ADV
Module & Plug-in (Audiosuite Only)

Table of Contents

Overview

The Ambience Match module lets you match the noise floor of one recording to another recording. For example, you can apply the ambience of a location recording to your ADR tracks.

Ambience Type

Complex

Ideal for variable ambiences with movement and texture, Complex mode generates a more dynamic ambience based on your learned source. Each time you render, Complex mode will generate a new random ambience.

Static

Perfect for unchanging ambience like room tone, air conditioners, or fans, the static Ambience Match algorithm analyzes an audio selection and finds the lowest common denominator (the noise that is common across the audio file) and treats that as the ambient profile.

Controls

  • AMBIENCE THRESHOLD: Discards dialogue or noises above the ambience threshold when learning for complex ambience profiles. Complex mode only.
  • AMBIENCE TYPE: Chooses between Complex or Static ambience.
  • MOVEMENT: Higher values have more variety. Lower values remove distinctive elements for a more uniform sound. The elements that are removed as the movement value is reduced are greyed out in the Ambience Match spectrogram. Complex mode only.
  • RANDOMNESS: Higher values allow the generated ambience to differ more from the learned input and encourage more variation. Lower randomness will try to match the learned input closely and may sound more like copy-pasting. The default Randomness setting will typically provide the most natural sounding results.Complex mode only.
  • GAIN: Trims the level of the generated ambience.
  • OUTPUT AMBIENCE ONLY: When checked, the selected region will be replaced by the generated ambience. When unchecked, the ambience will be mixed with the selected audio.

Workflow

Using Ambience Match module in the RX Audio Editor

To train Ambience Match, provide it with a selection of raw noise. If there is no single fragment of raw noise, or you want to save time, selections with speech can be used. In Complex mode, the Ambience threshold can be used to ignore speech or other loud sounds in the selection. In Static mode the algorithm will intelligently discard speech and only leave noisy parts in the noise print.

The Spectrogram in Ambience Match

Ambience Match has a helpful spectrogram that reflects your learned noise profile. In Static mode, the spectrogram will display what will be rendered after you learn. In Complex mode, the spectrogram will display your learned audio, and takes into account the ambience threshold setting.

To match the ambience between selections:

  • Open the Ambience Match module in the module list
  • Make a selection in a file.
  • Click Learn.
  • Make another selection.
  • Adjust the Gain level as desired. The Gain control adjusts the level of synthesized ambience.
  • Select Output Ambience Only if you want the selection replaced with only the ambience from the first selection.
  • Click Render.

    • Note

    The Ambience Match module cannot reduce the amount of ambience that already exists in the selection, it can only increase it. To reduce the ambience, use the Spectral De-noise module.

    To create an Ambience Match preset:

  • In Ambience Match, click the gear icon to the right of the preset drop-down menu.
  • Select Add Preset.
  • Enter the name for the new preset.
  • Press Enter.

    • Using Ambience Match as an AudioSuite Plug-In

    In addition to applying Ambience Match inside of the RX Audio Editor, it can also be used as an AudioSuite plug-in inside of Avid’s Pro Tools or Media Composer.

    When using Ambience Match inside of Pro Tools or Media Composer, we recommend not learning from audio that contains fades within the selection or the handles. As Ambience Match establishes an ambient profile using the lowest common denominator, learning from audio that’s being faded in may result in inconsistent detection of the noise floor. Handles can be preserved by using Ambience Match in clip-by-clip mode.

    Note about learning ambience on fades

    When using Pro Tools, you may see an inconsistent result as a result of Pro Tools adding dithering to fades, which varies based on the session’s bit depth. Since this dithering noise almost certainly doesn’t match the material’s noise profile, this will throw off Ambience Match. If you’re running a session in 16 bits, the dither added by a fade will be sufficient enough to affect the detection algorithm. The problem is less pronounced in 24 or 32 bits. To adjust the bit depth of your session, go to Setup > Session in Pro Tools.

    RX 9.3.0

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