VST noise suppressor?

[MarkG]

My poweramp seems to add a lot of hiss lately, I can't turn it up over 1 without the hiss becoming too prominent for recording. Unfortunately, I don't have the funds for new tubes/ISP decimator, so I'm looking for another solution.

When I add a VST gate..it gates well enough but naturally doesn't clear the hiss from the recorded track when the guitars are playing. Also tried some EQing, unfortunately the hiss seems to be from 2k up to 15k. Even when I lo pass around 10khz it is still very much audible in the 5-8khz region...which is exactly where I tend to boost a little.

So...any VST solution to clearing up the hiss without destroying the guitars? Did some googling but it didn't come up with much. For now I've been keeping the master very low, cranking the pre's level. It works against the hiss....but also sucks out that lovely tube saturation

 

[reg3n]

have you tried new-good cables?

 

[MarkG]

have you tried new-good cables?

I tried a few I had lying around, made no difference. They are also short enough to not be much of a problem (1 meter or less).

 

[Fragle]

a noisegate won't get rid of background hiss while the guitars are playing. new tubes man...

you can still manually cut out the hiss during breaks though.

 

[MarkG]

a noisegate won't get rid of background hiss while the guitars are playing. new tubes man...

you can still manually cut out the hiss during breaks though.

Yeah thats why I'm looking for a suppressor, not a gate. NS-2 or Decimator in VST form...or some other way.

Had it retubed a month ago

 

[ahjteam]

you need to have it between preamp and poweramp, so I would use a hardware noise supressor. and FYI, NS2 is an expander, not a gate.

 

[MarkG]

you need to have it between preamp and poweramp, so I would use a hardware noise supressor

I've owned an NS-2, and it sucked too much of my guitar tone. This thread is really about a VST solution, if one exists.

*edit*

never said it was a gate...

Anyway, from the answers I gather there's no VST way to do it.

 

[Seth Munson]

Use the podfarm one?

 

[ahjteam]

Anyway, from the answers I gather there's no VST way to do it.

If the hiss problem is in the poweramp, no. But usually it is in the preamp. If that is the case, you can always
record it separately and then put on the di-sidechained gate after it and then reamp it thru the poweramp.

 

[bryan_kilco]

NS2 is an expander, not a gate.

I don't quite understand this....

Is it because a gate is JUST "Threshold" and cuts off everything under, and the NS-2 has Decay and actually "fades out" the sound? Sorry if these seems like a dumb question....I've been using the NS-2 for years and never noticed it suck my tone except for my cleans/slight dirty tones and when the battery is on its way out. Never noticed it effect my lead channel negatively.

 

[ahjteam]

I don't quite understand this....

Is it because a gate is JUST "Threshold" and cuts off everything under, and the NS-2 has Decay and actually "fades out" the sound? Sorry if these seems like a dumb question....I've been using the NS-2 for years and never noticed it suck my tone except for my cleans/slight dirty tones and when the battery is on its way out. Never noticed it effect my lead channel negatively.

Compressor is to limiting what expander is to noise gating. I noticed that the best settings for me using NS2 was that you put the decay time to close to minimum and then adjust the threshold

 

[nishthefish]

Have you checked out the Waves 'X-Noise' plugin?
It's really efficient and effective... well, works well for me..
It creates a 'profile' for the noise, so basically when you're not playing anything, it kind of suppresses the noise.
Check it out!

http://www.waves.com/Content.aspx?id=205

 

[Seth Munson]

Have you checked out the Waves 'X-Noise' plugin?
It's really efficient and effective... well, works well for me..
It creates a 'profile' for the noise, so basically when you're not playing anything, it kind of suppresses the noise.
Check it out!

http://www.waves.com/Content.aspx?id=205

does this shit actually work?
to my ears it makes whatever track its on sound like an mp3

 

[John_C]

this:
http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/rx/

blows my mind, the few times i've worked on a restoration project with my brother, he just runs it through that and it just works man, very little colouration. Leaves me able to put 12dB of 10k high shelf on a 1970s amatuer tape recording copied multiple times through shite equipment on poor tape and still not be able to hear any hiss

 

[Fragle]

dude, you said that your POWERAMP is adding a lot of hiss.
since a hardware noisegate like ns2 decimator and the likes goes in the fx loop, in between the pre and power amp, it will do exactly nothing to get rid of the noise - if it's indeed coming from the power amp.

 

[Mesa4x12er]

If you're getting hiss even while you're playing then something else is wrong. Hiss from pickups, cables etc is a lot lower signal than your guitars signal which is why generally people don't have an issue when using things like decimators etc. If you're getting recorded hiss then I'd think it was something to do with your mic pre or something else wrong with the amp. Do you hear the hiss in the room while playing?

 

[MarkG]

If you're getting hiss even while you're playing then something else is wrong. Hiss from pickups, cables etc is a lot lower signal than your guitars signal which is why generally people don't have an issue when using things like decimators etc. If you're getting recorded hiss then I'd think it was something to do with your mic pre or something else wrong with the amp. Do you hear the hiss in the room while playing?

The hiss in the room stops when I'm playing but its very apparent in the recording. I am indeed beginning to suspect my preamp...time for a new one.

I saw the Izotope and the Waves ones..but they are 350-400 bucks, I was hoping for something freeware. Otherwise I could just get a kickass preamp

 

[ahjteam]

does this shit actually work?
to my ears it makes whatever track its on sound like an mp3

well it does polishing you-know-what, you just have to be really gentle with it. I used it on a movie track we recorded in a bit of a noisy room and used 40% noise reduction.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Compressor is to limiting what expander is to noise gating. I noticed that the best settings for me using NS2 was that you put the decay time to close to minimum and then adjust the threshold

Yep, Decay on minimum, Threshold about 75-90% here. Though I run mine in front of my amp....and I hear people say to run it in the loop....Which I've tried before but didnt seem to achieve any different results. And now, my loop has something wrong with it and wont work....bummer.

 

[TimatWaves]

If you are looking for a free software solution I've heard of some folks recording a track of just the amp noise and flipping the phase. This will cancel out the hum on the guitar track, however I can't say what it will do to your overall tone.

Aside from that you can always back off the preamp gain. Your multitrack distorted guitars will have more tone, definition, and punch in your mix than if you run them all at the gain you would playing live.

I hope this helps.

How many are shocked I didn't push a Waves plugin? Luckily someone else in the thread already has