When reviewing software in particular, it’s always easier if you can use it in a real-world situation. I find that makes my ability to grasp its functionality and feature set much more easily and comprehensively..
This is never truer than when it comes to software that fixes something.
Take audio. Regular readers will be familiar with me banging on about how important audio is – sometimes more so than the video – but if you are not skilled at audio recording and sweetening, then it can become a nightmare.
Back in 2023 I reviewed CrumplePop when it first appeared and while I suggested I liked the program, I hated the name.
I still am not a fan of the name but recently had need to fix some audio that was particular annoying and thought I’d give CrumplePop a revisit, this time as a plugin to DaVinci Resolve.
Now anyone who uses Resolve will also know that has as part of the overall package, the very excellent Fairlight audio system that is arguably the best there is (although AVID folk would probably disagree trumpeting its ProTools software) is part of the program under the Audio page.
Added to that you can use other packages such as Audacity or Sound Forge as plugins. The problem with these though as they generally need a fair understanding of audio technology and mathematics to get the best out of them.
In this particular instance, I had recorded some vocal audio in a less than ideal room and ended up with echo from the sound bouncing off walls and a tiled floor. It sounded pretty ugly (Sample 1).
By simply adding CrumplePop Echo Remover to the clip, and leaving everything at default, as you can hear (Sample 2), whilst it still needs a bit of cleaning up, it is a vast improvement.
Sample 3 is the file after CrumplePop Voice Enhance Complete has been applied.
Conclusion
The complete CrumplePop Suite contains fixes for traffic removal, pop removal, audio denoise, wind removal plus another 5. It will work with the majority of OFX based applications including dedicated audio products like Audacity and Sound Forge plus video editors such as Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Vegas Pro and so on.
Unlike many programs of this type, as well as a subscription price ($18 / month for the base tier or $276 per annum for the full subscription), you can also get a perpetual licence for $599. Note these are US$.
You can get more information and a trial version from BorisFX.com
I highly recommend CrumplePop; it is easy to use and does its job very well indeed. Best yet, you do not need a degree in audioo technology to operate CrumplePop.