Tip: Highly effective guitar hum noise reduction FX-Chain using R-Mix and Sonitus EQ

Hello, all. So a couple weeks ago I had posted some threads on noise reduction options in Sonar. In fact line noise from all my weirdo guitar setups has been a problem for a while. Normally I don't need to worry about it too much (or didn't think I did) because I usually just play hard and fast so hum a noise gets buried. Welp... I needed some sustained notes for something I did recently and it was a real problem balancing gates/hum/sim settings/etc...
 
I needed to clean up my raw signal so all that inaudible racket didn't stifle what I could do with the sim and other effects. I actually typed this up a while ago but wanted to hold off sharing it until I tested it a bit further. It works great for me so far and I intend to use it to clean up my gain heavy guit stuff from now on (until I can afford some other noise reduction tools or quieter gear).
 
You do however have to own R-Mix... so unless you owned X2 or bought R-Mix outright you are out of luck. Since so many of us DID own X2 though this should be possible for large swaths of the community.
 
Here is the original post (that I saved in Notepad until I felt confident it wasn't totes stoopid... lol). It's in two parts. The first bit is simple instructions for those who already know WTF they are doing and the second bit is a step by step (by step by step by... yadda yadda woof woof fart...). I apologize for any typos or brainfarts.
 
Cheers.
 
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Problem: Noisy guitar input that makes a racket when using an amp sim with high gain/distortion settings. I use a bunch of outboard gear now to get a better/stronger dry input signal for my sims but even plugging straight into my interface's Hi-Z input I still get quite a bit of unwanted noise. Gates are okay but at extreme gain settings need to be set so high it can cause problems like screwing up sustain. There can still be some hum while playing anyway. This is how I figured out how to get rid of all that noise without using heavy handed gating or screwing up the tone with EQ. Bonus... if you happened to own X2 then you have the version of R-Mix that came with it. If not and you have not purchased the full version of R-Mix this ain't gonna work.


This is the chain of FX and settings I used for those who don't need my long winded instructions on setting up chains and applying effects.

FX Bin Chain:

Sonitus EQ (preset = Hum Removal (60 Hz))

R-Mix (Noise Cancel set to "Hum Noise" - Depth = Approx 10-15)

R-Mix (Noise Cancel set to "Air Con" - Depth = Approx 10-15)

TH2 or other amp sim (do not include in FX Chain Preset when saving)

The Sonitus EQ yanks out a ton of hum noise but not all.

The first instance of R-Mix yanks out the rest of the hum noise but leaves a weird "metallic sparkly" kind of sound behind that can creep in during silence/quieter parts.

The second instance of R-Mix removes that "sparkly" sound.

Once it hits the sim all the nasty gack on the dry track that triggers the distortion/gain/etc is gone so you can get more overdriven/brighter settings and not have to gate like crazy.

The downside is R-Mix is a pretty CPU intensive plug that incurs a lot of latency. You don't want to put this chain on your live input. Just record the track as usual THEN add the chain and bounce it to the clip (and remove R-Mix from the project completely). I actually got severe latency, a massive crash and finally project corruption in Platinum trying to play through R-Mix live. You may not experience that but whatever... you've been warned. It's kind of a glitchy plug anyway despite how cool it is.

Enjoy and let me know how this works out for ya'll. Cheers.

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And now the looooooong version....
 
I also wanted to document the exact procedure I used for my own use (this is going to be very useful to me until I can afford some fancier noise reduction stuff like Izo RX) and so even the n00bliest of n00bs could get this going. I always used to get discouraged seeing people discuss what seemed like really cool techniques but had no idea how to implement them so I have typed up an exact step by step of what I personally did. There are other ways to go about this (as is the case with many things in Sonar) but this worked for me. It's also kind of a mini tutorial on creating FX Chain Presets with assigned controls and rendering effects directly to audio clips.

I left one step out though that you may want to consider... before beginning you may want to create a new lane (or lanes) in whatever track(s) you are intending to do this on and Ctrl+Shift+Drag copying your clips into the lanes and labeling them in the Notes section with something like "Noise Reduction". Then use those newly copied clips to do your Bounce to Clip(s) on. That way you are preserving your original takes in case you want to revert back.

Also make sure you create Save As projects as you go because I had a couple crashes while screwing around with R-Mix as well as creating/editing the FX Chains (especially when creating the assignable controls in the FX Chain modules). Better safe than sorry.


Full Instructions:


*Note: In Sonar 2015 the old FX Bin is now called the FX Rack. I, due to my derpiness, have used both terms so consider them interchangeable. Just depends which version of Sonar you are using.

Set up the track and FX Bin:

1) Record your parts with a starter sim preset in the FX Bin. Leave some pre record time before you start playing. This will give you a good hunk of noise without playing so you can test how well the noise removal is working.

2) After recording tweak you preset to how you like it and don't worry about any hum. Use the sim's gate if you want but it will be turned off/removed before the noise reduction stage.

3) Insert the Sonitus EQ into the tracks FX Bin BEFORE the sim (so the EQ is processing the signal before it hits the sim). To do this Right Click in the FX Bin > Insert Audio FX > DirectX > Sonitusfx > Equalizer. Then if necessary click and drag the Sonitus EQ to the very top of the FX Bin (above the amp sim).

4) From the Sonitus EQ's presets select "Hum Removal (60hz). Listen back. This should remove a good chunk of the hum but not all (in my case).

5) Insert one instance of R-Mix by Right Clicking on the FX Bin > Insert Audio FX > VST2 > R-Mix.

6) Click/Drag the instance of R-Mix so it is after the Sonitus EQ but before the amp sim.

7) In R-Mix under the Noise Cancel area click the button that says "Bypass" and select "HumNoise".

8) Turn up the R-Mix Noise Cancel section's "Depth" fader to about 10. Listen back. This should remove most of the noise not touched by the Sonitus EQ hum removal. You can turn it up if it isn't getting rid of all the hum. You may notice some weird "sparkly" metallic noise when there is no playing and perhaps during playing. That will be removed by the next step.

9) Insert a second instance of R-Mix. Drag this instance so it is after the first instance but before the sim (so your FX Bin should be from top to bottom, Sonitus EQ, R-Mix 1 (Hum Removal), R-Mix 2 (which will be set in a moment) and then at the end your amp sim.

10) Click on the second instance of R-Mix that you just inserted to open its GUI (if it isn't already open) and in the Noise Cancel section click the button that says Bypass and select "AirCon".

11) Turn up the Noise Cancel section's depth knob to about 10. Listen back. This should remove that "sparkly/metallic" noise caused by the HumNoise setting. Adjust the Noise Cancel "Depth" fader in both instances of R-Mix to get the best results.

After doing all that you shouldn't need to use any kind of gating at all. So no gate pumping/note cut offs and any hum that bleeds into sections where you are playing will be gone. This does not seem to impact the signal in any negative way at all. You can a/b the effects to confirm but I noticed very little difference in the original signal's tone compared to the noise reduced tone.

Saving as an FX Chain:

1) Delete the sim from the FX bin. If you want to save/keep the sim settings then save it as a preset or create a new, blank track and drag the sim OUT of the FX bin into that track. You do not want the sim saved in the chain (or maybe you do but this FX Chain is only supposed to remove line noise so you can use it with whatever sim settings you want).

2) Make sure you FX bin is set up as follows... Sonitus EQ (set to the 60hz Hum Removal Preset), R-Mix (instance 1 with Noise Cancel set to Hum Noise), R-Mix (instance 2 with Noise Cancel set to AirCon). *Note: It's probably best to set both instances of R-Mix's Noise Cancel Depth fader settings to around 10-12. That seems like a decent starting point that will likely yank a lot of noise without introducing other weird noise but can be tweaked as needed. At least that is what is working on my setup.

3) Right Click on the FX Bin and select "Save FX Rack as FX Chain Preset".

4) In the dialog that pops up create a name for your chain and save it in an appropriate spot. I created a new folder within the default FX Chain Presets folder called "Beeps" and saved it as "Beeps Guit NR". You could wait until you create knobs and stuff for the Chain but I personally saved this as a starting point.

5) Delete the contents of your FX bin.

6) Right Click in the FX Bin and select Insert FX Chain Preset.

7) In the dialog that opens up navigate to where you saved your initial FX Chain and select it. Click Open.

8) Your FX Chain's module should pop open. Right Click within the blank area and select "Add Knob".

9) In the dialog that appears click the top "Destination" dropdown > R-Mix (this will actually be the full name of the preset followed by R-Mix... it should be the first instance of R-Mix in the chain that you set to "HumNoise") > Noise Cancel Depth. Click OK and a knob will be created to control the Depth Fader within that instance of R-Mix. It will be set to whatever level the fader was set at when you saved the FX Chain Preset.

10) Right click on the knob and select Edit Control if you want to change the Name of the knob. I changed mine to simply "Hum"

11) Repeat step 9 (and 10) except in the destination choose the second instance of R-Mix's Noise Cancel Depth control for the knob (the one that is set to "AirCon"). I named this one AirCon.

There doesn't seem to be any need for any other paramaters to be set to knobs in the main module. The SOnitus does not need to be adjusted and we are only using the Noise Cancel setting in both instances of R-Mix. Now you can just adjust the Depth of the R-Mix instances to get the best noise reduction without screwing up the audio. Of course you COULD add extra parmaters (or FX) but since this is just intended to remove the crap from dry guit signals that makes sims get all noisy it's probably best to keep it as simple as possible.



Bouncing to Clip:

1) Solo the track

2) Disable all effects on the track (including the Prochannel) except the sim.

3) Within the sim turn the gate all the way down/off (you want to hear all the noise)

4) Listen to the clip to get an idea of how much noise is coming from it

5) Select the Clip, Right click and select "Open Clip FX Rack"

6) Right click inside the Clip FX Rack that pops up and select "Load FX Chain Preset"

7) In the folder dialog that pops up navigate to where you saved your FX Chain, select it and click Open

8) In the "Clip FX Rack" click on the FX Chain's name to open up the FX Chain's module

9) Start playback on the solo'd track and adjust the two Noise Cancel Depth knobs you created as needed. I find it particularly helpful to pay attention to the pick attack to find the best balance between the HumNoise and AirCon depths. If you hear "sparkles" turn down the AirCon Depth or turn up the HumNoise Depth. Obviously you want the hum noise set high enough to completely remove all hum so make sure that is set as high as needed. A depth of around 12 for HumNoise seems to yank out most of the noise I was getting without doing anything weird.

10) Once it sounds good Right Click the clip and select Bounce to Clip(s). This "prints" the effect directly onto the clip and removes the FX Chain from the Clip FX Rack. Listen back to make sure the bounce didn't do anything screwy and that you are happy with the results.

Now, in theory, you should be able to use the dry audio of these clips without any annoying extra processing to remove noise before the sim.


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So that's that. Sorry for any typos and/or brainfarts. I really am curious to see how well this works out for other folks. I'm also planning on trying similar FX Chain setups using the other NoiseCancel settings (like Hiss) for live mic stuff but that's another adventure. Hope this is useful to some folks.


Cheers.

Thank You.  I'll give it a try (probably in a couple days) and let you know how I make out.  I've got a couple guitar and bass tracks that were recorded using a Yamaha TH2 amp and there is some hum in them (not ground loop hum but same frequency). 
 
 

Hi, firebird. That would be excellent. I would like to see how effective this is on various outboard gear because obviously I can only test it on what I own. Also, as an experienced user (wh's opinion I respect), I'm guessing you can provide some good insights. Cheers.
 
 

BTW... in case people gloss over it in that novel I wrote this works best on the DRY signal.
 
So put it BEFORE the amp sim. Not after. You'll still get some reduction if you put it after the sim but the point is getting rid of the hum in advance, even if you can't hear on the clean signal. The tracks I did this on had NO hum on them until I turned on the sim so it yanks out whatever triggers the humming inside the sim. It may seem weird but it works.
 
Just wanted to be clear on that.
 
Cheers.

cuitlahac
Thanks Beepster!  I'll give this a try!

Cool. I'd love to know how it works out for you.
 
On a related note... I just got a chance to listen to some of the prelim work the fellow I made these tracks for did using a completely other sim/setup and they are still perfectly clean, clear and strong.
 
I'm looking forward to see how well it works on some high gain single coil blues stuff. I'm assuming it will work just as well but i MAY have to turn up the NoiseCancel faders ever so slightly.
 
The best part is now I can use my old MXR Micro Amp (simple gain pedal) to get a much stronger input signal to use with the sims. I've always been able to get some good quality blues sounds from TH2 but going line in either from the amps or direct through the interface kind of ruined the dynamic range so I could get a good punchy gain-y signal or a nice quieter clean signal but not both from the same sim setup. This, in theory, should get me more realistic response like one would get from a tube amp.
 
Of course the MXR pedal increased any hum already present thus stomping all over the sound. Now I should be able to completely yank it.
 
This may also make my old Korg AXFX multi processor pedal more useable for recording. It's got a really nice acoustic sim that works well with my hot rodded Pacifica. Very realistic but again it introduces hum. If I can make it work how I want then I won't have to worry about screwing with micing my actual acoustic all the time and all the problems that can arise from it.

Cool. Looking forward to your experiences with this.
 
Cheers.

I would REALLY like to know how this works out for you, Geoff. I'm sure you have piles of live stuff this might help with. Perhaps DI stuff.
 
There are also other NoiseCancel settings in R-Mix that I intend to try on mic/room noise/hiss using this method. It's just a click to change the NC option in R-Mix.
 
Cheers.

Hi, firebird. Thanks for the update. Try adding a really high gain amp sim preset on a track/clip you have recorded (like a Rectifier model set to the distortion channel and the gain cranked). That'll draw out the hum on pretty much any guitar signal. Then put this chain before the sim. Normally that type of thing would need gating for in between the performance. Once I applied this chain to the dry signal I could turn the gate on the sim all the way down and there was no noise at all. It was a little surprising actually.
 
However not having any hum on whatever your are working on sounds like a good problem to have. Wish my gear was that quiet. lol
 
Cheers.