Is there a technique to remove click bleed from piano tracks?

[mikethedrummer]

That's actually a huge mess and I've noticed similar things when recording acoustic guitars. Parallel compression is NOT your friend..
Unfortunately phase cancellation will not help you here because of the way the click was recorded in the mic, unless of course you want to try sitting on the piano bench in the same spot with the same click but even then I feel like it wouldn't help.
Is it absolutely terrible? Or will vocals,drums, bass, guitar, override the click once its in the mix? I usually notice drums playing on a click will be wayyy louder than any click track caught by headphones.

[Igotsoul4u]

the solution is to use a different click when tracking. I like using the mpc style click. It doesn't leak like the beepy sounding ones do. Unfortunately once its in, thats that.

[nadumr]

agreed about choosing the right click sound. I also bus mine to an aux that has it's own output and automate the output volume to quieter in the quiet parts and completely mute at the end of a song if the chord is ringing out

[joeq]

The good news is that Next Time you won't let it get on there

I automate the click levels way down in any section where click bleed might be exposed,. back up again where there is loud playing, out completely on the last note of the song, etc .

I wonder how many tambourine and shaker parts on recordings owe their existence to click bleed?

[tapehiss]

I also use the MPC click which doesn't have a lot of hi-end, but I also just got a pair of sound devices ex-29 headphones that completely eliminate all bleed!!!!!! no matter how loud the click.

earbuds also work, but I like the ex-29's better.

[soundinista]

I had a similar problem on some string section parts - I think the violins and violas were slipping one can off while tracking. I ended up using one band of a multiband compressor, basically set like a de-esser. In solo I could clearly hear the long notes ducking, but since this was happening in time on the quarter notes, in the mix it wasn't too noticeable, and not too disturbing, even when you could pick it out.

Combining this with a dip at the frequencies where the bleed was strongest, having the part no louder than it strictly needed to be, and a bit of automation, made it noticeable to no-one but me.

Also, since you can't make the problem completely disappear, you could focus on masking it - find the frequencies where the click bleed is strongest, and see if you can boost those frequencies on another instrument in the mix - hi hats would be good, since they would tend to be playing whenever the click is, or anything else quite constant and rhythmic.

Relying on any one solution is probably going to sound too heavy-handed, so I think a combination of approaches, none of them partcularly extreme, would be best.

[petermichael]

earbuds i agree, i think normal headphones have to cost 4-5 times more to sound as good as or better than.

but i also got tired of clicks/beeps and made a metronome track with just 3 closed hat, and one open hat which ends on 1/1, since i was always doing something on 1/1.

i also have had success with a metronome light, although it takes some getting used to, and must be bright enough that you don't have to stare at it whilst playing.

but this is all hindsight - 20/20 advice. if it's a true click - perhaps one of the waves - noise reduction products, like x click, could be applied to the less dynamic portions of the recording(the ones you may hear once the mix is complete). if not a true click, but rather a beep...

[henge]

There is a FIR baser EQ called ReaFir which can analyze noise and deduct it from the signal. Not pristine, but if it's not a solo track you'd probably be ok.All you have to have is an isolated click and ReaFir will remove it from your track. It comes bunbled with the free ReaPlugs bundle which has excellent generic plugs.

REAPER | ReaPlugs

[beau_mckee]

Thanks for these tips. Unfortunately the piano is in a part with just vocs and piano,and is only really apparent after I apply compression and you can hear the click mostly after the paino chord starts to ring out. I will try frequency pulling or I might try to use the sonalksis multiband CQ1. Maybe this will get something more usable happen. I definitely won't let this happen again!

[MikeFFG]

Originally Posted by nadumr

agreed about choosing the right click sound. I also bus mine to an aux that has it's own output and automate the output volume to quieter in the quiet parts and completely mute at the end of a song if the chord is ringing out

This is a great idea I never thought of!! Wow it seems so obvious now...

[jonathan jetter]

absolutely duck the click for quiet sections and super-absolutely mute it on the last chord.

if the string players have one ear off, pan the click hard to the ear they have on.

pick the click sound that will bleed least (MPC-style as previously mentioned)

pick headphones that don't leak out.

i've had some success editing click bleed out by cutting it + using elastic audio to elongate the previous bit of sound. it's never perfect but way better than leaving the click bleed in.

jon

[Waltz Mastering]

Originally Posted by beau_mckee

I just finished tracking some piano parts fom an up right. But unfortunately there was a slight amount of bleed from the headphones onto the tracks. Is there a way to remove the click using a phase flip of the click over the top of the tracked piano?

You could try a spectral noise remover like Retouch, DNA, or Rx

CEDAR Audio Retouch
celemony_ :: Direct Note Access
iZotope RX - Complete Audio Restoration: Declipping, Declicker, Hum Removal, Denoiser, Spectral Repair, Restore, Remaster, Download

[mixmixmix]

Not every mistake of recording engineer should be corrected. If the timing of the pianist is ok, leave the click there - could be nice effect.
95% of listeners will think it's intentional, and will pay more attention to vocal/piano anyway.

[karp47]

bummer, I would think it would be pretty hard to get rid of it without affecting the piano sound, hopefully its not too noticeable.

[Svein]

I have used the spectral noise remover in Izotope RX with good results.

[KRStudio]

Record the click to it's own track. time align it to the piano track as closely as possible. Now use a phase adjustment tool and volume adjust to cancel the click. It takes a little experimenting but will not touch the piano, only the click.
Have fun!

[soundinista]

Wait a minute - that sounds like a nice, easy fix, but wouldn't you have to record the click bleeding in the same way you recorded it accidentally the first time? Since it's not "the click", but rather, the click as heard leaking through headphones attached to someone's head while they sit at the piano which has a particular mic/mics on it? That would sound very different, and be a considerably greater pain in the arse, unless you still have everything set up as it was.

On a positive note though, if it doesn't work you can release it as a tribute to John Cage.

[OceanMan]

bummer...you could try sweeping through the track with a notch filter and experimenting with that

good luck, i really love your band man

[infiniteloop]

Imagine if there is a panel, a modified version of SE Reflexion Filter, separating pianist and where the mic is.... then there will not be this kind of problem (?) while still capturing the ambience if necessary.

[John Eppstein]

Originally Posted by beau_mckee

I just finished tracking some piano parts fom an up right. But unfortunately there was a slight amount of bleed from the headphones onto the tracks. Is there a way to remove the click using a phase flip of the click over the top of the tracked piano?

After the fact? Probably not. You could try an audio restoration program but it's gonna affect the sound.

Is it a solo piano recording? No, or there wouldn't be a click, right?

So listen to the piano IN THE CONTEXT OF THE MIX. If the click isn't noticeable in context don't worry about it. This is likely a case where soloing a track gives you a misleading picture of what you've actually got. ALWAYS LISTEN IN CONTEXT when making decisions of this sort - this also includes decisions about EQ, btw.

The actual solution to the problem of course is to turn down the #$#% click in the phones when recording acoustic piano......

[John Eppstein]

Originally Posted by beau_mckee

Thanks for these tips. Unfortunately the piano is in a part with just vocs and piano,and is only really apparent after I apply compression and you can hear the click mostly after the paino chord starts to ring out. I will try frequency pulling or I might try to use the sonalksis multiband CQ1. Maybe this will get something more usable happen. I definitely won't let this happen again!

Maybe you shouldn't use so much compression. Just a thought.....

And if it's a part of the song where there's only vocal and piano why were you using a click in the first place? It should have been muted for that section.

[psycho_monkey]

Originally Posted by beau_mckee

Thanks for these tips. Unfortunately the piano is in a part with just vocs and piano,and is only really apparent after I apply compression and you can hear the click mostly after the paino chord starts to ring out. I will try frequency pulling or I might try to use the sonalksis multiband CQ1. Maybe this will get something more usable happen. I definitely won't let this happen again!

It's tedious, but if you want to spend the time you can loop small sections of the portion of the note preceding the click, and effectively "paper over" the click. Depends on the click sound, decay of the piano and how many there are as to how effective it is or whether it does more harm than good.

[MarkRB]

Originally Posted by infiniteloop

Imagine if there is a panel, a modified version of SE Reflexion Filter, separating pianist and where the mic is.... then there will not be this kind of problem (?) while still capturing the ambience if necessary.

New "Turn The Click Down Dickhead" Piano Helmets available soon.

[sysexguy]

anyone have success with the Peterson Bodybeat type metronome?

Andy

[exgato]

I've removed headphone click bleed from a solo acoustic guitar intro successfully with Sonic Solutions NoNoise using the General setting with no artifacting. Zoom way in and highlight only the click waveform bump. Voila.

[24-96 Mastering]

As Tom W. suggested, (manual) spectral editing will fix that. It'll take a bit of time though, a bit of practice / experience and the software to do it with (Izotope RX, Wavelab 6, Cedar ReTouch, Adobe Auditon).

[Fletcher]

I guess nobody has figured out that this either is a "re-cut" piece... OR... its not going to be just "piano & voice" anymore. On the "re-cut" bright side, you can have them "re-cut" to the current piano track as it already has a bit of "guide click" which probably won't leak through too egregiously the second time around... or I reckon you could have lightened up on the compression... but that's so last-century.

Peace.

[narcoman]

Originally Posted by 24-96 Mastering

As Tom W. suggested, (manual) spectral editing will fix that. It'll take a bit of time though, a bit of practice / experience and the software to do it with (Izotope RX, Wavelab 6, Cedar ReTouch, Adobe Auditon).

that'll work. did it on a certain delicate movie soundtrack last year when some knob left the cans live on the floor during tracking - yet had cunningly muted the two mic's that were picking it up. Duh!!

[Oli_W]

If there isn't too much room reverb on the click, try editing it out?

Zoom in, and copy and paste an adjacent group of cycles of the waveform over the click (make sure to align the zero-crossings and perhaps apply short corssfades). Could be tedious if the piano and vocal session is more than a minute long...