Sound Devices has announced the NoiseAssist noise suppression plugin for its MixPre II Series recorders along with a firmware update, MixPre v7.00, that’s required to run NoiseAssist, which debuted for 8-Series mixer-recorders in May.
Several other upgrades were also introduced in v7.00, including output delay for the MixPre-3 II and MixPre-6 II, output delay for USB outputs in multiple MixPre models, and more.
The optional NoiseAssist plugin for the MixPre II Series uses a signal processing algorithm designed to reduce background noises such as traffic, generators, HVAC noise, and more. It’s intended to be useful in many applications – for example, fast turnaround productions where there is no time for post, live broadcast and streaming, preview on set, feeds to video village, IFB feeds, rough guide mixes, and more.
The plugin offers user interface with only one adjustment: the amount of background noise to suppress. One instance of NoiseAssist may be run on any channel, bus L, or bus R. It’s available now at store.sounddevices.com for an introductory price of $300, while firmware version 7.00 is available here for free.
Output delay enhancements were also added in v7.00. The MixPre-3 II and MixPre-6 II now have up to 400 ms of output delay available. Delay may be used to keep audio from the MixPre in sync with video streams, which inherently have more latency than audio. Additionally, output delay now applies to USB outputs for the MixPre-3 II, MixPre-6 II, MixPre-10 II, and MixPre-10T. Adding delay on USB outputs allows sound and picture to be more easily synced during live streaming applications.
Other new facets in version 7.00 include more sample rate options for the MixAssist plugin and support for P.I. Engineering’s X-keys programmable keypads, sticks and keyboards. Additionally, all current MixPre II Series models and the legacy MixPre Series have received performance improvements.
