The best defense for this one synthetic, is to not record any of that stuff to begin with. I know that sounds like a RTFM type answer, but it's true. If you are getting unwanted noises on your tracks, always try to get to the source of why this is happening and stop it there.
In my recordings, the only issues I get from time to time are with people that want their headphones so loud, they would sometimes bleed into the mic. In this example, the fix is to zoom in close and slip edit the track and remove this when there are no vocals going on. Most times you won't hear this as the vocal on the track plays back...but there are times loud headphones can bring on artifacts like a quck phasing issue when they turn their head near the mic....high frequencies and other little nuances that can just degrade a vocal track enough to get on your nerves. The best fix for this is lower headphone volume or closed back headphones.
The other issue I get from time to time is noise from certain high gain guitar rigs. This is almost impossible to take care of from the source or the person is sold on the tone they have. Noise gates are usually a bad move because they can accidentally choke off a sound. Noise reduction can help, but even there, it can mess with the tone a bit in whatever register you try to curb the noise at.
I fix this stuff by slip editing also. But, I always try to see if something can be done at the source. For example, in some high gain sounds, a volume on a guitar wide open is just about always going to give some sort of hum or noise. I try to back the gain down to see if the person can play like that and as long as it doesn't mess up the sound, they usually find out that they don't need as much gain as they thought they did and it actually sounds better anyway.
But for those that don't want to lower their gain, I let them blast away and then slip edit as best and as tight as I can. From there if a little something exists, the Waves noise reduction plugs work wonders as they reduce the noise to a lower point where the human ear won't pick it up as much. But for this type of stuff, slip editing is usually your best bet but always try to see if you can eliminate or curb it from the source. I know some guys have fans or AC units going on in their rooms and it's hard to get that out or they sweat to death. The fix for that is to take the fan and put it in the next room as far as you can and let it blow the air into the doorway. Just make sure the mi isn't near it or the wind will actually affect it. But depending on how far away you can move the fan to where you can still feel a breeze....that will determine how much noise you pick up. But it will be way less than when the fan was actually in the room. With AC units...no fix for them other than to turn them off while tracking vocals unfortunately...especially if it's a window unit.
As for other strange noises, sometimes a gate IS the right answer. But you just have to be careful with gates on certain instruments. They can choke off the sound a bit too much and you don't get it all. Our gate in the Sonitus suite as well as the PC Expander/Gate work well with this too. Just be aware of the choked off sounds possibility.
-Danny
post edited by Danny Danzi - 2012/03/28 08:58:22