How to Automatically Build Noise Profile with ReaFir in EQ APO

The title of this post is a BIT misleading. You can't actually build a noise profile automatically in EQ APO. However, you CAN build one in OBS and import it into EQ APO. So long as you don't change mics, recording location, or hardware you really only need to do this once and re-do it when you make major changes.

This is a continuation from our earlier post, how to reduce noise with EQ APO and Reafir. We are assuming you have everything all set from that post, so if you don't, go back to our post on reducing noise with EQ APO.

Step 1: Install OBS

OBS so far is the easiest and best way I have found to build and copy ReaFir data, plus it's free. https://obsproject.com/download

You don't need to configure any account info after installing, just skip it for now.

Step 2: Add an Audio Source and Filter

Right click on the Sources and select Add -> Audio Input Capture.

Next, right click on the newly created audio source and select Properties. Make sure your mic is correctly selected as the input source.

Then, right click on the source again and select Filters. A window should pop up, on the bottom left is a plus sign. Click it and select VST 2.x Plug-in

You should now have a drop-down menu on the top right. Click on it and you should see a nice list of filters, select reafir_standalone. Then click open interface.

Apparently, I have reafir installed twice, so everything is doubled. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing, I guess?

If you do NOT see a list of plugins it is probably because reafir is installed to the wrong directory. OBS looks only at certain directories, a list of where you should install reafir is here: https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/wiki/Filters-Guide#vst-plugin. Basically, re-install it to

Windows:

C:/Program Files/VSTPlugins/

Mac:

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/

Step 3: Build a Noise Profile

Click "Open Plugin Interface. This should look familiar now! As you did in the last tutorial on using EQ APO to reduce background noise, use the drop-down menu to select Subtract.

Next, click "Automatically build noise profile" - Let it sit for a few seconds and you should end up with a graph that looks something like the above. Make sure the room is absolutely silent during the noise profile build. Don't even breathe!

Uncheck the build noise profile button (quietly) and close the window and OBS. We're done with that for now!

Step 4: Copy Chunk Data

Probably the hardest part of this whole process is getting the chunk data. It is located at %appdata%\obs-studio\basic\scenes[yourprofilescenesnamehere].json

Which is a fancy way of saying go to your primary hard drive, find Users\[your user name]\Roaming\obs-studio\basic\scenes\

Open the .json file (Mine is named Untitled, yours probably will be also unless you renamed your scene) with notepad.

Press control-F and find "VST 2.x" it should look like this:

Not far after that should be an area labeled "Chunk Data"

Copy ALL THE CODE after the colon and BETWEEN THE "QUOTES". It's going to be a LOT of random letters and numbers. Make sure you do NOT copy the quotes OR the colon. Here's what mine looks like:

And it keeps going from there...

It should END with a quote. Make sure you copy all the way to the last quote mark. Again do NOT include the quote!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA is how I feel just looking at this!

Step 5: Paste into EQ APO

Copied that giant mess? Next, open EQ APO's folder and open the config.txt with notepad again. Right near the top, you SHOULD see another Chunk Data followed by a "quote" and some more code.

Select all of the code between the quotes (again, careful not to select the quotes themselves!) and paste the giant dump of data we copied from OBS.

Save the file

That's it! You're done! Re-open Configurator for EQ APO and open the reafir panel. It should now have the new data. Test your mic to see if the situation has improved.