Dealing with unpleasant pick-up noises

[Behind]

Hello everyone!

I really hope this question hasn't been answered hundred of times!

I'm currently trying to record a clean Fender strat with some vintage pups on it.

This axe sounds amazing, but when it comes to pups noise, it's almost impossible to get rid of it on the mix.

Do you have some good advice to avoid this? Some eq? Noise gate? I use to work all ITB and I'd be really glad if you can recommend some software for it.

TIA!

 

[Trevoire520]

Pickup noises? What noises are you talking about exactly?

If you're just talking about background hiss then check that your don't have any florescent lighting on and that you don't have CRT computer monitor switched on as both of these will cause quite a bit of noise in single coil pickups.

Maybe you could take the guitar to a tech and get him to check the electronics? Single coils really shouldn't be too noisy for clean sections.

 

[Behind]

It's HUM noise. No crt, no fluorescent... no serious electromagnetic source that could interfere with the pups. It's just the vintage pups nature.

The question isn't how to get rid of the noise from the guitar but the noise in the mix. I have tried to cut some hz by equing but it eats a lot of high end... So I'd like to know which tricks you have in mind to avoid this from the already recorded guitar track.

I'll post a clip later

 

[Zozobra]

60 cycle hum on a single coil isnt going anywhere, I'm afraid, without making it not a single coil in one way or another. Electrics in the room will make it worse, but taking them away/switching them off wont get rid of it.

Dont know how you would deal with it in the mix.

 

[t0rbad]

Can't you record the sound coming out from the amp for the length of time that you have for the song then flip the phase? (Rather new to this not sure if I used the right terminology)

 

[ahjteam]

Can't you record the sound coming out from the amp for the length of time that you have for the song then flip the phase? (Rather new to this not sure if I used the right terminology)

rather record the hiss and then use something like Izotope RX or Waves X-Noise to remove most of the noise, then reamp.

 

[Dexter_prog]

Waves x-noise has helped me a lot with hum and ground loops noise. I just left it on the default settings and it removed all the hiss and hum for me. How do you use it, ahjteam? You let it "learn" or what?

 

[ahjteam]

press play, click learn, re-click learn to stop and then set threshold

 

[Omega_Void]

Consider getting the control cavity & pickup cavities shielded for less hum in future recordings.
http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/shield3.php
But don't mess with it yourself unless you're sure you know what you're doing.

And if you get someone else to do it, make sure they know what they're doing. Had the tech in a local shop put new pups in my axe way back when, didn't open it up until a few years later and when I looked inside... well, it was not pretty.

FWIW I haven't looked at hum-removal plugs for a few years, but last time I checked they all made some weird artifacts in the audio. Would re-track rather than use those, but maybe they've improved since then.

 

[ahjteam]

FWIW I haven't looked at hum-removal plugs for a few years, but last time I checked they all made some weird artifacts in the audio. Would re-track rather than use those, but maybe they've improved since then.

The trick is not to get rid of the noise 100%, but reduce it like 70-90% so that it will get clearly quieter but still have the noisefloor to mask the artifacts. Same applies when removing background noise from a fieldrecording

Also dithering helps to mask the digital artifacts a bit, but it also might bring the noise floor up too much, but you must test it out first.

 

[Dexter_prog]

The trick is not to get rid of the noise 100%, but reduce it like 70-90% so that it will get clearly quieter but still have the noisefloor to mask the artifacts. Same applies when removing background noise from a fieldrecording

Also dithering helps to mask the digital artifacts a bit, but it also might bring the noise floor up too much, but you must test it out first.

Do you happen to have examples of how much noise should be removed? I am not sure if I am over-doing it with x-noise :/

 

[ahjteam]

Do you happen to have examples of how much noise should be removed? I am not sure if I am over-doing it with x-noise :/

Case dependant, but so that you get clearly more signal than noise. Usually 6-12dB attenuation is enough, but sometimes you might have to push it to reduce 30dB