Audio can immediately tune the audience out of a story if it's impossible to understand or downright terrible. It's why No Film School stresses the importance of sound in your project. Good sound is going to keep the audience engaged. When it's not, people will be left wondering what the story is about. 

Accusonus has a variety of intuitive software options that simplify the audio clean-up process. If you're familiar with iZotope's RX software, ERA from Accusonus is similar in terms of its feature set but has a different methodology in approach by simplifying the guess work. ERA is a group of plugins that is compatible with many popular non-linear editors including Avid, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut, and Premiere Pro, while iZotope is more of a standalone software with advanced tools designed to empower you as an audio creator. If you want to build a career in post sound, we suggest starting by learning iZotope. 

That said, with version 5, Accusonus has unlocked a plethora of easy-to-use features that reduce the time to clean-up your audio that includes three new plug-ins in its ERA Bundle Standard while improving others. Here's what's new: 

ERA Voice AutoEQ 

  • The tool helps automate the equalization process by fixing muddy recordings so dialog stands out in the mix. 

 ERA Voice Deepener

  • The plugin will add warmth and depth to voice recordings so it sounds more natural to the human ear. 

ERA Audio Clean-Up Assistant

  • Speeds up audio workflow by adding preset chains to the ERA single-dial plugins. 

Cleanup_1

The ERA Bundle Standard now has 9 plugins at your disposal. Additionally, the ERA Bundle Pro receives everything new in the Bundle Standard, plus Noise Remover PRO, Reverb Remover PRO, and Room Tone Match, which is the most intriguing out of the group. There's nothing more noticeable in films when a scene switches back and forth between two shots and the room tone changes. It's an issue many creators run into starting out. They just simply don't record room tone before shooting or forget to turn off the refrigerator or air conditioning. The Room Tone Match plugin aims to bail you out by identifying the different ambient environments and evens them out. 

Pricing for the ERA Bundle Standard has an introductory offer of $5.99/month that jumps up to $7.99 after October 31st if paid annually. If paid monthly, it's $14.99. The ERA 5 Bundle Pro has an introductory price of $18.74/month that switches to $24.99 after October 31st when paid annually. If paid monthly, it's $39.99. On top of the monthly options, you can purchase a perpetual license. Standard is $299 and Pro is $999. Both come with one year of support and five future updates. 

Sfx_library

Along with version 5, Accusonus has announced SFX Cellar, a "content platform for high-quality royalty-free sound effects." You'll be able to search thousands of different sound effects, including transitions, impacts, whooshes, and cinematic soundscapes. Accusonus says it will offer continuous updates to the web platform and will be available in two options: SFX Cellar mp3 which is $2.99/month and SFX Cellar Premium for $14.99/month (cheaper if paid annually). The latter allows you to download sound effects in .wav format with metadata. SFX Cellar mp3 will only offer mp3 format, but both have unlimited, royalty-free downloads. 

While a great idea, we think Accusonus missed the ball here. While we understand there's a certain cost to making these sounds, they should have made them completely free to users. Why pay for something that a number of sites are offering for free? You can even find free Ambisonics sound libraries from RØDE. Listening to some of the Accusonus sounds available, they sound okay, but in my opinion, are nothing extraordinary. They should also consider adding a search bar since right now it's only category-based. 

You can start a free trial of ERA 5 via the Accusonus homepage.

accusonussoundERA 5
Sound & Music