NoiseAssist for live Noise Reduction on location, a $600 Plugin for the Sound Devices 8 Series of recorders

[IronFilm]

https://store.sounddevices.com/product/noiseassist/

 

[Kisaha]

Interesting. You also have Cedar though.

The girl example is impressive, even though in real life I would be just turn off anything that makes noise. It helps with the general discipline on set and care for the sound.

Are you going to buy it?

Is it only for the 8 series?

[IronFilm]

1 hour ago, Kisaha said:

Interesting. You also have Cedar though.

Yes. I've got some mixed feelings about this. 

My Cedar DNS-2 might have just dropped in half with its resale value! Hmmm......
 

1 hour ago, Kisaha said:

even though in real life I would be just turn off anything that makes noise.

Of course. That still applies! 
Noise Reduction is never totally perfect, even in the examples Sound Devices gave you can hear issues with artifacts. 
 

1 hour ago, Kisaha said:

Are you going to buy it?

Not right now. At US$600 (for its "introductory price" too!!) this is waaaaaaay overpriced. 

They're setting a record here in charging for a firmware update / plugin / whatchamacallit. (yes, even beating out Aaton by a nose)

Which I feel is worthwhile highlighting, as it signals a radical change in business strategy by Sound Devices. (although, like I said, perhaps not a total surprise after all, as their MixPre series could've been a clue)

As in the past you'd buy a recorder (such as say a Sound Devices 688) and over the years of its life cycle, Sound Devices would keep their product relevant and keep the sales up (and also build up a loyal fanbase of their existing customers, who thus serve as great marketing tool to promote the product) by releasing new cool updates / bonuses / accessories to it.

Other companies would approach it with a different business strategy, for instance Tascam would go with the strategy of slashing the price of its products later on their life cycle. (look at how much cheaper the Tascam HS-P82 was at launch vs at the end when they discontinued it, or at the opposite extreme the Tascam DR60D at launch vs on sale)

So it seems Sound Devices has shifted to a new strategy, in which they sell us hardware as the gateway drug to then keep on upselling us with new software purchases being offered.

With hindsight, if I'd known that a Sound Devices 833 is buying into an ecosystem with a series of $600 paid firmware updates, then I'm not sure if an 833 would've made as much sense at all.

Something to be aware of if anybody is considering buying into Sound Devices, it seems the Sound Devices of the future is no longer the Sound Devices of the past.

As one other sound mixer said in response to this news: "I just feel like they've opened pandora's box. I'm disappointed"

Where will it end, are we going to get charged for 32bits? Charged for ambisonics? Charged to unlock all the features with the new SL-2? Did we dodge a bullet that the EQ firmware update wasn't instead a paid plugin?? Etc etc etc.... heck, by the end of its 5 year life cycle are we going to have ended up spending more on firmware upgrades than on the recorder itself????

 

1 hour ago, Kisaha said:

Is it only for the 8 series?

Yes, their other products don't have the raw power (3x FPGAs) to do this. 

[majoraxis]

So is the suggested workflow to record with the NR inline?  In post there is Resolve’s audio noise reduction followed by Accentize VoiceGate which provide a real-time AI driven audio noise reduction chain that is hard to beat.

[IronFilm]

There are a few different post tools which people can do during the edit for noise reduction. 
The main two "industry standards" for years have been CEDAR and iZotope.
(I've got a Cedar DNS-2 myself)

[Kisaha]

I think you are right about the business strategy.

It seems they are transforming to a more consumer orientated business, which is good for their bank accounts, but the plug in price is just too much.

Also, they will loose loyal older customers - but die hard professionals, that spend the big money, I can see people to move to Zaxcom and Sonosax and the such..You know these older sound mixers like some kind of exclusivity on their brands.

I am not sure what's behind their decision, on an already expensive product, mind you.

I hope the next step is Zoom offering something similar for free, like they did with their Automix function!

[IronFilm]

1 hour ago, Kisaha said:

Also, they will loose loyal older customers - but die hard professionals, that spend the big money, I can see people to move to Zaxcom and Sonosax and the such..You know these older sound mixers like some kind of exclusivity on their brands.

Sonosax is super niche, they're the 4th ranked player, even if they doubled their sales they wouldn't be making much of an impact on Sound Devices. 

What seems to be happening is a fair sized chunk of the market (let's call them the "633 / ENG Mixers") are going for Zaxcom Nova over the 833. 

While those at the higher end are leaking to the Aaton Cantar X3, rather than a Sound Devices Scorpio (I wonder if the Sound Devices CL-16 will reverse the trend?).

Anyway, that's just the general gut feeling I get for the trend based on the chatter I see online from what people are using and are interested in. 
 

1 hour ago, Kisaha said:

I hope the next step is Zoom offering something similar for free, like they did with their Automix function!

Hope so! But might be a long wait? Or it might not be. Let's see what happens with the Zoom F10