Minimizing string noise/fret noise

johnfromberkeley

I have to work with a recording that has some serious string noise. The best approach would be to re-record, but unfortunately that is just not possible. What are your go to apps and procedures for minimizing fret noise?

jimhanks

It's often quite isolated in the frequency spectrum such that a simple EQ with a sharp notch out or two can help a lot. Along the same lines, if you can isolate it, a multiband compressor can be used to reduce the intensity of it.

I've also used a "de-click" plugin on the PC for pick noise reduction that might help with string noise.

Finally, there's always volume automation to drop the level. Very tedious but can be done.

JanKun

Depending on how frequent and loud the noise is, dynamic EQ or multiband compressor would be my choice. I heard some people using De-esser for that, but I don't think it is the most surgical approach. Those noises are part of a guitar sound but if they're too present they can be terribly annoying! But if you focus too much on those you might overdo things and lose too much of the original signal and end up with a lifeless guitar track. Very tricky.
I know it is not an option for you, but when I had those problems after spending hours tweaking FabFilter Plugins without success, I eventually retracked after resetting the guitar action / using coated strings.

michael_m

Definitely agree with notch filters here. Sweep the full frequency range to find the troublesome bands and pull them out.

shinyisshiny

if you have soothe2 on desktop, it can help. Or Izotope RX suite, which is some sort of witch craft in how well it works. Im not sure about iOS unfortunately. Is Baby Audio's plugin Smooth operator on iOS? its similar to Soothe2

Johne1

@jimhanks said:
It's often quite isolated in the frequency spectrum such that a simple EQ with a sharp notch out or two can help a lot. Along the same lines, if you can isolate it, a multiband compressor can be used to reduce the intensity of it.

I've also used a "de-click" plugin on the PC for pick noise reduction that might help with string noise.

Finally, there's always volume automation to drop the level. Very tedious but can be done.

What “de-click” plugin do you use for reducing pick noise?

pedro

There’s no way to reduce string noise while preserving the string sound entirely. You can try scanning the sound with a notch filter with high Q to find the offending frequencies, and surgically notching those frequencies way down, and you can also try a noise gate, but all those approaches will inevitably steal a lot of the guitar sound as well.
It depends what sound you’re after, and how much this guitar stands in the mix.
If you want it to feature the only real answer is to re-record but you said that wasn’t an option 🤷‍♂️

jimhanks

@Johne1 said:
What “de-click” plugin do you use for reducing pick noise?

This one, like @shinyisshiny mentioned: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/rx/features/de-click.html

It's in the cheapest "Elements" bundle. I also love the De-noise plug-in here on the PC, which works like Brusfri on iOS. I don't know of an iOS equivalent for De-click

Johne1

Okay, thanks!

wim

I don't know how well it would work for this, but AnyTune Pro+ has a nice visual way to isolate and remove particular frequencies where they occur in the stereo field. Basically you're looking at a spectrograph and once you've identified where a sound is occurring, you can remove just the range you're interested by drawing a box around it. The advantage is limiting the "damage" done by the notching EQ by limiting as much as possible to the position in the stereo field.

I don't know if this is a mono or stereo recording though, so maybe that's no help.