• SONAR
  • Removing hiss? (p.2)
2013/05/29 10:51:39
M_Glenn_M
Thanks guys. Good ideas as usual. It is an acoustic guitar track.
I do have a good sample (the count-in) but as said, altho I can't tell from listening, zooming in I see this wave is complex and will not be mathematically consistent thru the track.
I'll look into the freebies, thanks and didn't think of the HPF gate idea.
2013/05/29 11:04:13
Beepster
I recorded an acoustic/vocal track in a room that had background noise due to a fan. R-Mix removed ALL of it. Seriously try that out. It works amazingly well for a freebie... oh wait. You're still on X1? hmm... Not sure how crippled the demo version is but it would seriously be worth trying. Also some kind folks recommended Izotope RX2 for heavy duty audio restoration and it looks awesome. Supposedly the demo is fully functioning so might be worth a look as well... http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/rx/
2013/05/29 11:18:33
M_Glenn_M
So R-Mix is included with X-2? (I'm still x1 due to still being with XP)
2013/05/29 11:21:04
Beepster
Yup. The light version anyway but it's still quite handy and powerful. Not quite sure what extra features come with the full version.
2013/05/29 11:35:47
WallyG
Beepster


I recorded an acoustic/vocal track in a room that had background noise due to a fan. R-Mix removed ALL of it. Seriously try that out. It works amazingly well for a freebie... oh wait. You're still on X1? hmm... Not sure how crippled the demo version is but it would seriously be worth trying. Also some kind folks recommended Izotope RX2 for heavy duty audio restoration and it looks awesome. Supposedly the demo is fully functioning so might be worth a look as well... http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/rx/

I have several recordings of my band of years ago that had a lot of audience noise. I know that its' difficult (impossible?) to remove this since the sounds are so random, but has anyone had any luck with this product or any others to filter out audience background noise?
 
Walt
2013/05/29 12:02:36
digi2ns
I just checked,  Its the Sonitusfx Gate Im thinking of.
2013/05/29 12:25:11
Cactus Music
This has been a subject that I have worked on with little success for a long , long time. To do this , my conclusion is tools like iZotope are considered the best by most pro's. I tried the demo,,, my brain exploded. 

I won't believe anyone who say's they used a low end noise reduction and retained the integrity of the track. The noise reduction will always trash something. Always. Sure, electric guitar or bass might be easier, but not complex sounds like a live choir or a acoustic performance. 

And Sonar is not the best software either, tool copy the offending track into a proper wave editing program like wave lab and work there. 

The best results for me have required hand work. 
It's not hard do do in a wave editor but can be time consuming depending on how many tracks and how long. 

What I do is zoom in on the wave, highlight the place where the background noise will be heard and apply either an EQ or Gain reduction, depending on material. Wave lab lets you fade in and out of these cuts so you won't interfere with the original sound. And it's a one or 2  mouse click operation, in Sonar this would take a zillion clicks. 
Do your self a favour, If you need to do wave editing, purchase a real wave editor and save yourself a lot of time AND do a better job of it too. 
2013/05/29 12:46:54
scook
Missed the X1 in the sig. Forget R-Mix. With X1 you are down to the expander/gate, EQ, envelopes and maybe ReaFIR. As far as editors go, I would not spend money on one unless it had a decent set of tools (which runs into money) There are a few good free ones, such as Wavosaur http://www.wavosaur.com/ or WaveShop http://waveshop.sourceforge.net/ Wavosaur has the advantage of using VST plug-ins.
2013/05/29 15:32:05
LANEY
2013/05/29 16:10:58
Theycallmefree
Glenn: I am no sound engineer, but I have some friends that are pro at scrubbing. I really can't tell you the secretes of how they do it, as many of then will not tell me all the details. I am sure the suggestions might help but let me put in my 2 cents.
 
The best way to get rid of noise on a track, is not have it there in the first place!
 
First you say it is an acoustic guitar. But, how are you recording it? Last night I listened to Grand Funk doing "Don't Look Back" on an acoustic, recorded 40 years ago, in 1973. One of the best sounding acoustic guitars I have ever heard on a recording. No computers back then, and no noise in his track.
 
If you are recording the acoustic with mics, be sure to use mic pre-amps. The better the pre-amp the less noise in the mic signal, and they get very expensive. You want dead silence in the mics when there is "NO" sound, before you record. For instance spend time adjustng the pre-amp properly for the sound you desire. You can place a mic in font of a stereo speaker and let a CD play as you adjust it for EQ, Threshold, input and output signal. pre, low cut, etc. It will help, to bring up the Hi-Mid on the pre-amp. The hiss is usually having too hot a mic. Point one mic at about fret 10, and the other near the bridge base of the guitar, none at the hole of the guitar. Make sure the meters at the armed track are not floating up the scales with dead silence, this is a sign they are too hot. Get the gain right on the mics, and then carefully lower the output signal compared to the in gain at the pre and mic, to achieve a recording signal from about -6 to -15 dbs when struming the guitar. By reducing the output signal along with the gain signal achieve total dead silence in the signal when you are totally quiet. One will outweigh the others ability to do this.
 
So now that you have that adjusted, you should see a -6 to -15 db at the armed track as you strum the guitar, and totally nothing on the meter when your are silent. Place the mics in position to how close they are to the guitar for tweaking this signal according to what you are playing. Of course noise at places in the track where you meant to be silent like tapping your foot etc...can be spliced out of the track, in clip automation or other ways. Do that last as the volume automation will prevent you from doing the mix, or you can do this and then bounce it to a new track, and remove the envelope at that point. The total dead silence factor on a mic signal beats trying to remove noise from a already recorded track. the better the original track was recorded the better the end product. You probably need to be a sound engineer to actually know all the pros amd cons of master scrubbing. Ambient sounds is another story. I assume they do both in line and mic recording and then have an engineer scrub it properly. Some of this gear gets way into the bucks.
 
If you are recording "line in", get a Boss noise reduction for the guitar feed, and run the out, assuming it is XLR through the pre-amp and do the same process. Also, use a Baggs or Zoom or some processor to reduce noise reduction, Fishman acoustic amps have a Anti Feedback built in that also helps. You should hear absoultly nothing in a signal when it is dead silent. Live recordings another story. Heavy Metal again, another story.
So go listen to the signal at dead silence and hear if you are achieving that to start with! Then take the above advise and you are starting to get a professional scrubbed track.
 
Best of luck! Free
 
PS: Go ahead and plop another 2 gigs of ram into that pc.
  
 
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