This has been a question I have wanted that answer to since Waves WNS and Cedar DNS came out.
Well on the Cedar DNS One RTAS plug-in thread on the Digidesign User Conference one user has finally done a comparative review of them both as well as WaveArts MultiDynamics and Cedar’s DNS 2000 hardware box.
So thanks to ‘Brandonx1′ for this…
I finally got a chance to do a shoot out between my old favorite, Wave Arts Multi Dynamics, the DNS One, the Waves WNS, and the hardware DNS 2000. Hear is what I learned.
Wavearts Mutli Dynamics: when used correctly can be very effective at reducing broadband.
Waves WNS: Sounds like a multiband compressor to me. Better then the multi dynamics because it more focused but still the same sound. When the voice comes in the noise pumps.
DNS one: The best one hands down. It’s not a multiband compressor. It takes broadband out even when audio you want to keep comes in. It doesn’t pump.
DNS 2000: The same sound as the DNS One. One note, switching the plug in from the DNS One to the DNS 2000 in not the same. The DNS 2000 had to be re-adjusted to sound the same.
All in all the WNS will work if the DX is being covered with music or something. Cedar does not need this kind of covering. It sounds natural all on its own.
‘Mikerophonics’ chipped in…
When I did my test – which was with one long cue only I only had to compensate for the io delay round trip – but to all intents the software version nulled the hardware one to a high degree.
Brandonx1 replied…
I had a different experience. Maybe somehow the dns 2000 was getting the audio at a lower level then the dns one rtas plug in. I just made a hardware insert on the same track as the plug in. Then just changed the dns plug in from dns one to dns 2000. It was a digital insert out 15/16 of the second 192 digital. I did not set up the room so maybe somehow the digital io was not cali’ed correctly? never heard of that but maybe. It seemed to be a threshold level change for the most part. Any recommendations to make them null? That would actually help because I do mostly off site mixing. Layback at other peoples studios.
garnoil also posted an interesting view on what these various devices do and now they sound…
I have used DNS 3000 and now I use my own DNS One, Right now I am running several instances of the DNs One on 2 feature films. I think it is better than the hardware version, much cheaper (considering that I can run as many instances as I need), easier to automate, very fast to set up and intuitively use, and sounds great. I also use Izotope, this combination it is unbeatable for the price. Another thing that I would want to point out is that, the DNS One, because CEDAR systems are used in Hollywood films, does produce a very, -high end sounding, big budget type sound, even with modest quality recordings (but it does not do miracles)-. It is hard to describe what that sound is -how it actually translates the dialogue sound- but it is absolutely not the same sound of a multi-band compressor (although they are effective and have their place), or the sound of broad band de-noising that can leave digital artifacts (watery sound).
Well there you have it, if you need one of these devices the Cedar DNS one is the one to have, better stat saving up my pennies!
Mike is Pro Tools genius and an award winning ‘audiomeister’, defined as ‘a person of great skill and authority in sound’. His vast array of credits include music (from classical to rock), drama and documentaries across all the BBC Radio networks, as well as audio post production for video and TV, ‘new media’, live sound, commercial CDs, DVDs and podcasts, helping clients tell their stories with sound. He has been described as "an oasis of calm in a stormy creative world"; "quick, creative & easy to work with"; "always going the extra mile"; and "invests himself in the success of your project"’.show me less content in the footer
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