Taming unwanted guitar noise

K-vegas · #1 04-11-2011, 08:02 AM

I was recording with my taylor 514 this weekend using X/Y setup with 2 SDC's. The resulting tracks sound fine musically. Very natural and detailed. I think I'm hooked on the X/Y mic results. But maybe too detailed.

I am also getting a bit of unwanted noise. From the bridge angled mic i am picking up noise from arm to guitar body contact, and maybe some noise were guitar shifts slightly resting on leg. From the neck angled mic I am hearing my thumb shifting on back of neck as I change into some chord positions.

I don't mind some of this but was wondering if anyone has dealt with this before and what you might suggest to help create 'cleaner' sounding acoustic guitar recordings?

This is for vocal/guitar only material.

Thx. Mark

Joseph Hanna · #2 04-11-2011, 08:23 AM

Learning how to sit silently, no fidgeting, sitting absolutely still, no toe taps, controlled breathing are all part of what good studio guitarists do.

I remember bringing a friend to a session back when I was working in Nashville. The guitarist on call was B. James Lowry. He walked in and as he was heading to the booth grabbed a chart, sat down and cut the song in one take, In and out in 20 minutes. My friend who was NOT a country fan but did play a little guitar was flabbergasted that B. James could make that kind of money playing what my friend described as "easy cowboy chords". I set my friend up with a house Martin and sent him into the booth to play some "easy cowboy chords". Obviously he couldn't do it.

The point is recording guitar is simply a skill.

runamuck · #3 04-11-2011, 08:25 AM

Try getting a bit further from the mics.

moon · #4 04-11-2011, 08:55 AM

If I'm wearing a T shirt I often get a "sscchhhlick" of bare skin peeling off the guitar when I move my strumming arm to a new position. A long-sleeved, close-fitting shirt with a soft fabric should deal with that.

Not sure what you could do about left-hand noise. Maybe check the EQ balance. Too much top-end tends to emphasise these sorts of problems. A different mic might help. What were you using?

KevWind · #5 04-12-2011, 07:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna

Learning how to sit silently, no fidgeting, sitting absolutely still, no toe taps, controlled breathing are all part of what good studio guitarists do.

I remember bringing a friend to a session back when I was working in Nashville. The guitarist on call was B. James Lowry. He walked in and as he was heading to the booth grabbed a chart, sat down and cut the song in one take, In and out in 20 minutes. My friend who was NOT a country fan but did play a little guitar was flabbergasted that B. James could make that kind of money playing what my friend described as "easy cowboy chords". I set my friend up with a house Martin and sent him into the booth to play some "easy cowboy chords". Obviously he couldn't do it.

The point is recording guitar is simply a skill.

Boy oh boy is this an understatement . I have only had one recording experience in Nashville. But what an eye opener.
I had the opportunity to record four demos in Music City a few years back.

And I guess for lack of better words I'll just say it was simply "Amazing"
The studio owner suggested I hire a session guitar player along with the session keyboard guy and drummer I was hiring. At first I was a bit put off ( having played gtr for over 40 yrs ) so he had me play one of my songs recorded it and then played it back and said " Ya know you really don't want all this extraneous noise on the demos."
Well he was right.
Suffice to say...He (the owner) wrote the charts about 10 minutes before the session .
We had the session cats come in ... a drummer, keyboard player and guitar player and He the owner acted as producer, engineered the session and played bass all the same time.
We did a live type session i.e. drums, keyboards, bass, acoustic gtr and I sang scratch vocals all at the same time.
In 2 hours we produced 4 complete rhythm sessions . I came in the next day and overdubbed the final vocals .
I was blown away at the level of expertise of these session guys.

Here are a couple of photos -- First one is the owner Dave Martin the second one is Mark Hornsby

rhancox · #6 04-12-2011, 09:09 AM

These stories remind of a time, back in the late 70's, a friend of mine was an intern at a local AM radio station. He brought me in to watch him put together a commercial with some background music and his voice-over. It took him at least an hour to do a 30-second spot.

When my friend was done, one of the DJ's came in to put one together. Same style of commercial. He was loading and unloading different reels of tape to find pieces of music he wanted. He'd cut out a piece of tape, splice it in to his master. He'd do it over and over. Within about 20 mins, he had it all done and it sounded like it was one continuously recorded piece. It was an amazing thing to watch.

rick-slo · #7 04-12-2011, 09:37 AM

Did not hear any out of line noises on the recordings on your website. If you have a different recording you are talking about you might post that.

K-vegas · #8 04-12-2011, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna

Learning how to sit silently, no fidgeting, sitting absolutely still, no toe taps, controlled breathing are all part of what good studio guitarists do....The point is recording guitar is simply a skill.

Some good points. Thx. I'm not ever gonna be a great player but maybe I can learn to be a 'quiet' one while recording

K-vegas · #9 04-12-2011, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Did not hear any out of line noises on the recordings on your website. If you have a different recording you are talking about you might post that.

No.. it's on some new stuff I'm working on now. I do have new monitors and maybe I'm just now able to hear some of this on solo'd tracks. I'll post that when done. Thx for checking tho. Mark

K-vegas · #10 04-12-2011, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevWind

...then played it back and said " Ya know you really don't want all this extraneous noise on the demos."

Um..no.

Hey nice studio pix. Sounds like it was a pretty cool experience.

K-vegas · #11 04-12-2011, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moon

...I often get a "sscchhhlick" of bare skin peeling off the guitar when I move my strumming arm to a new position. A long-sleeved, close-fitting shirt with a soft fabric should deal with that.

Good idea. I'm familiar with that. Thx.

I spec'd out some of the offending background noise I was getting and it was mainly lo and mid spectrum. I assumed any EQ there would end up mucking up the sound of guitar.

My plan is to redo while trying to be quieter myself and to move the mic set back a bit.

practice, record, listen, repeat... Mark