Most Amps have speaker sounds without input.

[choctaw]

I have several amps and each of them when turned on.........without anything plugged into them have some sound that I can hear if I put my ear up to the speakers........MY thinking is if my ear can hear this unwanted humming sound then a microphone will pick it up when I am recording. What is done to remove unwanted speaker humming using software? I know that when an instrument is played it covers up the sound, but it is still there as a part of my recordings. Any comments

Choctaw

 

[scorpio01169]

compression and gates,

I have several amps and each of them when turned on.........without anything plugged into them

why would you wanna mic up a cabinet with nothing hooked into it

 

[choctaw]

compression and gates,
why would you wanna mic up a cabinet with nothing hooked into it

Reply.......I am saying that when I listen to the speakers of an amp that has nothing connected to it.........I can hear sound from the speaker, so I would go on to say that when I hook up a guitar and play it, and record it. I am also recording the sounds (humming) that I heard from the speaker when the amp is just turned on with NO input signel. When you wrote compression & gates are you saying that will remove or limit unwanted speaker humming? I realize that if I play and record tracks the sound of instruments will cover everything up.......and I could cut out the inbetween parts and make it sound acceptable......but I just want to know what others think about amps and the sounds they have for just being turned on, with nothing playing thru them.

Choctaw

 

[Fireal402]

pretty much all amplifiers generate some sort of hissing sound with nothing plugged in. It may seem loud, but if you have a guitar plugged in, you won't notice it when you play (as you said). It's just the nature of amps, since when an amp is on it's pushing out air even without a guitar plugged in. I usually just cut out the gaps where I'm not playing, and that solves most problems with that.

Also, if you have the gain cranked up the hiss will be louder, so try to keep the gain as low as the situation permits. Busted amps hiss a lot more, so if your amp is out of control that could be an issue.

 

[Ironklad Audio]

noise gates, dude...set the threshold just high enough to cut out whatever "ambient" noise the amp is making, and then only the sound of your playing will come through

 

[amra]

noise gates, dude...set the threshold just high enough to cut out whatever "ambient" noise the amp is making, and then only the sound of your playing will come through

Better yet, just record it that way, and noise gate the track after the fact.

Once you record something gated you can't get it back, if for instance some notes get cut off, etc.

But anyway, to answer the original question, all amps make noise. It is just a fact of life. You just got to tweak it so you get as little noise as you can without sacrificing much of your sound.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I think it's important to note here that gating will only help with the noisefloor of the amp when the guitar is silent. As soon as the guitar pushes the signal level above the gate threshold, the gate opens and the signal will carry the noise right with it. The noise will still be there.

Choctaw, that noise is part of the sound and character of the amp; it's actually part of what gives it it's characteristic sound, believe it or not. When the guitar is playing, the noise will be there and will be part of the desireable "amp sound" that you hear.

As has been mentioned a few times here, you can get rid of the unwanted noise during pauses in the guitar playing by gating, either during tracking or mixing. The plus side to gating is it's easy. The downside is that with some gates (depending upon the quality of the gate), the higher the noise level - and therefore the higher the gate's threshold setting - the more "obvious-sounding" the transition getween the open and closed gate can be.

An alternative way to deal with it that's a bit more labor-intensive but can be much more natural sounding than using a gate is available if you're mixing in software or on a mixing board with automation control, and that is to use volume level automation on the guitar track(s), allowing you to set the attack and decay of the volume envelope on either side of the individual guitar parts more gently and unobtrusive-sounding than can be had with some gates. It also provies the additional benefit of giving you complete automation control over the levels of the entire guitar signal, and not just the slope transitions between signal and silence.

G.

 

[scorpio01169]

An alternative way to deal with it that's a bit more labor-intensive but can be much more natural sounding than using a gate is available if you're mixing in software or on a mixing board with automation control, and that is to use volume level automation on the guitar track(s), allowing you to set the attack and decay of the volume envelope on either side of the individual guitar parts more gently and unobtrusive-sounding than can be had with some gates. It also provies the additional benefit of giving you complete automation control over the levels of the entire guitar signal, and not just the slope transitions between signal and silence.

G.

not practical though...if you take the time and set your gate at the proper threshold then you minimize the need to basically what we call mute automation......you have to remember the idea behind recording is not to get the job done quickly without learning and using the tools. but to take your time using the tools to get the job done. yes you still want to automate your fades and mutes for a smooth mixdown but use learn how to use tools to help you get closer to the better mix.

 

[Keiffer]

compression...

no, compression raises the noise floor.

not knowing how loud the background noise is, unless it's really loud the S/N ratio should be high enough to mask it along with every thing else in the recording. there may be instances though that this is problematic.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

not practical though...if you take the time and set your gate at the proper threshold then you minimize the need to basically what we call mute automation......you have to remember the idea behind recording is not to get the job done quickly without learning and using the tools. but to take your time using the tools to get the job done. yes you still want to automate your fades and mutes for a smooth mixdown but use learn how to use tools to help you get closer to the better mix.

You're absolutely right, it's not about speed, it's about quality. You'll notice, in fact, I said that gating is in fact faster than automation; assuming the noise level stays relatively constant, one just needs to set the threshold once and that's it.

It's not that I don't know how to use gates, I've been using them for a couple of decades now. I guess it at least partially comes down to different styles. I use levels automation extensively in my mixing style in general, including for this task (which I, being one of the "we" of engineers, also refer to as mute automation ), and almost never use gates on guitars except for special processing effects. It'm not saying that's a better or worse way, just that it's an alternative; and for my mixing style it's an alternative that flows naturally; since I use automation in my mixing extensively already anyway, it's a no-brainer for me to grab a handle on the rubber band and slide it to the slope I want (more on that in a minute.) Now for the guy who just compresses every track and then stacks the compressed tracks like layers in a lasagna, and for whom automation is used only for arrangement fades, gating may procedurely be the more organic route.

But even if you take workflow out of the equation, I often just plain prefer the flexibility and sound I can get out of automation versus gating. The ability to, if I chose, start the down slope before (or even sometimes after) the noise threshold is hit and to graphically set the slopes however I want is - for me - much more powerful and flexibile than setting a static threshold and envelope on a gate. It's like having a seperate gate on every riff, without the resource usage.

But it's of course, not for all tracks and instruments. A snare drum track would be pretty silly not to gate; trying to automate the envelope around each and every snare hit would indeed be impractical. And because of the nature of the snare as an instrument, the flexibility of automation envelopes isn't anywhere near as necessary - if at all. But for something like lead electric guitar or other electric guitar which is often arranged more in measures and riffs than individual beats, the envelope automation is quite managable and can lead to more creative and organic results than a static gate setting can.

IMHO, YMMV, LSMFT, ETC.

G.