The latest incarnation of Izotope's renowned RX software for noise reduction, noise elimination, and dialogue enhancement/repair was recently released. Versions RX5 include the standard RX5 as well as RX5 Advanced (which includes a few more powerful tools).
For those who are not familiar with Izotope RX4 or RX5 -- this is to dialogue editing what PhotoShop is to photography!
This program allows you to (almost magically) remove background noise, lessen echo/reverb, edit out specific noises within a complex waveform without distrubing the adjacent audio, smooth out levels, remove breath sounds, pops, clicks, de-essing, lift out room tone or restore scene matching room tone (to ADR), EQ match dialogue from different takes, and so much more. It takes a website to even begin to describe everything that this program can do for you!
Let me put it this way. Years ago, I was involved in Forensic Audio noise reduction and speech enhancement -- in other words, cleaning up surveillance audiotapes. I worked on stuff for civilian clients and sometimes on behalf of some government agencies. My lab had state of the art software, some of which did not exist and was provided to me by agencies that did not exist along with training from instructors who did not exist. That stuff did not even come close to doing what RX5 is capable of with just the click of a button!
Izotope RX4 (and now RX5) has won major technical achievement awards from Hollywood, and can be found alongside Pro Tools in every major studios' mxing stages and audio editing suites. It can be utilized both as a stand-alone editing tool as well as a plug-in with Pro Tools.
If you are going to work in post audio, you MUST familiarize yourself with this incredible software. Izotope offers some excellent video tutorials as well as two very comprehensive, written guides (downloadable PDF files) on their site: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/audio-repair/rx/
The easiest and quickest way to learn about RX5 is by watching their series of short videos. These tips and video tutorials are at: https://www.izotope.com/en/community/blog/tips-tutorials/2015/101/rx-5-quickstart-cleaning-up-audio-and-reducing-noise-with-rx-5-audio-editor/
A good introductory users guide can be found at their Educational guides at: https://www.izotope.com/en/support/support-resources/guides/
The PDF Users Manual is at: https://www.izotope.com/en/support/support-resources/documentation/
Izotope strongly supports faculty and film students with a number of special educational discount programs, so I encourage Instructors to contact Izotope and introduce themselves, to see what educational support their department may qualify for.
