THE MODULES
There’s a great deal going on in Dialog’s interface. In addition to a master Preset menu at the top, several modules have their own dedicated Preset menus which are accessed by clicking and holding in the black area above the label Preset. The black buttons to the right of these areas can be clicked to step through the dedicated presets for that module.
Here’s where things get interesting in Dialog: the signal path and what’s in it. See, there are no pitch correctors or “saturators” or reverbs or other “effects” in Dialog. It’s nothing but a straight-ahead processing chain, set up the way I used to do it in the analog domain. You remember that old thing, don’t you? Sure you do. Patch a half-dozen analog boxes between the microphone and the recorder and you had a vocal processor. Today that’s done in a single plug-in which, with a couple of exceptions, delivers as good a performance as having all those expensive boxes strung together. So while you cannot re-order the modules in the signal path, as far as I’m concerned there’s no need to, since Wave Arts got it right.
Starting at the upper left corner of the UI, the first module is the brickwall filters -- one each for high-pass and low-pass. Now we certainly didn’t have this kind of filter in analog with a 60 dB/octave rolloff. That’s not a typo; the brickwall filters will do a sixty decibel per octave slope. This can be fun, especially if you engage both the high-pass and low-pass and tune them to create a very narrow passband. Best. Robot. Ever. Or bad space radio. Yeah, I know, you’ll use that once, but it is fun. But used appropriately, the brickwall filters are a welcome addition to Dialog’s signal chain.
I always put rolloff filters, particularly the low frequency variety, first in my VO chain so that subsequent processing doesn’t include those frequencies that have no valid information anyway. Even with a male baritone VO there’s little below 150 Hz and truly nothing below 100 Hz of any value. What exists down there is HVAC rumble, mic stand rumble, occasional mic handling and foot noise, and more rumble. Depending on the actor, I will increase the roll off frequency on the low end until his (or even her) low-end timbre changes, then back it off a bit. With four slopes between 24 and 60 dB/octave, eliminating rumble is a no-brainer. And while the sound of the 60 dB/octave setting has some ringing artifacts around the cutoff frequency, the 48, 36, and 24 dB/octave sound quite natural and work very well. Besides, if you’ve set the high-pass to below 100 Hz there won’t be anything to ring anyway. This one’s a winner.
THE CLEANUP CREW
The next module going down and next in the signal path is the De-Hum module. This filter is designed to reduce or remove AC hum or buzz by notching out frequencies at either 50 Hz or 60 Hz, along with the upper harmonics. While it works to greatly reduce hum and/or buzz, it also generates significant artifacts and could use some improvement. Wave Arts’ documentation warns that using the Buzz setting will create “comb filtering” artifacts, and it certainly does; it’s a combination of slap-back echo and flanging. Unfortunately so does the De-Hum setting, but to a lesser extent. Unlike other noise reduction plugs, the De-Hum module has no “strength” or “amount” control to moderate the depth of the notches and avoid artifacts. The filter is either in or out, so I would avoid this one except in dire cases where you’re literally salvaging audio. iZotope’s RX does a far better job thanks to the ability to dial in the depth of the notches (of course it’s much more expensive, too).
Next in line is Dialog’s De-Noise module, which is nicely effective in eliminating constant bandwidth noise, as with HVAC air vents in a booth. This module first “learns” the noise print when you play a sample of isolated noise, then builds a multi-band filter to eliminate the noise and leaves the rest of the signal. There are several of these de-noisers on the market, and the one in Dialog holds up well next to them.
The process of using De-Noise is to first find clean noise, as little as 50 ms of it, and have it Learn that noise by pressing the Learn button. Then dial in the Amount of noise reduction -- gingerly -- so as to reduce the noise without creating artifacts like audible pumping or flanging. My experience is that somewhere between 10 and 18 dB of noise reduction is usually quite sufficient, and trying to get more reduction than that usually ends badly. It requires some experimentation, but the results I achieved with Dialog were on par with most other broadband noise reducers. The key to using De-Noise effectively is to find a good noise sample, then don’t try to reduce the noise entirely and all at once. It’s better to take small bites in multiple passes rather than eat it all in one mouthful. But De-noise is a winner as far as I’m concerned.
In the lower left corner are the De-Plode and De-Ess modules, and these work as expected. For those who’ve forgotten, a De-Esser is a frequency-dependent compressor that keys off of high frequency content, turning down everything a bit when the highs exceed a threshold volume, thus reducing “ess” sounds overall. The De-Plode module does the same job, but keys off of low frequencies as exist in plosives, and turns the entire signal down when one occurs. Both of these modules sound good, do their job, and impart no color of their own. The De-Plosive module is surprisingly effective, and I’d try it before I started manually tweaking the volume or trying to cut the “boom” out of the take.
I do have minor issues with the “Reduction” control on these two modules which, on a compressor, would be labeled Ratio. In most cases I’ll start the ratio off at perhaps 2.5:1 ratio, dialing the ratio up gradually depending on the desired effect. Wave Arts made the settings go from 1:1 to 50:1 in one linear knob turn, making it difficult to fine tune the Reduction. Clearly this scale needs to be weighted toward the smaller ratios at the bottom, with fewer divisions above a 10:1 ratio (over which a compressor is considered to have become a limiter anyway). The values should go up exponentially, with more control at the bottom and less at the top. Desirable, but far from a deal-breaker for me.
