AetherDSP Settings¶
The AetherDSP Settings dialog tunes the advanced parameters of AetherSDR's client-side noise-reduction engines (NR2, NR4, MNR, DFNR, RN2, BNR), letting operators dial in the tradeoff between noise suppression and speech fidelity. The six DSP modules are selectable via a toggle row at the top; clicking a toggle also activates or bypasses that engine.
Before you start¶
- AetherSDR does not need to be connected to a radio to adjust DSP settings.
- The selected NR engine must already be active on your receive slice for these changes to have an audible effect.
- Some DSP engines (MNR, BNR, RN2, NR4) are platform-dependent or informational only. For details see Choosing the right noise reduction: NR2, NR4, DFNR, MNR.
Open AetherDSP Settings¶
- Open
Settings > AetherDSP Settings....
The dialog appears with a frameless 18 px gradient title bar showing a grip glyph (⋮⋮) on the left and the dialog title. Click and drag the title bar to move the dialog. Double-click the title bar to toggle maximize/restore. Click and drag any edge or corner to resize the dialog. The 6 px resize hit zone surrounds the inner content widget; the cursor changes to indicate the resize direction.
The title bar contains three window controls: - — (Minimize): Minimizes the dialog. - □ (Maximize): Maximizes or restores the dialog. - × (Close): Closes the dialog.
The dialog geometry is persisted automatically to the AetherDspDialogGeometry setting and restored on next launch.
The dialog uses the color theme defined by the current AetherSDR theme (setting key theme/aetherDsp). Sliders render with the applyPrimarySliderStyle style applied by the theme manager.
Select a DSP engine¶
At the top of the dialog, six toggle tabs act as both selector and enable/disable controls:
- NR2 – Musical-noise-reduction engine
- NR4 – libspecbleach noise suppression (dimmed on Windows builds without LLVM/clang-cl)
- MNR – macOS MMSE-Wiener (dimmed on Windows/Linux builds)
- DFNR – DeepFilterNet3 neural noise suppression
- RN2 – RNNoise (informational only, no adjustable parameters)
- BNR – NVIDIA Broadcast (dimmed on builds without NVIDIA Broadcast SDK)
Click a toggle to select its parameter page and activate or bypass that engine. When NR2 is activated, AudioEngine cascades exclusion, disabling DFNR and other mutually exclusive modules.
NR2 parameters¶
| Control | Default | Valid values | Setting key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gain Method | Gamma | Linear | Log | Gamma | Trained | NR2GainMethod |
| NPE Method | OSMS | OSMS | MMSE | NSTAT | NR2NpeMethod |
| AE Filter (artifact elimination) | Enabled (checked) | Checked / unchecked | NR2AeFilter |
| Reduction: | 1.50 | 0.50–2.00 | NR2GainMax |
| Smoothing: | 0.85 | 0.50–0.98 | NR2GainSmooth |
| Threshold: | 0.20 | 0.05–0.50 | NR2Qspp |
Click Reset Defaults (↺ icon) to restore NR2 defaults (Gamma/OSMS/AE on, 1.50/0.85/0.20).
NR4 parameters¶
| Control | Default | Valid values | Setting key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noise Estimation: | MMSE | MMSE | Brandt | Martin | NR4NoiseEstimationMethod |
| Adaptive Noise Estimation | Enabled (checked) | Checked / unchecked | NR4AdaptiveNoise |
| Reduction (dB): | 10.0 | 0.0–40.0 dB | NR4ReductionAmount |
| Smoothing (%): | 0 | 0–100 | NR4SmoothingFactor |
| Whitening (%): | 0 | 0–100 | NR4WhiteningFactor |
| Masking Depth: | 0.50 | 0.00–1.00 | NR4MaskingDepth |
| Suppression: | 0.50 | 0.00–1.00 | NR4SuppressionStrength |
Click Reset Defaults (↺ icon) to restore NR4 defaults (MMSE/adaptive on, 10 dB, 0, 0, 0.50, 0.50).
Enable or disable NR4 adaptive noise estimation¶
With adaptive noise estimation enabled, NR4 tracks changes in the noise environment in real time; disabling it locks the noise-floor estimate to a static snapshot, which can suit highly stable noise conditions.
- Open
Settings > AetherDSP Settings.... - Click the NR4 tab.
- Check or uncheck Adaptive Noise Estimation to enable or disable continuous noise-floor re-estimation.
The setting takes effect immediately and is saved automatically to NR4AdaptiveNoise.
Tips¶
- If the noise floor on your band is stable and consistent, unchecking Adaptive Noise Estimation can prevent the estimator from following signal-level changes and misclassifying speech as noise.
- If the noise floor varies rapidly — such as during band openings or with impulse noise — leave Adaptive Noise Estimation checked so NR4 can track the changing conditions.
- The Noise Estimation Method selector (MMSE, Brandt, Martin) determines how NR4 builds its noise model regardless of whether adaptive mode is on or off. Changing the method can affect how well the static or adaptive estimate tracks your noise floor.
- Click Reset Defaults on the NR4 tab to return all NR4 controls to their factory values (adaptive on, MMSE, 10 dB, 0, 0, 0.50, 0.50).
NR4 availability on Windows¶
NR4 uses the libspecbleach library, which requires the clang-cl compiler on Windows. If the NR4 tab is dimmed, install LLVM from llvm.org and rebuild AetherSDR to enable NR4 support.
MNR parameters (macOS only)¶
| Control | Default | Valid values | Setting key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enable MNR (macOS only) | Off | Checked / unchecked | MnrEnabled |
| Strength | 100 | 0–100 | MnrStrength |
The MNR toggle is dimmed on Windows/Linux builds. The Enable MNR checkbox enables MMSE-Wiener noise reduction with asymmetric gain smoothing.
DFNR parameters¶
| Control | Default | Valid values | Setting key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attenuation Limit | 100 | 0–100 dB | DfnrAttenLimit |
| Post-Filter Beta | 0.00 | 0.00–0.30 | DfnrPostFilterBeta |
Attenuation Limit sets the maximum noise attenuation applied by DeepFilterNet3. 0 = passthrough; 100 = maximum.
Post-Filter Beta applies an additional post-filter for extra suppression.
RN2 tab¶
Selecting the RN2 tab displays informational content only. There are no adjustable parameters for RN2.
BNR tab¶
Selecting the BNR tab displays NVIDIA Broadcast noise reduction controls. The BNR toggle is dimmed on builds without the NVIDIA Broadcast SDK. Intensity is controlled from the overlay menu.