Acoustic finger noise ??

[Merloch]

Hi Guys,

Im pretty n00b at recording/mixing but I have a question...

Do have any tips to remove the noise that your fingers/calluses make as they slide around the acoustic guitar? I have just a few seconds here and there in a song that bother the shit out of me.... Do you just have to record it better or is there some trick like EQ that will minimize the nasty sound?

 

[pikachu69]

It is a combo of a few different things, guitar fingering technique being the biggest, it means you are not lifting your fingers far enough off the strings. If you can't get the guitarist to adjust their technique try to point the mics null point more towards the guitarists fingers and/or maybe increase the distance between the guitar and mic (if the room sounds OK) or bring it more towards the body of the guitar.
Also, using a de-esser at the right frequency can help.

Try not to kill the squeaks too much though as it will start to sound un-natural as this is an excepted part of guitar playing, to a point obviously.

 

[egan.]

de-essing (or a single band of a multiband comp) are the best options after the fact. When tracking, in addition to technique, fast frets or coated strings can help.

 

[midget donkeys]

Finger pressure when changing chord positions is causing the problem. As said oil on the strings can help. Oil on the left hand can help too.

After recording is finished you can actually see the slide noises if you use a program that can display the spectral frequency of the wave form. The noise can then be surgically turned down in volume or deleted, often with vary little lose of quality in the original track.

But this can sound really fake. I was going crazy removing a bunch of slide noises from some acoustic guitar I recorded a while ago. Then the next day I listened to a dream theater song and heard little fret noises between the chord changes all over the place and realized I was being way to picky. I ended up automating the volume down over the fret noises so you could still hear them, but they weren't in your face.

 

[Scott Horner]

Fast Fret. I love this stuff. If the player's technique can't be tamed enough to cut down on the noise, this should help considerably. Avoid Finger Ease at all costs, though!! You might as well use cooking spray if you are using that shit.