Getting Noise Out of Acoustic Guitar Track

How did you record it?  Microphone or DIed?
 
If DIed, what sort of transducer does it have?  Underbridge piezo, mic in body?

I recorded directly into a DAKING Mic-Pre One. The sound I'm hearing sounds like reverb but I have no FX on the track. Weird. Must be some gremlin in the system. Guess I'll have to redo the track. Thanks for your thoughts on the matter. Mike

Bear with me. Some people are gonna tilt their heads sideways at this one, but I swear it is true. I have been recording acoustic tracks for too long to tell and this one problem does crop up from time to time. Some guitars are really bad about ringing harmonics! The test is to strum the chord fairly hard and immediately kill or mute the strings from sounding. In a lot of cases, you can hear harmonic ringing after the muting of the chord. The most often found place that this happens is the portion of the strings between the nut and the tuning pegs. The main fix for this is to get a small piece of material such as felt and weave it between the strings to dampen those vibrations. If you record direct this problem tends to get very pronounced. A quick fix is to stick a guitar pick in between those strings. Picks tend to be stiff and cause tuning problems. I prefer a piece of felt or just tie a do-rag around the headstock just behind the nut. Not sure if this is the problem you speak of. I just know that I have had to do this from time to time even on my own guitars. Hope this helps.

Some guitars are really bad about ringing harmonics!

It's not just acoustics. I've an original style Gibson ES135 which has a tunomatic bridge and trapeze tailpiece with several inches of string between them, and a pretty lively body resonance (the centre block is a very light balsa-like wood, not Gibson's usual mahogony). Resonance in the strings between bridge and tailpiece can show up through the pickups in all kinds of unlikely ways.

CJaysMusic


If its harmonics, you wont get rid of it. Try using different strings, mics , mic placement, rooom and guitars to fix the issue

Cj

Or just tie a bit of cloth round the head, tailpiece etc., like Sidroe suggested..

BTW, I am glad to have been of service. All the guys on here have been so helpful to me. It's nice to be able to return the favor every once and a while.

But the guitar is already recorded JB? You cant tie a piece of cloth an a wave file

Oh, but you can! Cakewalk just released the brand new Cloth-Tie Pro Channel module just for this purpose. Just $99.95 at the Cakewalk Store. You can select Cotton, Wool, Silk, Nylon and Satin presets.

Many thanks to all of you for your suggestions. When playing recording lead on my old Martin I now mute the lower strings when playing the top 3 strings and all sounds great. Having the cloth tie helps lessen the lower strings sympathetic vibrations. Also, I had some success working the Pro-Channel EQ--finding unwanted frequencies and cutting them. All in all,this is a pretty good workaround. Thanks again! Mike

I usually wrap rubber bands around my headstocks just for this

rog857


I recorded directly into a DAKING Mic-Pre One. The sound I'm hearing sounds like reverb but I have no FX on the track. Weird. Must be some gremlin in the system. Guess I'll have to redo the track. Thanks for your thoughts on the matter. Mike

It's room noise, reflections, being picked up by the guitar strings. It is harmonics but  what's exciting the strings to that level is reflections.

Sidroe is spot on. Sometimes if it is subtle, these harmonics can actually enhance your tracks. Though most of the time, they can be a pain.