Odeon 120 (Brussels) talks about CEDAR dynamic noise suppression

CEDAR DNS1000 installed at Odeon 120


Odeon 120, in Brussels, Belgium, use their DNS1000 for a wide range of noise reduction and audio restoration tasks - everything from reducing background noise to removing standing waves in live recording situations. Engineer Michael W Huon recently told us, "Years ago I experimented with de-noising using a multi-band analogue expander/gate, but this created a lot of artefacts. At that time, no one could dream of what digital technology would be able to offer just 25 years later."

"The reason I bought the DNS1000 was firstly to de-noise old tapes that I had to restore, and secondly to reduce the hiss that sometimes appears when people use ribbon mics with high gain pre-amplification. It worked like no other product, and like no plug-in available in a DAW. Later, I widened its use to the cleaning of live soundtracks. When shooting film or video, there is always unwanted noise that microphones will catch without one's agreement."

"Several times a year I record live theatre plays. This requires 24 or more microphones positioned strategically around the stage. At the mixer, only some of the channels are open at a time, but the microphones still catch many disturbing sounds like movements, lighting buzz, audience murmur, and many resonances. When attending a show, our intelligent hearing allows us humans to perceive the difference between what is important and what is not, but microphones do not. The CEDAR unit is kind of intelligent as - with a little help from the engineer - it increases the intelligibility of the speech and reduces the unwanted noise, a bit like our brain would have reacted while attending the live show."

"A few month ago, I was recording a jazz quartet in a rather small club where the ceiling was very low, and standing waves in the low frequency range were dramatically obstructing the listening. The third case study in the DNS1000's owner's manual suggested the answer and I was able to solve the problem, creating a mix that now breathes."

"The DNS1000 is a brilliant tool, absolutely necessary in the mastering of such situations as I've described. It is a huge help, efficient, and gives me results that are far above my original expectations!"

"I really have to thank you for its development and its commercialisation."

Return to DNS1500.