Waves, iZotope (and other brands) Noise Reduction Audio Plug-ins On Mac M1

 Waves is soooo slow it's killing me.

Waves Central is freaking slooow like molasses, it runs on Rosetta still, hasn't been updated to run natively on M1. I have a reasonably fast, stable, good internet connection, thank you. It's slow to start, it's slow to install, it's slow to sync. And why can't we get demos directly from Waves Central? Instead we are forced to use the web browser... That's beyond me. Downloading gets stuck. Syncing takes over 30 seconds, sometimes it gets stuck for a minute. Each time you do something you have to wait. Waves if your servers are too busy, upgrade them!

Anyway, after I am able to finally instal and authorize, many plug-ins are slow in Final Cut on my Mini M1 Monterey. Like I touch a button and it takes a few seconds to register and I get the beachball of hell in the meantime. EQ in particular. I can't work like this.

Waves states that the plug-ins are not meant to run on FCPX. So does iZotope with RX. What's going on guys?

And now here is a quick test of a variety of Noise Reduction plug-ins applied to a voice recording with complex noise comprised of outdoors street sounds:

iZotope RX

RX does not work with FCP anymore says iZotope. Now if you refrain from opening the GUI, RX still works as a plug-in inside FCP. You have to use the unfriendly sliders for all the tweaking, and there is no visual aid, so really a pain. If you click on the GUI, you get the dreaded "plug-in has stopped responding" message, and the plug-in gets disabled. The RX Audio Editor app still works wonders for difficult situations. Spectral De-noise works well, spectral attenuation works great. The plethora of Repair tools is so useful. On the other end it takes some time to tweak to my liking. Editor does not work with bluetooth headsets, why is that iZotope?

Waves WNS

Works well in FCP for low rumble and high pitched, complex noise reduction. Does not attenuate noise much in the voice frequency range. Does alter the voice a bit, without muddying, clean. I wish it had twice the number of sliders or more for better tweaking. Probably the fastest to get pleasing results.

Waves X-Noise

Works OK in FCPX, I can hear some artifacts but they are low frequency so less noticeable that the Acon. I can't push it as far as I want. I wish the noise curve was manually editable, like in RX. Feels old and crippled a little.

Waves Z-Noise

Works OK in FCPX, No noticeable artifacts. I can't push it as far as I want. Muddies the voice a bit. I wish the noise curve was manually editable. Slow like molasses when EQing. Feels old.

Waves Clarity Vx

Does not work at all on my M1, not in FCP, nor in Audition. Makes a super loud saw noise and that's it.

Acon Digital DeNoise 2

Is this a joke? This plug-in presents ugly noise reduction, full of digital artifacts. Terrible.

CrumblePop AudioDenoise

Very limited in tweaking capabilities. I would like to push it more, it only attenuates a little. No artifacts that I can hear, makes the voice very muffy / muddy sounding.

Bertom Denoiser

This one is based on a frequency adjustable noise gate, I can hear the gate too much for my liking. No artifacts that I can hear. I cannot push it enough, and it muddies the voice.

Adobe Audition DeNoise

Based on noise gating, I can hear the gate too much, and it also adds ugly artifacts / digital noise. I used it on simpler noises with better results, no go on complex ones.

Adobe Audition Adaptative Noise Reduction

Works a little better than DeNoise, but I can hear the gating here as well, it leaves the voice very muffly sounding, and leaves a lot of temporal noise behind. Very weird. I used it on simpler noise with better results, but I won't use it on complex ones.

DaVinci Resolve - DNG Sequence Dailies Deliver Speed Test - Mac mini M1

 Testing Resolve 17.4.6 processing dailies of DNG sequences.

Mac mini M1 16GB with external monitoring on JVC HD 1080p SDI 8bit monitor via Blackmagic Design UltraStudio Monitor 3G.

Project Settings:

Color Science = ACEScct

No input transform

ACES output transform = Rec709

Timeline Format = Ultra HD

Video Monitoring Format = HD 1080p

SDI Single link

Data Levels = Video

Video bit depth = 8bit

In Camera Raw:

Decode Using Clip, Highlight Recovery checked.

In Primaries, Timeline Node (and Clip Node if necessary), adjusted to taste, looking at scope and making sure no clipping occurs.

Deliver Page:

"Use hardware accelerated if available" box checked.

Quality = Auto.

Resolution = Source Resolution.

HEVC is exported in 8 bit when Encoding Profile = Main (default.)

HEVC is exported in 10bit when Encoding Profile = Main10.

Single Pass Encode.

Total completion times for a 4K DNG sequence 15min in duration [130GB file size]

4K ProRes 422HQ (10bit) = 42min (2.8x real time) [73GB]

4K ProRes 422 (10bit) = 35min (2.3x real time) [50GB]

4K ProRes 422 LT (10bit) = 29min (2x real time) [29GB]

4K ProRes 422 Proxy (10bit) = 24min (1.6x real time) [9GB ]

4K HEVC (8 or 10bit, same speed) = 22min (1.5x real time) [2GB]

4K h264 single pass (8bit) = 22min (1.5x real time) [5GB]

Mini M1 doesn't even get warm to the touch, no fan noise whatsoever. When I used to do this on the Mini Intel it would get really hot and the fan would be speeding and making a lot of noise the whole time! Same deal with the cMP, only it would nicely toast the room because of the beefy ventilation, great in winter, not so in summer... Mini Intel was faster encoding h264 thanks to its dedicated chip, cMP was faster encoding ProRes with its 6 cores and the 3GB VRAM. Both were slower than the M1 overall.

I'm tempted to go with HEVC 10 bit moving forward, file size being 4x smaller than ProRes Proxy. Question is: will it be responsive enough to edit with in FCP?

Final Cut Pro 10.6.1 Proxies

 FCP has two Codec settings for proxies: ProRes Proxy and h264. Then there is a choice of various Scale and Size options, for myself I tend to use Same As Source for most projects, unless portability is a concern, or if I have to deal with a huge amount of footage.

Until recently I have been using ProRes Proxy exclusively. But now with the M1 machine, transcoding to h264 takes the same amount of time, and the Timeline is just as responsive, for a gain in size of about four times!

A h264 Proxy is actually 4 times smaller than a ProRes Proxy for the same original file. That's a huge gain of storage space. And since the time to generate the proxies is identical, I feel I now should move towards favoring h264 Proxies.

The only thing ProRes Proxy is 10bit as h264 is only 8bit, so banding...

What do you think? Leave a comment.

Apple Final Cut Pro 10.6.1, Mac Monterey 12.1, Mac mini M1 2020 - Weird S*%$ Happening - Part2

 Alright, I have a first list of FCP / Motion / Compressor bad behavior on Mac mini M1 and macOS Monterey. And in this post the list grows...

7. FCP turns R3D clips BLACK, i.e. they appear empty. No message, nothing to tell you that something is amok. Clicking on "Modify RED RAW Settings" flashes a message: "REDCODE RAW Settings cannot be applied to transcoded media." There is indeed Optimized (and Proxy) transcoded Media, it is stored externally and it plays fine in QT Player. So what is going on FCP?? That's the second item on the list that relates to external Media. FCP is loosing track of the media stored externally, that is a big problem, big problem, not good Apple! On quitting and restarting FCP, the media is back. WTF??

8. Again FCP looses FxFactory transition Plug-ins. This time 3 messages in a row, in the middle of an export (Share.)

The exported video does NOT show the dreaded missing plug-in bright red image we are used to in FCP Timeline, instead there is ... NOTHING, a straight cut, which complicates troubleshooting as I can't readily tell what's missing by looking at the video. This sucks big time. Again on quitting and restarting FCP the transitions are back. For how long?

Apple Final Cut Pro 10.6.1, Mac Monterey 12.1, Mac mini M1 2020 - Weird S*%$ Happening - Part1

 OK, so I'm now in production, live, on the Mac mini M1 (16GB) with macOS Monterey, and WEIRD SHIT IS HAPPENING! I try to keep everything up to date on this machine, except I will not update in the middle of a project, so some software might not be the very last version.

1. FCP looses the Andy's Swish Pan transition at random. It works fine, then for some reason it goes missing. I restart FCP and it's back in. I am using this transition constantly and it works fine until it goes on strike. The additional weirdness is that FCP flashes cryptic messages about FxFactory plug-ins. Wouldn't it be better if it said: The plug-in Swish Transitions is not responding? In any case Andy, FxFactory or Apple, do something please!

2. FCP (and Motion) crash more often than usual. Three times today with FCP. Yes I know, it's NOTHING! But I got used to FCP NOT CRASHING AT ALL FOR DAYS ON END. So it's annoying and a step back.I will try to keep a log of crashes, it's annoying.

FCP crashes...

And Motion crashes...

3. Motion refuses to open some files. I tried double clicking, I tried Right-click Open, no go. I log-Out and log back In, or I restart the computer and Motion is able to open the file no problem. Uh??? That's an odd one, I don't like this one, I really don't like this.

4. FCP is SLOW when it comes to switching between multiple opened Libraries. It takes a few seconds each time, no matter how big or small the Libraries are. FCP is also slow when expanding and closing Libraries. It's also slow when expanding Events. I'm on a RAID with average speed 250MB/s and SSDs with average speed 300MB/s, it shouldn't be that slow. And again the Libraries/Events are not that big.

5. When copying Clips from one Library to another, FCP sometimes looses track of the Media that becomes offline in the Timeline the clips are pasted into. Both Libraries have all Media stored externally. After pasting the clips,  FCP considers the media as stored internally - inside the FCP Library, and obviously it's not there, so it becomes offline. That's a very annoying bug as I constantly copy/paste between libraries. Now maybe FCP is confused by my naming the Folder into which the clips are stored externally "Original Media"? Really it shouldn't because the rest of the path is completely different. Apple please fix this.

The Clips are from this Library, stored externally in a folder named "Original Media".

The Clips are pasted into this second Library, FCP is looking into the FCP Library Bundle, as if the Clips where stored internally. Making them go offline. Wrong! 

6. FCP insists that some background tasks are not yet complete when I want to Share a cut. Even though as I carefully scan through the entire Timeline I see nothing wrong. The Task Manager does not indicate any ongoing task. This one is easy to circumvent, just click Continue. It unnerves me a little bit every time though, I don't like uncertainty. Apple please fix this.

 

How To Run DisplayCal On Mac Mini M1

Since I upgraded to a silicon Mac M1, the Mac mini 2020, with macOS Monterey, I had to calibrate my dual monitors using DisplayCal. Only it would not work.

After searching for an answer, I found this very helpful post on Macrumors forum by user divinebaboon. Lovely name.

I ran my own experiment and it worked. Very similar to what's described in the post above, with a few differences.

I have one monitor connected via HDMI and a second monitor connected to a USB3 Type-C to HDMI hub. Both monitors are Viewsonic VX2370, OK for my use, not the best monitors around certainly. I'm using XRite i1 Display Pro puck for measurement.

Here is how I did it:

1) Download the current DisplayCal App at https://displaycal.net/#download. I got the "For Mac OSX (10.6 or newer), click on "Installer Package".

It brings you to a SourceForge page and downloads DisplayCal v. 3.8.9.3

2) Install DisplayCal. It will show a window to allow DC to record your monitor, open System Preferences and allow it.

3) Plug your measuring device, start DisplayCal. It will prompt you to install the latest Argyll library. Do it, it will download an older version V2.1.2 as mentioned in the post. Quit DC.

4) Go to: https://www.argyllcms.com/downloadmac.html and download the latest executables. In my case v2.3.0

5) Untar the Argyll package with Unarchiver or your app of choice. It will look like this:

6) Go to: User/Library/Application Support/DisplayCal, and look into the "dl" folder. You will see the Argyll_V2.1.2 folder. Trash it and Empty Trash.

7) Move the Argyll_V2.3.0 folder into this dl folder. It should now look like this:

8) Restart DisplayCal, if it asks again for the Argyll Library, click on File/Locate ArgylCMS executables, and point it at the bin folder.

9) Start calibration. macOS will complain multiple times about Argyll executables that cannot be opened because the developer cannot be identified. Each time this happens, go to the Argyll_2.3.0/bin folder and manually open each executable by right-clicking on it. Then click on the alert Cancel button.

Here is an example with "iccgamut":

Right-clicking on iccgamut forces run the executable in Terminal:

Click Cancel only after Terminal is running the executable and the process is completed.

10) You have to do this each time macOS blocks an executable and it happens at different times during the calibration which lasted 9min. in my case. Eventually it goes through it all. Next time macOS should not block the executables, but if it does, employ the same technique.

11) On reboot DisplayCal sees both monitors just fine:

VX2370 (1) and (2) detected.

12) In my case I set the (Pre) Calibration Whitepoint to 6500K, White Level to 120cd/m2, and Tone Curve to Gamma 2.2 in DisplayCal.

I reset the monitors completely, switch the color profile from Native to User Color and adjust the RGB settings and the brightness setting to optimize them in the Interactive Display Adjustment. I do not adjust anything else in the monitors.

The VX2370 is not a performance monitor. I only just adjust the Colors and Brightness to be in the target ranges, I leave every other monitor settings to default.

13) The calibration goes through its paces. Click on Install profile and you are done. Do the same for the second monitor. Success!

One more thing: Sometimes DisplayCal freezes after the Install Profile, just force quit. Also randomly, one or both monitors will black-out when closing DisplayCal windows, like the Interactive Display Adjustment window. Just unplug and replug the HDMI cable and the signal will come back.

If you can, please contribute to the development of DisplayCal.

Silicon Power SSD S55 Gone Burst After 4 Years

 Bought this Silicon Power Sata SSD 480GB in March of 2018. Yesterday, Feb 2 2022 it went kaput.

Silicon Power 480GB SSD 3D NAND S55 TLC 7mm

 It replaced an internal rotating drive in my Intel 2012 Mac Mini. The Mini is in use all day everyday from light to mild use in terms of data read/written. And a few weeks in the year it's put to heavy use. I have no idea how much that represents in terms of data size R/W unfortunately.

 In any case this is a SHORT lifespan for a SSD. Granted in was one of the cheapest back when I bought it, and SP have not won the price for reliability of their products that's for sure.

 Lesson: ALWAYS HAVE AN UP TO DATE BACKUP OF YOUR DATA. Best of course is to have several copies, but at least have one. I had an up to date clone (and a copy from last month) of the entire Mac mini Boot drive made with CCC. It has saved my bacon more than once.

 Now for the sequence of events: I noticed the Mac slowing down for a few weeks before, was getting the beach ball while on Safari or doing mundane actions. Didn't pay too much attention to it, only I made sure my clone was up to date. Left the clone drive attached and CCC to backup everyday.

In the morning this message popped from Adobe Creative Cloud:

"Adobe Creative Cloud is needed to resolve this problem. However it is missing or damaged."

Couldn't do a screen grab as you can see, as everything was slow like molasses. OK, so red alert ensued. I restarted from an external USB Mojave Boot Installer, fired Disk Utility and First Aid, which found the fsroot tree invalid and could not repair it. (The SSD was formatted APFS.) I tried a few times, same results, no go.

I tried to re-install Mojave to no avail. The installation would hang in the middle and not go through. I tried to erase the SSD and do a clean install, that failed as well.

Install frozen and not going anywhere.

I then decided to install a clean Mojave onto a new external SSD. I booted again from the USB Installer and that worked. The installation went through and I was able to start from the external SSD.

Only when I ran Software Update, it got stuck in the middle of the update and did not complete it. I restarted, tried again, left the Mac alone for hours, same deal, no go.

Finally I removed the bad internal SP SSD from the belly of the beast, replaced it with the external SSD with the fresh Mojave OS, booted, and OFF IT WENT! It proceeded with the update like a champ and finally the Mini was working again!

All I had to do was to bring back all the data I needed from the clone copy.

Afterwards I tried to Erase the SP SSD several times as an external drive, and after many long minutes, Disk Utility just could not complete the erase. So this drive is officially RIP.

4 years of use. Not a whole lot.