Miked Guitar Amp Hiss

[eaglei studio]

So i miced an amp with a SM57...the guitar sounds really good but when the guitar is playing slowly or isnt strumming the mic picked up a constant noise from the amp. I have the Digi 002R with stock plugins...are there any plugins i would have that would get rid of that noise?

[crna59]

If you have DINR, you can take a noise print and play with the threshold. Otherwise you can use the EQ III and use a notch filter if it's a 60hz hum.
Good luck.

Regards,

[robot gigante]

Nothing wrong with a little amp noise...

[eaglei studio]

haha nothin wrong for me...but the clients may be pissed...lol i will def. mess with some DINR and EQIII thanks for the ideas

[error]

just edit the waveform and cut the empty space.

[bob katz]

This is in the mastering forum, so I guess I'll give responses from the point of view of mastering:

1) As someone just said, "there's nothing wrong with a little hiss". The next thing is that the ear itself is the best noise-reduction mechanism there is. Listen to the mix without any processing or noise-reduction and see if the hiss from the guitar is obtrusive or bothersome. If it is, then we'll have to do something about it.

2) If it's not that noticeable, it can become a problem on the album BETWEEN songs, because you notice hiss most when it goes away! So include a sample of the hiss that the mastering engineer can include to run at low level between the tracks. Suddenly it no longer draws attention to itself by coming in and out.

3) If you have decided that you should do something about it, you can send the raw guitar track via FTP (for example) to a mastering studio that's equipped with a better noise reduction system, one that's more transparent. But it's real hard to judge listening to a solo track out of context. We would not necessarily know how much hiss or noise to reduce, and you have to be conservative, because in context you won't notice the hiss from the guitar as much when it's mixed with other instruments.

4) If you do not have superior noise reduction, I DO NOT RECOMMEND DINR. For an isolated track like a guitar it MIGHT be ok, but usually I find that inferior noise reduction systems take more away than they fix. I would recommend that you send stems to the mastering studio. Two tracks of "everything else", and two tracks of guitar, mixed at the level and with the effects it's going to have in the mixdown. The mastering engineer would then apply superior noise reduction to the guitar track alone, in the context of the whole album, just enough, and not to the entire mixdown, which is ideal. A "win-win" situation (just about). Also, be sure to include a 5 to 10 second sample of the guitar hiss at the level of the guitar, not with more or less gain than you applied to the guitar during the mixdown. The easiest way to do that is to run the song for 5-10 seconds before the downbeat, don't cut it. And the mastering studio will use the noise as a fingerprint for the noise-reduction system.

Hope this helps!

[tmcconnell]

Virtually all guitar amp speakers roll off at 12db/oct between 4 and 5k - so you can get rid of a lot of hiss with a high shelf. After that, there are certain software de-hissers that work very well. I use the one in Samplitude and if you dial it in right it does not hurt the signal. Most guitar players use too much high end anyway (imo) because their amp is down by their knees and they just don't know its there.

For severe cases noise modelers can be used if you know how to dial them in but the artifacts can be nasty even on the good ones. I always take room tone and amp hiss by itself before the start of a track (moment of silence) so I know I will have all the sonic material to feed to a noise model if I need it.

As for leaving hiss alone - I'm not in this camp myself, but I certainly understand that if it sounds ok in context then why not leave it alone. I just think that in the end a lot of hiss adds up in a mix and detracts from the overall impact - so I take it out - or better yet keep it out in the first place. You pay big bucks for gear with low noise floor - and there's a reason for that - which is, noise detracts from a performance. ted