removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part

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smallstonefan
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June 11, 14 9:16 AM (permalink)

removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part

Hi all,
 
I recorded a guitarist that had some amp hum (probably a ground loop). Most of his stuff has distortion so it's not noticeable, but he has some parts he plays cleen and more quietly and I would like to remove the hum. I looked in my plugin arsenal and it doesn't appear that I have any noise reduction plugins.
 
Any suggestions? Is there another way to do this, or is there a plug-in I should consider?
 
thanks!
 
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    batsbrew
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 11, 14 10:09 AM (permalink)
    hum is 60 cycles.
     
    try nuking that with a para eq, high bell, big reduction
     
     
    i know there are plugs around, that specialize in that kind of cleanup....
     
    chances are you could highpass from 70 down, and not miss much, maybe even clean up that guitar part in the mix better.

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    #2
    smallstonefan
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 11, 14 10:31 AM (permalink)
    Thanks bats - I'll give it a shot tonight!
    #3
    batsbrew
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 11, 14 10:45 AM (permalink)
    when i said 'high bell', i meant narrow Q.
     
    just nuke it, all the way down.
     

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    #4
    smallstonefan
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 11, 14 11:02 AM (permalink)
    That's what I suspected. Probably best to use a Linear Phase EQ then...
    #5
    batsbrew
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 11, 14 11:07 AM (permalink)
    speaking of LPeq, Waves has a plug called 'X-Hum'
     
     
    i like the waves stuff
     
    there are just a handful of plugs i use constantly, 
    linear phase eq is one of them.

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    #6
    Karyn
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 11, 14 11:21 AM (permalink)
    Audacity has a noise reduction function.  You select a small area that contains just the noise you want to remove and audacity removes it from the entire track.
     
    You could pre-process the guitar track with it.
     
     
    Bare in mind when reducing mains hum with a filter that the fundamental (50/60hz) is not generally what you hear. It's the distorted noise/buzz being modulated by the 50/60hz hum.

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    #7
    batsbrew
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 11, 14 11:54 AM (permalink)
    sounds like that plug is the deali-o for this issue.
     
    true, hums from guitar amps usually aren't pure,
    and it depends on where you are, as to what that freq is.
    60 cycle is typical in the states.

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    #8
    scook
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 11, 14 11:59 AM (permalink)
    Sonitus EQ has a 60Hz hum reducing preset. An FFT noise reduction tool might produce a better result. This is the type of tool described in Audacity. Another free one is the 32bit version of ReaFir part of ReaPlugs. This one looks interesting but I have not tried it. So does this from the same site, specifically designed for hum removal. For fee an editor such as SoureForge has an FFT noise reduction tool and some of the iZotope RX tools. Then there is the full version of iZotope RX which provides a more comprehensive set of tools.
    #9
    wst3
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 11, 14 7:23 PM (permalink)
    I've never been happy with the results when using filters to kill power line hum... it affects the signal and it just never sounds quite right to me. Seems unlikely, since one is attenuating an octave or so where the guitar has little or no energy, but the result always sounds odd to me.

    My first choice, if I weren't such a cheapskate, would be Izotope RX, although there are some really good noise reduction tools out there now, some of which probably do as good a job. Actually, my first choice would be CEDAR, but that's not happening!

    However, I am cheap, and I already have the NR plugin from Sony/Sound Forge - and it works really well for this sort of task. So that's what I use<G>!
     
    I did demo Redunoise - the noise reduction plug-in from Voxengo, and I was really happy with the results. You might give that a spin.
     
    Good luck!

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    #10
    tlw
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 11, 14 7:24 PM (permalink)
    All good advice so far, to which I'd add:

    De-humming guitar (or anything else) is often best achieved by combining several tweaks in moderation rather than a single, powerful one. Broad-band hum is harder to get rid of than a mains-only one, and induced noise caused by a PC or lighting dimmer can be particularly difficult to counter in the mix. It's generally better and easier to tackle the noise at the source than remove it later. Often simply moving the guitar somewhere else in the room, or even the guitarist facing a different way can lower the noise floor. As can a change of guitar lead (and the shorter the better). And make sure the guitar's string earth is working properly.

    However, once the noise is tracked it has to be minimised.

    So:

    High-pass with a steep slope at around 85Hz.
    Watch for noise at multiples of the mains frequency, particularly the first couple of octave harmonics around 100/120 and 200/240Hz depending on your local mains AC frequency. Reduce the noise with narrow band eq as far as possible without the eq wrecking the overall sound.

    Careful, gentle use of a post eq gate/expander can work wonders.

    Consider lowering the volume of the track until the hum isn't objectionable then build the rest of the mix around that. With any luck once the entire mix is then brought up to final master levels any residual hum on the guitar track won't be noticeable.

    If all else fails, if the problem is mostly noise in the gaps between guitar notes, especially if th guitar was recorded with no or minimal reverb it is possible to go through the audio, chop it up so the noisy gaps between notes are isolated then reduce the noise-only clips to silence with a bit of a fade-in and out, if necessary gently shortening reverb tails as needed. It's a slow, painstaking job though.

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    #11
    The Maillard Reaction
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 11, 14 7:55 PM (permalink)
    Bill said "Cedar".
     
    :-)
     
    Yeah man!


    #12
    Jeff Evans
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 11, 14 8:17 PM (permalink)
    Only apply any form of noise reduction in the areas where you can hear the problem. Leave the rest alone. Noise reduction can alter the sound to some degree as well. If you cannot hear it then leave it alone! You will find there are only a few areas where the noise or problem is audible.

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    smallstonefan
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 12, 14 7:23 AM (permalink)
    Thanks for the tips guys. The noise is across multiple frequencies, but I used the Waves LinEQ to perform a narrow Q deep cut at 3618 and that took out the harshest noise. It's only noticeable in clean parts of a cover of Jolene. I think I'll chop up the clips and apply the EQ only to those clean parts, and not to the entire guitar track.
     
    On a related note, is there a good reference chart for hi pass/low pass filters for various instruments? I'm always afraid I'm cutting out too much (such as when hi-passing a guitar) but in reality I'm probably not cutting out enough...
    #14
    batsbrew
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 12, 14 10:10 AM (permalink)
    3618hz is not what i would call 'hum'.

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    tlw
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 12, 14 12:48 AM (permalink)
    The frequencies to hi/low pass at depend very much on the music in question.

    There are a few obvious principles, such as a guitar in standard tuning doesn't go below roughly 85Hz or a bass below 45Hz so anything below that is noise so it can go, guitar speakers tend not to do much over c. 8KHz etc.

    You might find this chart useful - http://solomonsmusic.net/musrange.gif

    However, one reason for lo/hi/band passing is to carve space in the mix. For example, if a guitar is busy around 80-240 Hz and the bass is playing in the same region they can trample over each other very badly. Hi-passing the guitar to reduce its low frequency content might help clear things up. Same with a bass and kick drum if their frequency range overlaps.

    A frequency analyser plugin can be a very useful tool for finding overlapping instruments/voices and creating space in the mix for them.

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    smallstonefan
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 12, 14 2:54 PM (permalink)
    Bats - perhaps hiss or sizzle would have been more accurate than hum. :) At any rate, thanks for the advice - the LEQ helped.
     
    Thanks for the chart tlw, that could prove to be very helpful...
    #17
    batsbrew
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    Re: removing amp hum in a quiet guitar part June 13, 14 3:04 PM (permalink)
    ELECTRICS
     
    the bane of my existence.
     


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