Opinions on room noise

[Doug Young]

Another approach to noise is just to use a good noise reduction tool. RX can do an amazing job of removing large amounts of noise with no audible damage, as long as you can give it a good noise sample. Not cheap, tho.

[anton]

Is that the one by iZotope? Looks like its $300, not as bad as I thought.

Maybe what I should do is record a good basic track, then pay Cass to mix/master it and see what final result sounds like, before i start thinking about a whole new computer setup for recording.


Anton

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by anton

Is that the one by iZotope? Looks like its $300, not as bad as I thought.

Maybe what I should do is record a good basic track, then pay Cass to mix/master it and see what final result sounds like, before i start thinking about a whole new computer setup for recording.


Anton

Right. The Advanced version has more features, (and costs more...). I forget whether there's a substantial difference in the noise handling. I wouldn't make RX my main strategy for dealing with noise - better to get the environment under control. But it's a really useful tool, and well worth having. Besides broadband noise, you can deal with anything from string squeeks to chair noise. I have a little demo where I removed my cat meowing from a track :-)

I'd spend some time trying to figure out how to get the noise a little lower, but then, for sure, get a good performance and see what Cass thinks. He can deal with some noise for you

[KenW]

I have a usb extension cable and use Touch OSC app on my iPod Touch as a remote control to get the laptop in another room and away from the mics. It comes in real handy when I am doing multiple takes of the same piece and need to keep my sitting position exactly the same across those takes. I still get some noise, Reafir does a pretty nice job of minimizing it. I'm also looking at schwa; I've figured out how to get breaths and clanking cat doors out with it, but I have not been able to get finger squeaks out without carving out guitar sound. If it takes a more powerful tool like Izotope to deal with those, I'm inclined to pay someone else who knows their way around Izotope to do it.

[always guitar]

I just slapped together some really cheap gobos and they helped me with a lot of high frequency noise. Bass frequencies are another story altogether, although the gobos lowered the "hum" in my room from C# on the low E string (about 140Hz) down to Bb-B (about 120Hz.)

[adventureboy]

I've had the same kind of issues but I'm happy to fade down and out rather than a longer tail with background noise. I listen to lots of Bert Jansch and older Pentangle stuff a lot of that stuff just fades down quickly. I think the average listener isn't so hung up with fade outs.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by adventureboy

I've had the same kind of issues but I'm happy to fade down and out rather than a longer tail with background noise. I listen to lots of Bert Jansch and older Pentangle stuff a lot of that stuff just fades down quickly. I think the average listener isn't so hung up with fade outs.

Yep, pretty much what I do most times. Also trim the beginning of the piece right up to the first note.

[anton]

With the fades in and out the room noise is not that objectionable to my ear. I am going to try and eliminate the computer noise a bit more but if it doesnt work i might just go that route.