Steinberg integrates the Adaptive Background Attenuation by Fraunhofer IIS in Nuendo 14, enabling the automated creation of high-quality voiceover mixes.
Creating high-quality voiceover mixes usually requires a great deal of manual effort to ensure that the speech and background signals match perfectly. The Adaptive Background Attenuation (ABA) by Fraunhofer IIS solves this issue. The smart mixing algorithm balances speech and other sound elements of a (film)production, which is particularly useful for audio description mixes.
How does Adaptive Background Attenuation (ABA) work?
ABA is an intelligent mixing algorithm that automatically creates a gain value through combining foreground and background signals
- Speech is defined as foreground signal; music, effects, and sound design as background.
- ABA automatically attenuates the background signal when it would interfere with the foreground signal. Producers can decide by how much for each project.
- In sequences without speech, the background remains unchanged.
- The artistic intent is largely maintained, as the automated feature is only activated when required.
Proven approaches in state-of-the-art applications
Fraunhofer IIS, a globally leading audio research institute, has been developing technologies that contribute to a higher degree of accessibility in broadcast and streaming for many years. The solutions resulting from this are, for instance, part of MPEG-H Dialog+, a technology, which improves speech intelligibility by combining AI-based dialog separation with ABA in an automated mixing process. Broadcasters like ARTE and ARD are already using the Fraunhofer-algorithm for their streaming platforms. The integration of ABA in Steinberg’s Nuendo facilitates the work of producers and makes sure audio mixes are becoming increasingly accessible through automated dialog mixing.
Perfectly integrated into Nuendo 14
One of the main goals of the ABA integration into Steinberg’s Nuendo 14 was making it as user-friendly as possible. Producers can simply choose one of the optimized presets (Use Cases):
- “Voice Over” for classic voice recordings
- “Audio Description” with very short attack and release times to ensure that speakers can make the most of even the shortest pauses.
This is how ABA delivers a precise and natural-sounding voice mix that can be manually adapted if required.
“We are delighted about another successful collaboration with Fraunhofer IIS. Once again, we have taken a close look at the workflows in audio post and designed a unique feature: Adaptive Background Attenuation. This function allows you to create a perfect balance between dialogue and mix — fully automatically,” says Timo Wildenhain, Head of ProAudio at Steinberg.
Available in Nuendo 14 from March 19
The integration of ABA in Nuendo 14 is available from March 19, 2025. Thanks to it, the production of voiceovers and audio descriptions can be greatly accelerated. More information about automatic voice mixing with ABA can be found here!
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