Best ambient sound denoise apps / workflow?

[Jon Oshima]

There’s a lot that I don’t know about audio, but your point is excellent, and it’s the one that I’m familiar with. I had a long run as a crew member on big TV and movie shoots (Prop / Set Dresser), where getting clean sound is a priority. I probably spent months of cumulative time being silent after they yelled “rolling sound!”

[Ty Ford]

Jon, there are two things to consider. Not talking or making noise during a take and the noise of the environment.
There is a fallacious opinion that “it can be fixed in post.” This is frequently put out there by people who do not understand audio and sound. While in some cases, some problems may be addressed, it is extremely naive to think that anyone or everyone in post knows what to do, or has time to do it.
Dirtying up a take by talking or making noise in the background is just plain ignorant.
Environmental noises — cars, trucks, refrigerators, generators, HVAC systems, and any other man-made electro-mechanical devices can also dirty a take. How do you know? You have at least one person whose job it is to listen ALL OF THE TIME. The Sound Person. These days, not all sound people are good listeners.

Listening is NOT the same as Hearing. An experienced listener hears problems and can hold a take and/or fix the problem. That problem may or may not be fixable in post. Post may not even Hear the problem and there goes the quality of your sound. The problem will be heard by others later.

I was on a corporate shoot some years ago. I was asked to stay with the dollies because the producer wanted to scout our next location. He told me he would pay attention to sound. Half and hour later everyone came back. We pushed the carts to an elevator and went down a floor. The door opened to reveal a tile lined lobby with one wall of glass to the outside that was ten feet tall and 40 feet long. It was a main entry point so there were doors opening and people coming in and out. There was an escalator running nearby (clunkity, clunkity, clunk).
I asked if I was being punked. They were serious.
Of course, this made me “the bad guy.” I helped them find a quieter spot on that floor at the end of the building, but I was still the “bad guy.”