Squeaks and (Almost) No Squeaks

[sdelsolray]

I've been learning how to remove squeaks from my recordings using Izotope RX8. Here's a song with a lot of squeaks (about 35) mostly due to the required sliding on the bass strings (glissandos).

There are three versions:

1) Original recording raw with squeaks.
2) Original recording raw with squeaks mostly removed with RX8.
3) Song full mixed (eq, reverb, limiting, etc.) up to -14 LUFS.

Raw with Squeaks

Raw with Squeaks Removed

Song Mixed

Edit Note: I replaced the Mixed Song with a newer mix.

[j3ffr0]

Nice song and nice result! Thanks for sharing.

I only have RX Elements. Not sure if I could do squeaks with it, but I do use it here and there for hiss and background noise.

[UKPhil]

Excellent results there!

[rick-slo]

Worked well. I would think that is the first or almost first plugin you would use post recording.

Squeaky clean plugin interface for this process.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by sdelsolray

I've been learning how to remove squeaks from my recordings using Izotope RX8. Here's a song with a lot of squeaks (about 35) mostly due to the required sliding on the bass strings (glissandos).

There are three versions:

1) Original recording raw with squeaks.
2) Original recording raw with squeaks mostly removed with RX8.
3) Song full mixed (eq, reverb, limiting, etc.) up to -14 LUFS.

Raw with Squeaks

Raw with Squeaks Removed

Song Mixed

That's pretty cool and the differences are very instructive! I have RX8 but I don't use it very much except for removing plosives during singing. I'm sure I could make better use of RX8!

- Glenn

[sdelsolray]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Worked well. I would think that is the first or almost first plugin you would use post recording.

Squeaky clean plugin interface for this process.

The new guitar squeak plugin you reference in RX8 works well...except when it doesn't, which is quite often. It has a hard time distinguishing squeaks from certain musical content and attenuates both. I use the spectral repair plugin, which the user gets to select what parts of the audio is to be affected before the attenuation occurs. It takes longer to do it this way, but the results are much better.

It is the second thing I do to a recording. The first is to do any punch-ins or other edits to clean up clams, mistakes, etc.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by sdelsolray

The new guitar squeak plugin you reference in RX8 works well...except when it doesn't, which is quite often. It has a hard time distinguishing squeaks from certain musical content and attenuates both. I use the spectral repair plugin, which the user gets to select what parts of the audio is to be affected before the attenuation occurs. It takes longer to do it this way, but the results are much better.

It is the second thing I do to a recording. The first is to do any punch-ins or other edits to clean up clams, mistakes, etc.

That make more sense. Thought perhaps RX8 had some real magic if it was as simple as shown in the video.

[RodB]

Originally Posted by sdelsolray

The new guitar squeak plugin you reference in RX8 works well...except when it doesn't, which is quite often. It has a hard time distinguishing squeaks from certain musical content and attenuates both. I use the spectral repair plugin, which the user gets to select what parts of the audio is to be affected before the attenuation occurs. It takes longer to do it this way, but the results are much better.

It is the second thing I do to a recording. The first is to do any punch-ins or other edits to clean up clams, mistakes, etc.

My experience as well. Worth the effort to have the control to target the exact point and frequencies involved at each occasion. I consider some squeaks a part of guitar playing, but a good recording / performance can be ruined by one or two that are otherwise very obtrusive.

I updated from RX7 when I read that RX8 had this more automated capability but still do it as I did before.

Like you I work on the squeak(s) early on, at least before adding any reverb.

[Doug Young]

I find the automated plugin works in many cases, tho I mostly remove ones that are annoying manually. One place the plugin can be useful is on the reverb buss. Placed before the reverb, it can at least keep those squeaks from being accentuated by the reverb. I usually put a de-clicker in that path, too. if it damages the audio a bit, it's not going to be audible, since it's just the reverb feed that's going to get all washed out and mixed in at a low level anyway.

[keith.rogers]

My first couple of tries at using the RX 8 string-squeak removal weren't really successful at all. But, I haven't been playing much guitar lately, and not recording any at all, but I didn't have as much luck using it as the video shows. The OP's recording is a good use case though - I'll have to tinker with it again when I get around to having to deal with this problem in the future. (n.b. I did not use the plugin, but the RX standalone.)

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by sdelsolray

The new guitar squeak plugin you reference in RX8 works well...except when it doesn't, which is quite often. It has a hard time distinguishing squeaks from certain musical content and attenuates both. I use the spectral repair plugin, which the user gets to select what parts of the audio is to be affected before the attenuation occurs. It takes longer to do it this way, but the results are much better.

It is the second thing I do to a recording. The first is to do any punch-ins or other edits to clean up clams, mistakes, etc.

Me too could be a result of starting with RX4 when spectral repair was the method for squeaks
I have 8 now but still use SP

[TBman]

I'm still using spectral repair also in Rx 8 to remove squeaks. I had trouble with the new feature (didn't work). I'll have to review what I'm doing with it.

[SprintBob]

Has anyone found that Rx8 can be used to remove or minimize breathing noise and/or (for lack of a better term) minor grunts?

[TBman]

Originally Posted by SprintBob

Has anyone found that Rx8 can be used to remove or minimize breathing noise and/or (for lack of a better term) minor grunts?

I use spectral repair for all noise I don’t want and after I'm done editing I'll do a level A or B overall noise removal.

There's a breath control tool that's supposed to get rid of unwanted breaths, but I tried a bit to get it to work without success