I have a series of recorded lectures that the client wants to sweeten ( too much reverb, due to mic position..sigh ). Each recording is 90 minutes or so.
I need to use several modules to get the best result.
The recording is stereo, so I start by unmixing the M/S and mute the side layer. Then I can start to work with various de-reverb, de noise, etc.
However while experimenting, I cant possibly wait for each module’s process to be"applied" to the whole file before moving on to the next process. So I start by using a small selected time range to work up a process for the whole thing. That way each ‘apply’ only takes a few seconds.
My question is that once I have a reasonable processing chain applied to the range, how do I apply it to the whole file without starting over and applying the modules all over again and waiting for each to apply ?
Can I save my ‘applied’ chain ( with settings) into a Modules Chain or a Preset or something so I can immediately apply it to the whole file and let it process? ( respectfully, the documentation gives me at least, no clue )
It also raises another question for me - once a file is split into layers, and different modules are applied to each layer, how do I keep track of what process has been applied to each layer? My lizard brain expects each process to be listed under each Layer in the “Layers” Pane ( like After Effects or most other layer based paradigms). The History list doesn’t do it for me … sorry if I’m missing something!
Thanks in advance
We need more info to suggest
You are using what process? ARA? Standalone?
I’m working standalone.
I bounce a comp of two mics (lav and shotgun). Typically, my bounces are about 5 min each. Before creating a mixdown, make sure the start position is set.
I then create a new slp with both mics and use the same workflow every time. Label and color my labels the same way. I make a safety layer group.
Watch @Phil_Pendlebury YT vids
I do not rely on the history for much other than undos…and you will easily run out of them fast with a max of 64.
You will have to get through some teething to figure out what works for you.
I personally do not log what modules I have run; I only use Unmix Noisy Speech. I work non-destructively as much as possible (I never use the Erase tool, for example)
Basically, for speech; I run “unmix noisy speech” which yields two layers.
Then, I re-name the “speech” layer to reflect which mic (ie:"Speech_LAV) and color it magenta;
re-name the separated noise “GoodNz_LAV” colored cyan;
create a new layer and name it “UNz” which means “unwanted noise” and then relate it to the mic (ie: UNz_LAV) and in use, I mute the UNz layer.
I talk about layer colors, because that can be critical for efficiency. IME, magenta/cyan/yellow gives excellent visual separation. The other colors can help when things get more complicated (more than one contributor voice/ unwanted noises separation). I teethed for a few months on layer colors and magenta/cyan/yellow works best for me.
Then I use mainly the transfer tool to transfer unwanteds to the UNz layer. I typically clean the speech first and then the GoodNz. I also use the selection brush and marquee. To fill holes in the atmos, I use the clone tool, which is essentially “destructive”; and the only way I could see to mark where I have cloned would be with a Spectral Region which I don’t do because that would be far too time consuming. Since all my unwanteds exist in a muted layer; I could compare with the UNz and GoodNz layers if that had to be tracked down.
Occasionally I use the time selection tool. I do not use the freq or harm selection tools nor magic wand…As I have talked about plenty in the past on this forum. I find tools that create “auto” selections in SL based on amplitude to have copy/paste issues.
As far as using the transfer tool: I have found that juggling layers in the layers panel is by far the most efficient way to set your transfer target destination layer. I work in groups set to which mic I’m working on. So, first drag the target destination layer to the top of the group and then drag the source layer to the very top because SL sets the destination layer to the top-most layer in a group other than the source.
It’s much, much more time consuming selecting layers from the Target dropdown.
If I were you, I’d cut my source into 10 min sections (after keeping a safety locked to time to re-align if you get lost). Bounce those; figure out your process (unmix reverb>unmix noisy speech?) and then re-place your SL work back into your DAW…But if you are ARA, then that won’t help.
Anyway, good luck
Hi!
Thanks for the reply and ideas!
On these recordings I’m working in SL standalone, like you are.
In the end I set up a Modules Chain with settings I wrote down… like a cave dweller! 
It’s processing now but will take hours.
So I went to my fall-back voice repair tool ( which I’ve mentioned in many forums ) the Final Cut Pro X “Voice Isolation” tool. And once again it has done a virtual miracle!
Import the audio, slide the Voice Isolation to 50% and done. The recording goes from almost indistinguishable mud, to very usable ( for listening ). No rendering . Plays in real time. Exports in 2 minutes.
I might tweak it a bit in SL … but more to see if the processing time is worth it than for the improvement I expect.
Truth is you can’t polish a t**d, and so much of what I get to work on (salvage ) is VERY smelly. lol
hmmm, I have been surprized…the junk we never intended to go into our film…wow
anyway, with your too much verb situation, you might need to de-verb the whole thing at once…which might take a while…at least you’d then have the ability to re-balance the rvb level 
Sorry if I’m being Captain Obvious now but this is how I do it:
If you try out the modules you intend to use, on say a 30 s snippet like you say, once you found a working setting for a module you save that as a new preset for that module.
Then you repeat that for all of the modules you’re planning to use in your chain later; save a new preset with your adjusted settings for each one.
Then you create your modules chain consisting of the modules you just saved the individual presets for.
You have to arrange the modules in the specific order you want them to operate, top module acts first and bottom one last.
Call up the presaved new presets for each one.
You can start with Unmix M/S at the top,
then De-reverb under (could be addressed to operate on one of the layers Mid or Side if you like), then De-noise and so on.
Hit Apply and go out for a walk or a nice cup of tea.
Done.
You can save this modules chain as a preset in the chain module and use it in batch processing as well.
There is a video explaining all of this, with the excellent Phil Pendlebury, @19 minutes in.
Hi Captain!
Nothing is obvious to me! But as you say, storing the settings of each module in the ‘test selection’ is a solution. In the heat of the moment it just didn’t occur to me! By the time I was thinking about it I’d already spent a while building the chain so my head was just " how to I apply this to everything?"
Now I look at it I could have gone back to each module I had applied ( they seem to retain the current settings), then save the preset then. Although I’m not sure what would happen if I used a module twice. So yeah, saving presets as you go is best.
BUT ( feature request ) I still can’t wrap my head around not being able to see what modules have been used on which layers as I proceed. Maybe I’m not thinking about it correctly, or am trapped in my expectations from video tools ( layer and nodal based ) but after a while working on a file I feel lost. I want to be able to ‘go back’ in a non linear fashion ( not undo) and be able to toggle modules on/off, rearrange them etc ( with the attendant re-rendering, I get that).
P’bly just me…
I agree it would be great to see what changes have been done to the different layers; if only something like Cubase/Nuendo 14 now has for its autosaved files, where a very short description now is added to the file name in a parenthesis.
Or a more specific undo list.
The go back non-linearly editing would be a dream, I wonder that would ever be possible to solve.
Yep, this software is not that other software you are used to using. SL might appear like that other software layout. SL works for my purposes of manual NR rather than slapping an overall mask over all of the audio and defining thresholds as most NR is.
If I was doing something different, like music unmixing, then I would be pining for more, more more with SL.
As far as knowing what module has been applied at what point, at this stage users might consider to create a text log and get clever with file naming and “export mixdown” every time a module had been applied. I doubt many are doing that, if any; I’m not. Users could create a code to identify and include that in filenaming. Thing is, in current real use terms, we need SL to process audio and not keep track of what we have applied.
Would I embrace the functionality? Sure! But not at the cost of process optimization and unmixing quality which are work in progress at this time.
ugh…just sent the last 20 mins editing out low end thuds to the wrong layer :-/ very easy to do
Ouch … I’ve done similar (worse) lol
I just can’t get it out of my head that the layer panel should have a drop-down record beneath it with a list of what processes have been applied. In chronological order relative to that layer.
Something like this, where each process gets added to a layer’s list as it occurs.
Layer 1
Voice DeNoise
Voice De reverb
Time/Freq Selection - delete tool
Time/Freq Selection - delete tool (be cool to also show the time/freq ranges!)
Layer 2
Time Selection - Gain adjust
and so on.
I mean, each time a process is applied SL knows what has been done and where. So it should be presentable in a human readable format right? And I DO realize that this is a hideously naive statement …
To be clear, I get that this wouldn’t serve as a process ‘Undo/Redo/Mute/Solo’ control panel ( though how cool would that be ) and tying it to the actual chronological Undo/Redo would be tricky.
But after using SL for a bit now, it would help me keep things clearer.
Just a thought…
As afar as my mistake of sending to the “wrong” layer, it actually turned out ok as I sent low thumps to my GoodNz layer rather than UNz, but it sounds like those thumps were part of the road noise of that scene, so I got lucky.
There has been some of discussion on the SL undo history on this forum and Robin has said file bloat could become an uncomfortable issue, hence the history not saving with files. Frankly, my personal workflow deals with those issues for the most part. Everyone seems to have different workflows. I can foresee coming from Adobe-type layer mind set, that SL might seem frustrating and not the same.
I think that if user really needs to know how to unpick what they edited: name the layers accordingly; mute them and work off of copies for further processing. Obviously that won’t work for batching unattended tasks.
I don’t know if this will help you or not but here goes. The workflow I’ve come up with for working on long form multiple voice tracks is this. 1) Create a group with all voices and name it ORIGINAL 2) Mute the ORIGINAL group and clone it, name the new group PROCESS. Here I’m generally applying VST effects ie. EQ, Compression, DeVerb, DeNoise or some combination thereof (and saving presets of each process whether its just one effect or multiple effects being applied). After effects have been applied 3) Mute the PROCESS group and clone it, name the new group whatever process I need to apply next ie. UM (for unmix), VDN (for voice denoise) and so on. I will continue this procedure until I have all of the voices satisfactorily dialed in and the preceeding group serves as my “undo” if I need to tweak. When that happens it’s ususally just a particular voice that needs tweaking not the entire group so I’ll copy that voice from the preceeding group to perform a tweaked version. Worse case scenario the ORIGINAL group serves as a re-starting point if need be. My final group I will name EDIT. Here I destructively delete any unwanted garbage, coughs, ticks, pops and sometimes even words, false starts and the like while leaving the timing totally intact. This tends to be the most time consuming part of the process but when it’s done I have clean great sounding voices to pull into my project for editing, usually in Premiere Pro or WaveLab. By using this process I can complete the final project in Premiere or WaveLab and still have the abiltiy to go back to SLP, tweak and output a new version of any voice (replacing the original export using the same filename) and when I open my final project the new tweaks are automatically there. Yes it can be a bit time consuming but such is the price for having all these wonderful tools at our disposal. I used to complete projects so fast when the only tool I had to work with was a razor blade. I don’t ever want to go back to that.