Recording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Moderator: Capt. Black

User avatar
Vince
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 7449
meble-kuchenne.warszawa.pl
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:31 pm
Location: Upper Hutt The Brave
Has liked: 383 times
Been liked: 186 times
Contact:

Recording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Post by Vince »

Anybody good at removing recording hiss? I've had a go with the noise reduction plug in that comes with Audacity and am getting nowhere.

I'm trying to remove hiss from a demo, it's just a few tracks of acoustic stuff. Can anyone help me? I'd be very happy to pay something or in beers or the like.
Last edited by Vince on Thu Sep 11, 2014 4:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Vince, have you ever tried playing an expensive bass?" - Polarbear.
"And isn't that the finest acoustic bass guitar feedback solo you've ever heard?" - Billy Moose.

My Bandcamp Page
Facebook

aliasceiza

Re: Rocording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Post by aliasceiza »

See if audacity has a parametric eq, one with gain, freq and Q, then try cranking the gain and Q up all the way, and slide the freq around until the hiss gets real nasty...then turn the gain all the way down...it won't take away all the hiss, but it might make it a little more promanent...and if the Q is cranked, it shouldn't mess up the tone of your recording!

Otherwise, you'll have to try a gate, or probably both the gate and the eq!

User avatar
Vince
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 7449
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:31 pm
Location: Upper Hutt The Brave
Has liked: 383 times
Been liked: 186 times
Contact:

Re: Rocording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Post by Vince »

aliasceiza wrote:See if audacity has a parametric eq, one with gain, freq and Q, then try cranking the gain and Q up all the way, and slide the freq around until the hiss gets real nasty...then turn the gain all the way down...it won't take away all the hiss, but it might make it a little more promanent...and if the Q is cranked, it shouldn't mess up the tone of your recording!

Otherwise, you'll have to try a gate, or probably both the gate and the eq!
Yeah, nah, I know that. :) I was wondering if someone was willing to swap that for beers or whatever and save me the trial and error phase, which I'm finding boring and time consuming.
"Vince, have you ever tried playing an expensive bass?" - Polarbear.
"And isn't that the finest acoustic bass guitar feedback solo you've ever heard?" - Billy Moose.

My Bandcamp Page
Facebook

aliasceiza

Re: Rocording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Post by aliasceiza »

Vince wrote:
aliasceiza wrote:See if audacity has a parametric eq, one with gain, freq and Q, then try cranking the gain and Q up all the way, and slide the freq around until the hiss gets real nasty...then turn the gain all the way down...it won't take away all the hiss, but it might make it a little more promanent...and if the Q is cranked, it shouldn't mess up the tone of your recording!

Otherwise, you'll have to try a gate, or probably both the gate and the eq!
Yeah, nah, I know that. :) I was wondering if someone was willing to swap that for beers or whatever and save me the trial and error phase, which I'm finding boring and time consuming.
Oops, I meant less promanent...and that's just lazy!

Do you have a dropbox or some such for sending big files?

Timi
Gibson
Posts: 847
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:15 am
Location: Wellington

Re: Recording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Post by Timi »

For a one off, download the demo of Izotope RX. The denoiser is great and much less destructive than notch eqing. Easy to use too.

User avatar
rickenbackerkid
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 6700
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2005 1:52 pm
Has liked: 206 times
Been liked: 651 times

Re: Recording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Post by rickenbackerkid »

^^^^

This.

User avatar
Vince
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 7449
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:31 pm
Location: Upper Hutt The Brave
Has liked: 383 times
Been liked: 186 times
Contact:

Re: Recording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Post by Vince »

bbrunskill wrote:^^^^

This.
Nah, I'd rather something I can learn or whatever and use on a regular basis not just within ten days.

$1K (or $400) sounds a bit steep for regular use. I'd rather buy better recording gear with that money.

Thanks for the idea, though.
"Vince, have you ever tried playing an expensive bass?" - Polarbear.
"And isn't that the finest acoustic bass guitar feedback solo you've ever heard?" - Billy Moose.

My Bandcamp Page
Facebook

User avatar
crowbgood1
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 2868
Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 4:19 pm
Location: New Plymouth
Has liked: 341 times
Been liked: 240 times

Re: Recording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Post by crowbgood1 »

I just bought a plug in that adds hiss!
A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree.

User avatar
bender
Darth Fader
Posts: 11838
Joined: Fri Feb 02, 2007 12:46 pm
Location: Dorkland
Has liked: 415 times
Been liked: 1010 times

Re: Recording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Post by bender »

Noise reduction is really tricky- hiss is actually quite broadband and therefore difficult to EQ out. You could try applying a high-frequency shelving EQ cutting at about 6kHz. This will have the effect of pushing the noise 'back' but won't remove it altogether.

I could possibly clean it up for you, Vince. I'm slammed until about Tuesday though.

User avatar
Bg
Site Admin
Posts: 43189
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2003 12:13 am
Location: Auckland
Has liked: 2255 times
Been liked: 3873 times

Re: Recording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Post by Bg »

crowbgood1 wrote:I just bought a plug in that adds hiss!
50hz humm too? thats crazy! lol :)
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

User avatar
Vince
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 7449
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:31 pm
Location: Upper Hutt The Brave
Has liked: 383 times
Been liked: 186 times
Contact:

Re: Recording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Post by Vince »

benderissimo wrote:Noise reduction is really tricky- hiss is actually quite broadband and therefore difficult to EQ out. You could try applying a high-frequency shelving EQ cutting at about 6kHz. This will have the effect of pushing the noise 'back' but won't remove it altogether.

I could possibly clean it up for you, Vince. I'm slammed until about Tuesday though.

I vaguely remember you talking about cutting frequencies at 2K but it doesn't seem to make much difference. All that seems to happen is I get hiss at different pitches.

If you want to have a tilt at it, that would be fantastic (I don't mind waiting) as long as you tell me what you did afterward.
"Vince, have you ever tried playing an expensive bass?" - Polarbear.
"And isn't that the finest acoustic bass guitar feedback solo you've ever heard?" - Billy Moose.

My Bandcamp Page
Facebook

User avatar
crowbgood1
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 2868
Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 4:19 pm
Location: New Plymouth
Has liked: 341 times
Been liked: 240 times

Re: Recording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Post by crowbgood1 »

BG wrote:
crowbgood1 wrote:I just bought a plug in that adds hiss!
50hz humm too? thats crazy! lol :)
It will even dither......
A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree.

User avatar
bender
Darth Fader
Posts: 11838
Joined: Fri Feb 02, 2007 12:46 pm
Location: Dorkland
Has liked: 415 times
Been liked: 1010 times

Re: Recording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Post by bender »

Vince wrote:
benderissimo wrote:Noise reduction is really tricky- hiss is actually quite broadband and therefore difficult to EQ out. You could try applying a high-frequency shelving EQ cutting at about 6kHz. This will have the effect of pushing the noise 'back' but won't remove it altogether.

I could possibly clean it up for you, Vince. I'm slammed until about Tuesday though.

I vaguely remember you talking about cutting frequencies at 2K but it doesn't seem to make much difference. All that seems to happen is I get hiss at different pitches.
That's what I mean by hiss being broadband- it covers a wide frequency band. If you cut a specific frequency, it still leaves all the others. A shelving EQ will effectively lower everything above a certain frequency point and a Low Pass Filter (LPF) will cut everything above that frequency (ie filtering it out). The best way to use either is to sweep the frequency until you find the right balance between reducing the hiss and affecting the instrument you've recorded.
Vince wrote:If you want to have a tilt at it, that would be fantastic (I don't mind waiting) as long as you tell me what you did afterward.
If I have a go, it'll likely be using izotope RX.

FWIW, standard NR procedure is: select a bit of the recording where you're not playing (ie where all you can hear is the hiss you want to remove), use the 'learn', 'train' or 'profile' function in the NR plug-in (this allows the plug-in to distinguish what is noise and what is not), then select the entire recording and tweak the amount of reduction so that it sounds as natural as possible.

User avatar
willow13
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 14558
Joined: Sun Dec 19, 2004 2:36 pm
Location: If less is more then just think how much more more is
Has liked: 372 times
Been liked: 634 times

Re: Recording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Post by willow13 »

what caused the hiss in the first place?? is it an old tape or something
If Less is More Then Just Think How Much More More would be

User avatar
Vince
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 7449
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:31 pm
Location: Upper Hutt The Brave
Has liked: 383 times
Been liked: 186 times
Contact:

Re: Recording Hiss Removal? Can anyone help?

Post by Vince »

willow13 wrote:what caused the hiss in the first place?? is it an old tape or something
Nope, I was just recording through the laptop (it's acoustic music so I'd rather not plug directly into it).

I've tried using a mike but the adapter wasn't fitting correctly. But even when I've used a mike and a pre amp and so on, I still get a lot of hiss.
"Vince, have you ever tried playing an expensive bass?" - Polarbear.
"And isn't that the finest acoustic bass guitar feedback solo you've ever heard?" - Billy Moose.

My Bandcamp Page
Facebook

Post Reply