for conference/interviews over phone but still sending your own voice with FX. Thanks in advance! :)
Thanks Hugo. I don't know how many aux sends the Yamaha has, but my instincts tell me you'd need to use different aux's - one for the mix minus and another for processing your voice.
@@curtisjudd Hey Curtis! Thanks for replying so quickly. The Yamaha MG12XU has 2 Aux sends. So that translates into 2 Aux knobs on the board. However, my instinct tells me that independently of how many Aux sends you have, as soon as you use one of them to send your FX out you lose your mix-minus feature. Because clockwise rotating the Aux knob to send the FX out will also stop mix-minus effect (for mix-minus to work you need to have your Aux send knob at 0). I might be wrong here and that's why I would love to see a video addressing this somewhat complex setup... Because even if I'm wrong (and you can actually do it using 2 Aux sends) I can't visualize how having 2 Aux sends working together to achieve this would look like cablewise. :)
You might look up Ray Ortega, who also sometimes goes by @PodcastHelper. He’s done several tutorials on mix-minus with various mixers. Mix-minus is not something with which I have a lot of experience.
If you have a single person that has a big dynamic range in his speaking pattern, would this be a better way to address it , should you stick to compression or do both?
I have a question Chris. I have tried to use the leveler in the past and it just never does what I want it to do, which is to actually level the audio. I always try to get a somewhat even mix in my editing software before exporting to RX, but then when I run leveler, different settings, it brings up levels in area where I don't want it, creating unwanted levels and noise, and then I feel like I have to mix it all over again. I have tried to set the target levels at different settings but still makes the whole mix uneven, like whispering parts which are supposed to sound a bit lower are boosted so high that BG noise is crazy.
Hi Duke, I feel that pain. For situations where you have parts you don't want the leveler to touch, it usually works better to just highlight the parts you want to level, that way it leaves the whispers where they were. And also, there's nothing wrong with mixing the old fashioned way with a fader. You know best what you want boosted and what you don't. So there's a time for a leveler and times to skip it and ride the fader yourself. Happy mixing!
@@curtisjudd Yeah I think you're right, I have to just do a mixture of what I do now, and then on selected areas I can use the leveler.. I wish the algorithms did a better job and distinguishing between dialogue, whispering, noise, sounds, etc. Overall RX is awesome, but that is one area they need to improve. It's just so tedious to go through a film and use the fader for all the dialogue, especially since I separate the actors' dialogue. thanks
In RX, yes, the advanced version. But there are leveler plugins which work very similar to this in Adobe Audition, and several third parties. Have a look over at Waves plugins - probably several options there.
I encountered a problem when using Leveler: If you use Leveler, the loundness of the background noise will continue to change over time, so it will be more obvious. How can I solve this problem? Can RX's Voice De-noise handle changing noises?
Yes, that'd be the next step. But if you really want to prevent that, I'd use a separate microphone for each person in the interview so that isn't a problem at all.
@@joe51317 I usually just use a compressor so I don't mess with the noise floor. It is a trial and error sort of question - see which one provides the best results. If you don't have time, I'd usually stick with a compressor in this situation.
You may try WaveRider Tg from Quiet Art. From everything I tried, it works the best! There is also a pro version, but the Tg already do the job just fine.
Insane that this is available only in the $1200 advanced version. That's ridiculous! I paid $400 for standard and feel so low rent. They should be careful, a lot of people are starting to do great stuff inexpensively!
** The audio sample used in this tutorial is the introduction part of an interview with a psychologist speaking to parents of children who attempted suicide. While the dialogue doesn't cover any details, this could be triggering for some people. Proceed with care.
Hey Curtis, thanks for featuring RX!
You’re welcome and thanks for making some amazing audio processing software!
LOVED what you said at 0:23, "If you're coming here and want just a set of numbers...you're dismissed," because that's EXACTLY what I was intending. You called out my laziness, and instead of leaving, I watched the whole video and subscribed to your channel!
RX is so insanely capable that I've found myself unsure of the best methods of using it. Little breakdowns like these are a huge help.
Thanks Sky Makai.
I've been using it since RX4, and I'm still discovering things about it.
Your idea recording was deep and clear. I love it, this video make my refference
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I am literally mixing a podcast interview with 3 people in it right now and 2 of them were on a stream chat and this video made my life sooo much easier. I can't believe i've never utilized this feature.
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This is exactly what I was looking for. Very well explained. Thank you!
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Can you do one of these for all the most used tools in Rx? There’s a few I don’t even attempt because of how greatly they can change things. Getting a better idea of how these modules work would be great, and you have a great way to easily explaining it that I haven’t seen before :)
We'll cover all of them in an upcoming course at School.LearnLightAndSound.com and we'll cover several of them here on RUclips.
Thank you for that information, as a long term RX Advanced User i didn't know that.
I will try it out on my Podcast and Radio Edits i have to do.
On Bigger Movies or Series i will stick to my Pro Tools Workflow, i don't want to piss of the Rerecording Mixer.
Hahaha! 👍
Thanks, Curtis. I didn’t know this tool was even in RX and I’ve been using RX for years. I had either been adjusting the clip gain manually (for large segments that were different), or been using compression to try and get similar-ish levels. This is going to be a major time saver, and should help make my audio sound even better. Cheers, mate.
Cheers, Bob!
@@curtisjudd Me too! It's quite illusory when you see the remaining peaks post FX, yet the audio is far better balanced.
I don’t know if it’s RUclipss AI but I was just about to search how to improve my audio and this video popped in my feed. Saw it was you and knew it would be good. Thanks
Thanks HexadeciMo 👍
this is such a helpful channel. Thank you for putting these tutorials out. They are immensely specific and to the point. They give such a good tour and use case for this software.
Thanks Luke.
@@curtisjudd do you know where those plugins went in RX7?
@@lukejackson1116 The leveler, if memory serves back to version 7, only in the advanced version of RX in the Utilities section. But it's been a while since I used version 7 so I might not have the details right on that.
Just measured a radio play that I've mixed 20 years ago when we didn't have all those sophisticated plugins. Big surprise, it nearly hits -23 LUFS.
Nice!
This is great! I love Izotope's products but their tutorials could use a little...something, something. For example, I did not know about the Clip Gain view! Thanks for the work!
Thanks Terry.
Thanks, Curtis - you are a wonderful resource.
Thanks Keith.
I am obviously not using RX to i's full potential. Thanks for this
You are welcome!
Excellent tutorial. Of all the plug-ins that are gated to RX8 Advanced exclusively, I find it rather puzzling Leveler is one of them. Perhaps not quite up to the same par as iZotope, plenty of DAWs have very capable leveler plugins stock native that very much do a solid job and never leave me wanting. So it’s not like iZotope is withholding something that is a super special sauce you can’t attain elsewhere well enough. Yet they don’t keep something like guitar de noise exclusive to Advanced, which you’d think would be more boutique and premium for it’s relative novelty.
Something that is special and not exclusively gated to RX8 Advanced is the current Loudness Control plug-in. Yes, many other DAWs also have representative versions of the same, but the RX8 Loudness Control - at least in my personal experience - is extremely exacting. Takes a surprising amount of time to render as well, but it’s with it. There is no going back after using that one.
I agree on all counts! Thanks Paul.
Totally agreed re: the leveller. That was one of the things I thought 'eh? Why is that only in Advanced?' - I own RX Standard. Totally understand the AI stuff or the matching room tone of clips and all that are specialist and also maybe really complex to do - but levelling is to me a fairly basic task. It should be in Standard.
Izotope Audiolens just released and is free until Nov 22nd 2022. It’s primarily a music mixing reference app but it might be a good idea to look into to see if there could be any use for it in film audio processing.
👍 will have a look.
Never a miss. Nice job Curtis
Thanks Randy.
Thanks for another high quality tutorial. Much appreciated.
I just would like to gently point out that you frequently use the phrase aimed at some class of viewer that they are "dismissed". I wonder how many people find this a harsh and unpleasant phrase? Would it not be more polite to just say "this might not be for you" instead? Small point no doubt, but why not make your great vids that little bit friendlier?
Of course if you disagree, then you are dismissed. :)
Hi Paul, thanks! Good point. It isn't meant to be unkind, but I see how some could see it that way and at some level, it is a reaction to lots of mean comments about how I've wasted peoples' time. Thanks for the grounding suggestion!
Before even getting 40 seconds in I just want to say how much I love the "you're dismissed, we don't do that here." Hahahaha that really got me. God bless you and this channel, I can't express how much you've helped me by the way!
And you even replied to a specific microphone question (encouraging me to ditch the Rode NTG4+ for the Sennheiser MKE600) and wooooow that alone has been incredible. Thank you!
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This is truly amazing! Thank you for sharing this fantastic tutorial. I have a question: can I describe the responsiveness on the leveler as being similar to the attack in the compressor?
👍 maybe a combination of ratio, attack, and release.
I usually preserve dynamics from 40-60% for more natural-sounding dialogue
Thanks for the tip.
Thanks, Curtis. Another great video from you.
Thanks RustyTube.
Another useful information, thanks curtis.
Thanks Yashi EL
I've noticed your voice sounding so much better than the 2. You should teach us how to make our voice like yours!! haha
I have lots of videos on that and more to come!
Thank you!
You're welcome!
I wish the "Responsiveness" control was re-labeled e.g. to "Smoothness", so that higher values gave more of "what it says on the label". Or even "Window Length", as that's what it is in engineering terms.
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very good explanation! Thank you.
🙏
Thank you so much for great training videos like this!
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Always Awesome and thank you for the great work here.
Thanks Russ.
Very nice tutorial ! Waiting for the next one :)
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Thanks for the Video. Very clearly explained.
👍 You're welcome.
fantastic
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I wanna know how we go about adjusting the Target level if the Total RMS is displayed as +Inf? Thanks!
If the total RMS is +inf, then it seems like something is wrong.
That was so well explained! RX can be quite intimidating 😅 Is there anything like this / any way of doing this directly in Premiere? Would the results be comparable?
Thanks Paul. I don't know of anything off the top of my head in Premiere, but I just started editing in Premiere again for the first time in about 7 years. Leveling is generally an offline type of process so likely not.
Hi Curtis, your videos are rocking my world. Thank you so much. What is the difference between leveling and loudness normalization? Would you recommend leveling first before editing, to get the sounds more even, then normalize at export? I guess I'm confused with when to level, compress, and normalize.
Thanks! I generally only level when things are pretty wildly inconsistent. The difference between leveling and compressing is that leveling can push things up and down while compression only pushes peaks down. They each have their strengths and weaknesses, but usually I only pull out the leveler if for some reason there is a lot of inconsistency in perceived loudness in an audio clip. I use a compressor regularly.
@@curtisjudd I really appreciate your response. That clears it up for me. Thank you!
Would you recommend doing this for a monolog? When I record videos my voice is sometimes loud, sometimes quieter. I tried your loudness tutorial but it doesn't seem right to only use the compressor for that purpose. Do you have a video on how to properly post process audio from A to Z? Like for example what is your order for post processing your audio for reviews and so on? Do you have a good order for Phase correction, compression, leveler, loudness control?
Yes, if your loudness is quite variable, then this is a good tool to help even things out. I cover my RUclips audio workflow here: ruclips.net/video/SsRexob7faM/видео.html and I have courses on Adobe Audition and Izotope RX over at school.learnlightandsound.com
@@curtisjudd thanks I will have a look at this :) Great video btw!
Thanks a lot dear Curtis, working in RX 10 advanced, I have difficulties making this work. Trying to level out an audio track where one of the transmitters died during the take. In 10% of the attempts I get indeed the drawn keyframes.... for the rest it goes through the calculating and then leaves everything unchanged. Have no idea if this is a user error or something else.
I’d have to see the audio clip, but it sounds like the type of situation that would be better to fix manually with key frames. This is more for addressing differences in natural speech patterns vs dropouts
Great job as always!!!
Thank you!
@@curtisjudd you’re welcome 🙏🏿
Thank you for the information. I am currently working on the audio of a book being read by the author, and this helps. I have a lot of leveling to do in the first chapter and this answers some of my questions. Which video would I need to watch to cover some of the other tips that you didn't have time for in this segment?
We have an Izotope RX course over at school.learnlightandsound.com. Or if you prefer, several RX tutorials here on RUclips. A search for “Curtis judd Izotope RX” should pull those up for you 👍
Interesting and something I would use but I only have the standard version of RX8 and could no way justify the $800 to upgrade. Unfortunately it seems always the case with RUclips videos on Izotope products you have to own the maximum package to use it. It would help if Izotope sold add on units as 90% of what is in the standard version I have no use for and this would apply to the full version also. Curtis would it be possible to make some video on dialogue sweetening for us video editors using items that are in the either theElements or Standard versions? Great video though and very clear explanation.
Yes, plan on more videos on the other modules in RX, including standard and elements.
@@curtisjudd Thanks Curtis. I look forward to them as I have been a fan of your RUclips Channel for many years and I really could do with a little help on using RTX8 on dialogue.
Thanks :)
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I have RX 9 and do not have a section for "Leveler" so I can't follow along with this. I have "Loudness control". Any help out there ould be appreciated. Thanks
I believe this is in the advanced version
This is gold.
Thanks B
This would work but I have an audio track playing in the background at -40dB that increases each time there's a silent part. Pain.
Yeah, this isn't the right tool for that job, unfortunately.
So the leveler seems like a upward compressor and a downward compressor acting together. Am i right? or are there any differences? Would you prefer to use leveler on each audio clips for dx edit or use a insert on DAW like waves mv2,fab c2
I generally use a compressor.
Hi Curtis, I've got RX 9 Standard. Is Leveler in Advanced only?
Yes, it is only included in the advanced version.
Great video, but I have a problem with leveller lifting the levels between the words, which is really the opposite of what you want. Any suggestions?
Try adjusting the target level to a lower target.
Also, a leveler WILL pull up the noise floor to some extent, so you may have to follow with some noise reduction.
Hey Curtis! Awesome as always man. Have you considered making a course to purchase on RX Advanced? I'd buy in a heartbeat.
Yes, I've got one covering the modules in RX Elements and Standard and will have one covering the advanced modules in the future: ruclips.net/video/PudErY77WQM/видео.html
Thank you for another wonderful video Curtis. Newbie question - what's the difference between this method and using a compressor? Is it just that we are using LUFS instead of db?
Leveling dynamically pushes audio up and down dynamically through the audio clip. Compression only pushes audio down.
Curtis: I'm curious why you couldn't use a garden variety limiter with a make up to level that conversation ? I don't know anything about the izotope sw, but it looks interesting, and I enjoyed your video. thank you. regards, Dan
You can, but the leveler manages this on a more dynamic basis - boosting and attenuating different amounts through the entire clip vs. static settings on a compressor/limiter.
I have used the limiter - makeup method before, and it worked pretty well, but I suppose it all depends on your starting point, no ?
Agreed, it does depend on where you're starting. And for tricky situations like a recording made on a statically boom mic for two people, I find a leveler works a little better.
@@curtisjudd Yeah, I must admit you demonstrate that pretty well. I mean you can do the leveling manually, but your approach makes so much more sense from a workflow, especially for a long interview, especially where the mic stand is placed in the wrong place, and you get really badly imbalanced subject audio levels....it would be far less time and work to use your approach for sure !!! No doubt the pros will spend a little to buy this software package and reduce the time on task.
Hi Curtis,, Great video, well explained,, i have a question, is levelling normally the first step in audio repair,, before we proceed with de noise, de click & others,, is there any sequence ?
If there's a lot of noise, I'd try to clean that up first. Then level, then de-click. At least that's usually how I approach it.
Thanks, that helped tremendously to understand the process.
One leetle question: what if the Min RMS is -Inf (e.g. when there are absolute silences in the audio)? How do you quantify the range or how much the leveling has changed the averages?
I'm not following the question, sorry about that.
@@curtisjudd You talked about the difference between the min RMS and the average (e.g. -4 ave and -50 min).
But what if the min RMS is -Inf?
What is the difference then between -4db, say, and -Inf?
@@LearnThaiRapidMethod Infinity. I believe the difference between - infinity and anything is infinity.
Curtis, do you have a video on lav placement? Best practices, etc.
Yes: ruclips.net/video/RxcQz4VFGXA/видео.html
Really easy to understand tutorial. How does a leveler differ from compression? Any cases where on is preferred over another?
A leveler is basically an automated fader - like a person turning the audio up and down to even it out. A compressor only turns down the loud bits.
@@curtisjudd Got it! Thanks for the explanation.
@@curtisjudd Thanks! This makes a lot of sense now.
Thanks for this Curtis, had a question for you. What's the difference between using a compressor vs a leveller? Would it be worthwhile upgrading to Rx advanced to use their leveller or am I fine just using a compressor in audacity or nectar. Thanks!
Hi Jonny, a compressor only reduces the higher amplitude bits while a leveler reduces and boosts depending on the amplitude of the waveform at any given point.
Is this feature available in RX 10 Standard?
No, it is only in the advanced version, unfortunately.
Hi Curtis. I've bought a few of your courses but I couldn't find the answer to this question. Can I get the most out of the Mix Pre 3ii 32bit float files on Resolve Studio or do I need RX, RX elements or another plugin or piece of software to get the most out of the range of the 32bit recording? Thabks in advance.
Hi Morgan. Yes, on any of the V17 releases of DaVinci Resolve, you get all the benefits of 32-bit float audio clips from the MixPre II series.
@@curtisjudd thanks for the quick response. All my files seem to come across a bit quiet and I can't seem to boost their levels up as far as I would like. When I saw you using RX you seemed to have a lot more room to raise and lower levels.
@@morgan-films Hi Morgan, in Fairlight, you can boost the levels by 30dB per clip. You might need to round trip to another app or look into an amplification or gain plugin.
Where is the leveler? I found the Loudness Control but don’t see the Leveler. I have RX 10 Advanced
I found it.
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I have two old countrymen b3 lavs. The connection on it has a taf4 wired for EV (electric voice). It doesn't have the new pin feature were you can just change it with an adapter. I'm wanting to convert them to a Sennheiser 3.5mm so I can use it with my Tascam and Rode wireless go. What do you recommend I do?
I'd contact Gotham Sound or Trew Audio. They each have service departments which can "re-terminate" the microphones for you.
Nice video Curtis, is it possible to use the leveler in a 5.1 file?, and if I use that for targeting Netflix and tv specific levels even if I don´t have the best calibration?
I wouldn’t. I’d use it more to level individual mono tracks and then add those to your 5.1 mix.
what are your thoughts on using ai noise removal? I have been using it on loud outdoor construction job site interviews to get ride of all the crazy background noise. Do you think izotope can remove noise better?
Depends on the noise and the budget for post cleaning.
Great video! I'm a bit stuck. I have a RODECaster Pro 2 unit with my mic attached to it. I can record audio using any app (Adobe Audition, Adobe Premiere, Apple Keynote, etc), but can't seem to get any audio when using RX 9 to record. I went into RX 9 prefs and selected the correct input device (RODE Connect System), but when I press record it's just blank. Any reason why? Is there something else in the prefs that I need to select besides what I did? Let me know what you can please, thank you.
In the Izotope Preferences, I choose RODECaster Pro II Main Multi Track as the input and it works fine. If this isn't an option for you, probably best to contact RODE support. They should be able to get things sorted out for you. Best wishes!
@@curtisjudd I just deleted my reply to you and figured out what my problem was. I think I chose mono when I should’ve chose stereo for my recording. Then I went into preferences and chose RODECaster Pro II Main Stereo and it worked! I should’ve chosen to set up for stereo first because I think that was my main issue to begin with. Thank you again for your help!
@@curtisjudd I was also curious of something else that's related to using the RCP2. Is there a way to directly connect your iPhone to the RCP2 to be able to record your livestream call, or are you just relegated to using bluetooth connection to make that happen. I ask this because using Bluetooth connection, at times there can be vocal delays where it can miss the first 1 or 2 seconds of the person speaking on the phone each time they speak from time to time. I was thinking using a USB C to Lighting cable I think would prevent that and get a cleaner and better recording. Let me know what you can please if there is some kind of workaround on this. Thank you.
@@punknugget561 For calls, based on our tests, you can only do that via Bluetooth. The quality seemed as good as a mobile call typically is (not amazing), but it didn't seem like the fact that it was coming in via Bluetooth that it was any worse.
@@curtisjudd Actually I just found out through googling it that there was a person who is able to post a Reddit article that talked about this very situation. It looks like somebody found a solution and was able to use a 3.5mm TRS to Dual 1/4” TS Mono Y-splitter and then adding the lightning to earphone adapter and it works with audio phone calls. But you have to use two line-in XLR ports (3&4), on the back of the RCP2, configured as a stereo pair. Since I don’t use all four XLR inputs anyway and only use one, this totally works for me. I hope what I shared makes sense and I’ll look forward to testing it out because I was able to order this particular cable on Amazon for $7.99.
What if I have TWO microphones and tracks and I want to remove the voice of the talent that is not wearing the mic from that specific track?
Mic bleed - there is a de-bleed module in RX Advanced.
Hi Curtis! On a Yamaha MG12XU, is it possible to have a mix minus going on Aux1 and still send FX to that Aux1 send output? Because the channel knob has to be on 0 on Aux1 (mix minus) I can't get the FX to go out on Aux1 send output... The only way I got the FX going out of Aux1 send to the other person was to use the Aux1 master volume knob above the FX fader but the mix minus stopped working. The other person could hear himself with the same FX I was trying to apply on my voice!
Probably this is a good idea for a video: mix minus setup for conference/interviews over phone but still sending your own voice with FX. Thanks in advance! :)
Thanks Hugo. I don't know how many aux sends the Yamaha has, but my instincts tell me you'd need to use different aux's - one for the mix minus and another for processing your voice.
@@curtisjudd Hey Curtis! Thanks for replying so quickly. The Yamaha MG12XU has 2 Aux sends. So that translates into 2 Aux knobs on the board. However, my instinct tells me that independently of how many Aux sends you have, as soon as you use one of them to send your FX out you lose your mix-minus feature. Because clockwise rotating the Aux knob to send the FX out will also stop mix-minus effect (for mix-minus to work you need to have your Aux send knob at 0). I might be wrong here and that's why I would love to see a video addressing this somewhat complex setup... Because even if I'm wrong (and you can actually do it using 2 Aux sends) I can't visualize how having 2 Aux sends working together to achieve this would look like cablewise. :)
@@FYouMoney I’ll need an MG12XU it seems.
@@curtisjudd So it seems! :D
You might look up Ray Ortega, who also sometimes goes by @PodcastHelper. He’s done several tutorials on mix-minus with various mixers. Mix-minus is not something with which I have a lot of experience.
If you have a single person that has a big dynamic range in his speaking pattern, would this be a better way to address it , should you stick to compression or do both?
I generally stick to a compressor.
@@curtisjudd thank you very much.
I have a question Chris. I have tried to use the leveler in the past and it just never does what I want it to do, which is to actually level the audio. I always try to get a somewhat even mix in my editing software before exporting to RX, but then when I run leveler, different settings, it brings up levels in area where I don't want it, creating unwanted levels and noise, and then I feel like I have to mix it all over again. I have tried to set the target levels at different settings but still makes the whole mix uneven, like whispering parts which are supposed to sound a bit lower are boosted so high that BG noise is crazy.
Hi Duke, I feel that pain. For situations where you have parts you don't want the leveler to touch, it usually works better to just highlight the parts you want to level, that way it leaves the whispers where they were. And also, there's nothing wrong with mixing the old fashioned way with a fader. You know best what you want boosted and what you don't. So there's a time for a leveler and times to skip it and ride the fader yourself. Happy mixing!
@@curtisjudd Yeah I think you're right, I have to just do a mixture of what I do now, and then on selected areas I can use the leveler.. I wish the algorithms did a better job and distinguishing between dialogue, whispering, noise, sounds, etc. Overall RX is awesome, but that is one area they need to improve. It's just so tedious to go through a film and use the fader for all the dialogue, especially since I separate the actors' dialogue. thanks
Does this require the Advanced version? Or can this be done in the Standard version?
In RX, yes, the advanced version. But there are leveler plugins which work very similar to this in Adobe Audition, and several third parties. Have a look over at Waves plugins - probably several options there.
What screen capture software do you use?
Screenflow.
@@curtisjudd ty
I encountered a problem when using Leveler: If you use Leveler, the loundness of the background noise will continue to change over time, so it will be more obvious.
How can I solve this problem?
Can RX's Voice De-noise handle changing noises?
Yes, that'd be the next step. But if you really want to prevent that, I'd use a separate microphone for each person in the interview so that isn't a problem at all.
@@curtisjudd Thanks!
If there's only one person talking, but his loudness changes drastically, should I use leveler or just use compressor?
@@joe51317 I usually just use a compressor so I don't mess with the noise floor. It is a trial and error sort of question - see which one provides the best results. If you don't have time, I'd usually stick with a compressor in this situation.
@@curtisjudd so what if denoise before leveling? what you think?
@@NKRDBL Worth a try.
Are there any good leveling plugin except RX8 since Izotope RX advanced is way too expensive for me. Thank you!
Adobe Audition has one included if you use that. There's probably a reasonably priced option over at Waves plugins.
You may try WaveRider Tg from Quiet Art. From everything I tried, it works the best! There is also a pro version, but the Tg already do the job just fine.
@@IoannisKalantzis Thanks for the tip!
@@curtisjudd You are welcome!
Insane that this is available only in the $1200 advanced version. That's ridiculous! I paid $400 for standard and feel so low rent.
They should be careful, a lot of people are starting to do great stuff inexpensively!
Yep
Is it basically a compressor?
The difference with a leveler is that it boosts and turns down different parts of the audio. With compression, you just turn down the largest peaks.
@curtis is there a particular reason you deleted my reply to @fibbo? was I inappropriate in some way?
I haven’t deleted anything, just now getting to the comments.
@@curtisjudd Something must have happened with youtube then, it was there one minute and gone the next. sorry for that. have a nice day!
Curtis. Love your channel and work. I had to stop listening to the episode. The used example recording was somber and immensely sad.
Good news: it ends well. The psychologies gives good advice for how to deal with very tough situations like this.
Great video but wasn't expecting such heavy subject matter out the gate. A little bit jarring!
Sorry.
And all of that for just $1,200
There are lots of other less expensive leveler plugins
Uhmm that was a rough dialogue topic
Which is why I added the pinned comment with trigger warning.
I have the Audio Post Production Suite 8 but having trouble finding Dialogue Match. Is it included with the package I have @curtisjudd?
I found it. Thank you. Its small and I was looking under RX. Thank again.
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