We recently ran a Listening Test comparing a variety of different dialogue noise reduction tools. The tools on test were:

• Hush Pro

• Waves Clarity Vx Pro

• Acon Digital Extract: Dialogue

• Accentize dxRevive Pro

• iZotope RX Dialogue Isolate

• Supertone CLEAR

Several examples of noisy audio were included, along with versions processed with each plug-in. The options were randomised and listeners were invited to vote on which they felt was the most effective in each case. If you want to take the test before reading the results below you can do that here.

Here are the results!

Test 1 - Cicadas

The contenders in this case were:

A - Supertone CLEAR

B - iZotope RX Dialogue Isolate

C - Accentize dxRevive Pro

D - Hush Pro

E - Waves Clarity Vx Pro

F - Acon Digital Extract: Dialogue

In this test, Accentize dxRevive Pro was the very clear winner, taking over 50% of the votes.

Test 2 - Broadband Noise

The identify of the plug-ins in this test were as follows:

A - Accentize dxRevive Pro

B - Hush Pro

C - Supertone CLEAR

D - Waves Clarity Vx Pro

E - Acon Digital Extract: Dialogue

F - iZotope RX Dialogue Isolate

Again, there’s an obvious winner in this test, but this time it’s Hush Pro, which took 64.32% of the votes.

Test 3 Hum

The identify of the plug-ins in this test were as follows:

A - Hush Pro

B - Supertone CLEAR

C - Waves Clarity Vx Pro

D - Accentize dxRevive Pro

E - iZotope RX Dialogue Isolate

F - Acon Digital Extract: Dialogue

Acon Digital Extract: Dialogue just about scraped a win in this test, but iZotope RX Dialogue Isolate was extremely close behind, followed by Accentize dxRevive Pro. The results are so close that we can say it’s practically a draw between those three in this case.

Test 4 - Roadside Traffic

The identify of the plug-ins in this test were as follows:

A - iZotope RX Dialogue Isolate

B - Accentize dxRevive Pro

C - Hush Pro

D - Supertone CLEAR

E - Acon Digital Extract: Dialogue

F - Waves Clarity Vx Pro

Hush Pro took the lead in this one, with a statistically significant 38% of the votes. Accentize dxRevive Pro was second, followed by iZotope RX Dialogue Isolate in third.

Results Summary

Looking purely at the plug-in which received the highest number of votes in each test, the winners in each test are:

Test 1 - Accentize dxRevive Pro

Test 2 - Hush Pro

Test 3 - Acon Digital Extract: Dialogue

Test 4 - Hush Pro

Another way to break the data down would be to look at the total number of votes received by each plug-in across all tests. In that case, we get:

Accentize dxRevive Pro – 685

Hush Pro – 636

iZotope RX Dialogue Isolate – 369

Acon Digital Extract: Dialogue – 249

Supertone CLEAR – 198

Waves Clarity Vx Pro –191

Conclusion

It’s interesting to see how varied the results are between the different tests. Hush Pro won two out of the four tests but didn’t fare well in test three where it came last. Accentize dxRevive Pro won one of the tests and received the highest total number of votes, factoring in all four tests. Acon Digital Extract: Dialogue won the other test.

It’s tricky to draw an absolute conclusion from this, since the plug-ins fared quite differently across the four tests. Going off the number of votes, Accentize dxRevive Pro and Hush Pro did the best overall, so both are worth checking out, if you haven’t already (free trials are available).

The quality of the available noise reduction tools is better than ever before, but this test suggests that there’s currently still no single plug-in which beats everything else in all cases. If you work in audio post, or dialogue editing in particular, you’re likely to need more than one tool at your disposal for restoration and noise reduction.

Keep an eye out for the forthcoming second part of this test where we’ll be comparing reverb reduction tools.