Diff Button: When and how to use it

We can describe plosives as the low-frequency pops caused by consonants like "P" and "B".

The best way to remove plosives from your recordings is to use an audio processing tool like ERA Plosive Remover. Although the plugin has been intelligently designed to remove plosives,  it's up to you to eventually decide how much processing has to be applied before the result can be considered as acceptable.

The amount of processing can be considerably different from user to user. This is a subjective choice as everyone has their own criteria as to what "sounds good". On the other hand, you have to be careful, because going too far on the processing, the typical "P" and "B" consonants could result in distinct level fluctuations at low frequencies in such a way that could interfere with speech intelligibility.

 Is it possible to have an objective reference as to how much processing is enough?

The answer is yes and it's the DIFF button!

On the right side of the Plosive Remover’s interface, under the Output meter, you can find the DIFF button. Enable it to listen to the plosives that Plosive Remover is removing during processing. In other words, you'll hear the difference between the input and the output signal.

What’s the best way to use the DIFF button? 

Enable the DIFF button and adjust the main processing knob, until you listen to a bit of the voice being removed along with the unwanted pops from the “P” and “B” consonants. Turn the knob back a little bit, choose the desired processing mode and there you are! This way, the signal will stay as natural as possible.

A few comparisons between different settings and the unprocessed sound can make all the difference in achieving the most natural-sounding result.