i'm tired, and there's hiss...

[pikingrin]

Hey guys, stupid question coming your way! Hopefully one or two of you has some good info you'd be willing to share... It's going to be long, but I don't want to leave out any "critical" info here.

I'm running cubase sl3.0, my interface is a tascam FW-1804, my mics are mxl990 and 991 (yeah, the cheap package deal...), my pre's are a presonus eureka and a behringer (no comments necessary) "tube ultragain". I realize through experience that the behri is a sub-par unit, but I try to use it the best that it can be used. Usually turned off, or kept really low. My recording space is a spare bedroom in my house, with another old, loud computer occupying free space in one corner. There is no acoustic treatment on the wall, but I have my DIY panels that I built that I use to track acoustic guitar and vocals.

Now, here's the situation. I know the obvious answer is to turn the old, loud p.o.s. off when I track, but let's just say that I put down some vocals and there was a significant amount of hiss in the background, maybe due to the gain settings on the pre's, maybe due to fan noise from the other computer... I like the way the vocals sound, but I want to get rid of the hiss, any good ideas? Is there a remedy using compression, some kind of gate and maybe a de-esser? I dunno...

Just a tidbit more info, the plugins I have to try and help the situation are the fishphones series and all of the classic series from kjaerhaus or however you spell it. I also have a lot that I downloaded from KVR, but I don't know what all they are.

For all of you who read through this dribble, thank you even if you don't reply. For those of you who leave an answer, thank you for your reply!

 

[nukeitout]

I'd suggest doing some isolation to figure out where the hiss is coming from. First, take out the behri pre (completely out of the chain, not just turned off). Turn off any uneeded equipment (i.e. monitors, amps, etc.) Use closed headphones for reference while singing if you can. Use a pop filter and sing a little closer to the mic with the mic at a larger angle (don't sing directly at the mic). Minimize air flow in the room during recording (close heating vents, windows, etc.). Try swapping out some cables if you have them. Also, you can turn on your live monitors and turn them up, then switch on and off various components in the chain to see how they affect the live hiss. Unplug and plug in various cables to see how they contribute. I've had one bad cable produce significant hiss that took awhile to track down. With the chain hooked up to speakers, the cable produced a significant hiss simply by being connected. A final suggestion that aids cheaper equipment is an AC noise filter. Some nicer surge protectors come with them built in, and all UPS systems (battery backup) perform the function of regulating and smoothing Power input. If you get the hiss down noticably, I'd be interested in hearing what the cause was.

Randy

 

[daav]

Hey guys, stupid question coming your way! Hopefully one or two of you has some good info you'd be willing to share... It's going to be long, but I don't want to leave out any "critical" info here.

I'm running cubase sl3.0, my interface is a tascam FW-1804, my mics are mxl990 and 991 (yeah, the cheap package deal...), my pre's are a presonus eureka and a behringer (no comments necessary) "tube ultragain". I realize through experience that the behri is a sub-par unit, but I try to use it the best that it can be used. Usually turned off, or kept really low. My recording space is a spare bedroom in my house, with another old, loud computer occupying free space in one corner. There is no acoustic treatment on the wall, but I have my DIY panels that I built that I use to track acoustic guitar and vocals.

Now, here's the situation. I know the obvious answer is to turn the old, loud p.o.s. off when I track, but let's just say that I put down some vocals and there was a significant amount of hiss in the background, maybe due to the gain settings on the pre's, maybe due to fan noise from the other computer... I like the way the vocals sound, but I want to get rid of the hiss, any good ideas? Is there a remedy using compression, some kind of gate and maybe a de-esser? I dunno...

Just a tidbit more info, the plugins I have to try and help the situation are the fishphones series and all of the classic series from kjaerhaus or however you spell it. I also have a lot that I downloaded from KVR, but I don't know what all they are.

For all of you who read through this dribble, thank you even if you don't reply. For those of you who leave an answer, thank you for your reply!

I'd throw away the vocal track and redo it wihtout the hiss.

Everything you describe could be causing it. The old comp (very likely) the pres are probably adding some noise, gain staging could also cause you trouble if you are pushing the pres too much.

if you insited on trying to save that track, the hiss might get buried in a full mix, or you could try to gate the track, but everyhting i know (not a hell of a lot really) says to track right, and mix good tracks, you can't fix it after, just alter waht you have.

daav

 

[scrubs]

I think it depends on the song and how bad the hiss is. If it's a full mix, a little hiss on the vocal track probably won't be noticeable. You could get away with just silencing the portions between phrases in the software. You might also try the digital fishphones floorfish, since you said you have those plugs. It has gate/expander functions that will minimize noise between the phrases.

There are programs like SoundSoap that you can use, too, but they aren't free and it sounds like you're on a budget. I hear Adobe Audition has/had a pretty decent noise-remover, too.

If you can identify the offending frequencies with an analyzer, you could apply some notch eq, but that will probably affect the sound of your whole track.

Another thing to try might be to sample a section of the hiss and reverse the polarity and play it back at the same time as the hiss, which would likely cancel some of it out.

Short of retracking, I can't think of many more options.

 

[pikingrin]

Alright, first off, I tried to give scrubs rep but I gotta pass it around first. Thank you anyway though. Now, onto the rest of the reply...

To Nukeitout... When I track my vocals, I turn the monitors off completely and listen to the mix through my noise cancelling headphones (that are overrated and overpriced might i add...). I really have no choice in the behringer pre, unless i want to use the pres on the 1804, which i don't particularly care for. Although I use cheap cables, I don't think it has anything to do with the hiss, because within cubase it only records the tracks that I want it to, but I'm certain it's the behri unit along with the background noise. Thank you for your response though!

To Daav... Like i said in the "paragraph" before this one, I'm pretty sure it's the comp and the behri preamp. I have used my eureka quite a bit because it's the best pre that I have at the moment, and I have figured out how to make it sound halfway decent within the room I record in. Almost to the point where I could remove my panels and it would sound good. So, that is for sure ruled out for the time being. As for the suggestion to redo the hissy vocals, I am afraid I have to agree. I think that this is the only thing that will solve the problem. I have spent at least 4 hours doing minor tweaking to the plugs to try and help, but nothing seems to take it out. I cut out the silent portions of the track altogether and that seems to take the edge off, but there is still just a barely audible hiss when heard in the full mix. But thank you for your response as well.

To Scubs... I have been working with the fishphones plugs almost exclusively, using the blockfish, spitfish and floorfish (in different routes) but it's really not removing the hiss all too much. I tried to find how to reverse polarity on tracks within cubase but it seems like I still have quite a bit to learn in that regard. I know I have seen that option in one of the dropdown menus or something but I can't seem to find it now. I'll find it though, no worries. As to any options that require more than 50 bucks, it's out of the question. Bills suck, that's all I'm going to say about that one. But again, thank you for the reply.

All in all, as it stands right now, I think I will go with the suggestion of re-tracking everything that has that hiss in it. That seems to be like the most reasonable thing to do, and I know how to get that result I just didn't have the patience when I was laying the original tracks down. It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. Thank you to all who chimed in!

 

[easlern]

I've been pretty lucky using Audacity's noise reduction tool on voice. It will make the vox sound a little robotic (like a low-quality MP3) but it does an awesome job of removing hiss, and it's free.