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Podcast Episode

CEDAR Audio - Real-time Audio Restoration

People & Music Industry·Sound On Sound·30 July 2026·46 min

About this episode

CEDAR Audio has led the world in audio restoration and noise suppression for over three decades. Hugh Robjohns talks to their Managing Director, Gordon Reid about their technologies.Chapters 00:00 - Introduction 00:19 - CEDAR Audio Beginnings 01:45 - The National Sound Archive 06:15 - Cleaning Up Old Recordings 08:12 - Working In Real-Time 10:36 - Developing Rackmount Units 11:52 - Making User-Friendly Products 14:27 - Building A Team Of Developers 17:06 - Introducing Machine Learning and AI 21:25 - The Move Into Post Production 25:34 - The Invention Of Spectral Editing And Retouch 29:26 - Algorithmic Technology 36:10 - Involvement In Forensics 39:02 - Blind Source Separation And AudioTelligence 44:04 - Future OpportunitiesCEDAR Audio BiogCEDAR Audio is committed to furthering the science and art of noise suppression, audio restoration and speech enhancement in all of their forms, and actively pursues research into each of them. The company pioneered real-time audio restoration, spectral editing, zero-latency dialogue noise suppression, and many other processes that are now industry standards. It has worked closely with the world’s most famous studios, record companies and bands to ensure that they obtain the highest audio quality, not just from vintage material but also from audio recorded today that suffers from some sort of noise problem. If you enjoy a trip to the cinema, you're almost certainly listening to sound that has been perfected using CEDAR and, from the newsrooms of major broadcasters to reality TV, to studio-based shows, to sporting events such as the Olympics, the World Cup and Premier League football, CEDAR is the standard for noise suppression. The company is also proud to include many of the world's archives and libraries as well as law enforcement agencies and security organisations as customers and friends. https://www.cedar-audio.com/ Gordon Reid Biog Gordon Reid is the Managing Director of CEDAR Audio and has helped guide the company to an Emmy®, an Academy Award®, two Cinema Audio Society Awards and numerous other accolades. He is widely known in the fields of audio restoration, noise suppression for post and broadcast, audio forensics and speech enhancement, and he co-founded AudioTelligence, which develops technologies for applications ranging from hearing assistance to advanced surveillance systems. Hugh Robjohns Biog Hugh Robjohns has been Sound On Sound´s Technical Editor since 1997. Prior to that he worked in a variety of (mostly) sound-related roles in BBC Television, ending up as a Sound Operations Lecturer at the BBC´s technical training centre. He continues to provide audio consultancy and bespoke broadcast audio training services all over the world, lectures at professional and public conventions, and occasionally records and masters acoustic and classical music too!Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts