Over the years the team at Audionamix have earned a reputation for developing smart and intuitive machine learning software that keeps pushing the boundaries of what we thought was possible in audio separation technologies. Recently Audionamix discontinued their previous speech separation plug-in ADX SVC (Speech Volume Control) and replaced it in their product line with the release of IDC (Instant Dialogue Cleaner) which in essence does the same thing as SVC but better. IDC takes the overall experience of dialogue separation technology too much higher levels.

What Was ADX SVC?

The ADX Speech Volume Control (SVC) enabled users to independently control the volume level of speech from background sound within mono or stereo audio files. It was a great plug-in that helped users get more intelligibility out of speech within troublesome audio.

The only downside that SVC had was that it required a constant internet connection in order to work as the processing was done up in the Audionamix servers. SVC needed to capture a selection of audio by use of an "Acquire" button which took time to calculate - Watch our Review of Audionamix SVC that we published in 2016.

What's New In Audionamix IDC

IDC provides us with the same concept as SVC but gone are both the "Acquire" button and the internet connection dependence. Audionamix has also switched to iLok which I prefer using for my product licenses.

Unlike SVC, IDC is a real-time processing plug-in which instantly cleans up dialogue. Watch the video below for a quick tour of the UI and to hear an example of how well IDC cleans up dialogue recorded in an extremely noisy environment.

Here's what Audionamix have to say about IDC:

The IDC plug-in is versatile and easy to use due to its unique, integrated DNN artificial intelligence that automatically detects and separates speech, no matter the surrounding content. Specifically, the software excels at addressing common audio issues including complex interference, wind, birds or insects, car and plane interference and roomy recordings. With the turn of a knob, users can clean up dialogue from production audio, field recordings, news and sports recordings, and more, making it the perfect tool for audio post professionals, dialogue editors, re-recording mixers, and broadcast engineers. - Audionamix

IDC Main Features

• Instant Dialogue Cleanup with a Turn of a Knob

• Real Time, Cloudless Speech Separation Technology

• Available in VST2 / VST3, AAX Native / AudioSuite and AU plug-in formats

• Dramatic Cleanup (up to +/-24dB gain control)

• Works Well with Complex Variable Noise where traditional de-noisers fail

• Fully Automatable Plug-in Settings

• Powerful AI Technology

• IDC supports 2nd and 3rd generation iLoks as well as iLok Cloud activation, which means users new to iLok do not need to purchase an iLok USB key to work with IDC.

We Test IDC Performance - Before & After Examples

Below are four before and after audio examples that we have produced using IDC. 

The results across the board are very impressive. Each example required its own level of background reduction, some examples needed some extra help by increasing the level of the speech fader. It took less than ten seconds to set IDC for each example.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Great value for money at $199

• Zero learning curve

• Immediate results that sound great

Cons:

• In testing, we found the results of IDC sound better on mono audio. Stereo tracks with dialogue that moves around the centre can sound over-processed at times

• Sadly no demo is available, Audionamix may offer demos in the near future

Verdict

IDC is a great example of when a plug-in developer listens and responds to their customers' feedback. Over the years the internet dependency wasn't particularly popular in Audionamix products so it's great to have a noise reduction plug-in by Audionamix that can be processed natively and instantly on a host computer without waiting for cloud servers to buffer.

The AI in IDC does a great job of targeting dialogue within less than perfect recorded audio. Speech quickly and effortlessly comes to the forefront. The background noise can be turned down by 24dB, which is a bit extreme but some users may need that level of reduction. I've found the best sounding results occur when the background noise is dialled back tastefully instead of dialled out "completely" as often the background noise in audio that is synced to video, needs some background sound left in for context.

I have quite the soft spot for plug-ins such as these that offer a stripped back set of controls, especially when such plug-ins do exactly what they say on the tin. To my ears, IDC is a well thought out product made for professionals that seriously don't have enough time on their hands to fiddle around with complex noise reduction software. This is one of those products that I cannot find any fault with except that there is sadly no demo available for you to download to try for yourself.

Visit the Audionamix website for more information on IDC