Every engineer has run into the problem where they’re mixing a vocal that has a significant bleed of unwanted noise in the background, and it’s tough to separate the voice from the noise. It could be from other instruments on stage, crowd noise or environmental noise, but the net result is the same: the noise interferes with the voice. Clarity Vx from Waves is a new plug-in designed to help reduce or eliminate these types of unwanted noises.
Powered by the same Waves Neural Networks engine used for Clarity Vx Pro, Clarity Vx features a simplified interface that has no learning curve, yet produces clean vocal tracks without artifacts or damage to the source material. Clarity Vx is capable of removing noise generated by air conditioning, computer fans, traffic and a wide variety of other noise sources.
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Through the use of the Neural Networks, Clarity Vx operates in real time and is not required to “learn” the profile of each type of noise. Its processing engine is a universe fed with hundreds of thousands of audio files of vocal recordings, and is trained to recognize the difference between voice and ambiance. The user interface is a single knob; turning it clockwise reduces unwanted noise. Clarity Vx includes two “catch-all” Neural Networks designed to address a wide variety of problems: “Broad 1” is optimized for preserving both main and secondary voices when more than one voice is present in the recording. “Broad 2” is recommended for severe noises or — in recordings where more than one voice is present — for separating a main voice from secondary background voices. Waves recommends that a user toggle between the two to determine which is more suitable for a particular source.
Clarity Vx can be used live or in the studio, and runs in mono or stereo at sample rates from 44.1 to 96 kHz. Latency is stated as 2048 samples at 44.1/48 kHz, and 4096 samples at 88.2/96 kHz. The MSRP is $149.
