CEDAR Audio NR-5 for Cambridge

The Problem:
Traditional noise reduction methods are inadequate.  Dual-ended processes require encoding and do nothing to remove noise already present in a signal. Low-pass filters remove as much wanted signal as noise.  Dynamic filters pump, round off transients and dull the genuine signal.  Gates remove no noise when open. Expanders pump, and multi-band expanders have poor separation filters, leading to loss of high frequencies, loss of ambience, and degradation of hard transients.

What's more, it's impossible to remove all the noise from a signal and leave the desired (genuine) signal completely unaffected.  Consequently, the best you can hope for when de-noising material is a compromise that reduces the noise to an acceptable level while leaving the desired signal as unaffected as possible.

The Solution:
Building upon the latest noise reduction algorithm developed for the rackmount CEDAR Duo™ DDH Auto Dehisser and the Auto Dehiss process already available on CEDAR Cambridge™, NR-5™ marries our best signal processing with numerous facilities that help you to achieve the best possible results.  It will work equally well with or without a noise fingerprint, and an array of tools allow you to manipulate the noise identification and reduction profiles in ways that are unique to CEDAR's flagship products.

To make NR-5™ as quick to use and intuitive as possible, and to eliminate any learning curve for users of our previous noise reduction flagship, we have retained the style and layout of NR-4™. However, the clear screens and easily mastered controls of NR-5™ belie the increased capabilities of the underlying algorithm, which removes more noise than ever before with even fewer side-effects or artefacts.

The Noise Fingerprint:
Although it is impossible to know the precise amount of noise at each frequency at every moment, an accurate fingerprint is a useful tool, and can help to define the amount of noise removed by the system. Should it be difficult to capture a sample of noise, or if you have caught a small amount of signal as well, you can edit a Fingerprint or create one manually using the NR-5™ drawing tools. These provide powerful opportunities to achieve the best possible results, especially when used with the integrated Spectrum Analyser, which helps you to create or edit a Fingerprint that most closely resembles the contour of the noise spectrum.

The Noise Reduction EQ:
The Noise Reduction EQ re-shapes the noise content contained in the input signal. Typically, you will want to concentrate the noise reduction in the range where the hiss is most intrusive, while leaving other areas relatively untouched. This is very different from lesser systems that attenuate the noise content equally at all frequencies.

The Noise Free EQ™
Although capable of acting like a conventional parametric equaliser, the Noise Free EQ™ is a mastering quality EQ that acts only upon that part of the signal identified as genuine signal. You can say, therefore, that it is like a filter that shapes only the true signal content of the input signal. Common uses for this include mild boosting of high frequencies to counteract any loss of perceived brightness caused by the noise reduction itself.

NR-5™ offers many other facilties that help you to achieve the best possible results from the source material. Like many other CEDAR Cambridge™ modules, it provides zooming and Markers, multiple levels of Undo and Redo, and it is fully automated using the Timecode Automation Controller, the Event Manager and the File Processor.