recording acoustic guitar

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blackbeltjones

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hi,
im new to home recording. i have a acoustic guitar with a pickup
that i send to a preamp then to the soundcard. im just trying to record some basic tracks in cubase. um this is a stupid question
but why is there a interferance hissing on the tracks that i record?
and what is causing this? my monitor was part of the problem but
even when i turn it off there is still some background noise...
this does not happen when i use a keyboard or a mic so i am sure that it is the pickup. also the hissing sound goes away when i move the guitar to certain parts of the room or even out of the room where the computer is but this is inconvenient..
is there any way to get rid of this noise?
thanks
 
Is it a single-coil pickup? These are notorious for picking up noise from all kinds of environmental sources, especially computers and monitors near them.

One thing is to use a noise reduction feature that some audio processing software has. For example, Cool Edit 2000 has this feature. The way it works is, you highlight a section of audio containing just the noise from the pickup (from before or after you start playing, or gaps between parts, and use that as the noise signature. Then you select the whole track and apply the noise reduction. It works quite well if the noise is more or less constant and doesn't fluctuate too much, and if the frequency content of the guitar part is not made up of the same frequencies that the noise signal occupies. If not, it often sounds pretty bad, because some part of the noise will be left and the instrument will be unnaturally filtered.

Another tip: record acoustic guitar with a good mic. Takes a bit more effort but it will sound better.
 
thanks for yor reply
yes i think it is a single coil pickup
right now i cant afford a good mic or pickup.
i wonder if cubase has any noise reduction programs, i guess
i will check it out when i get off work
would using a plugin effect or some sort of gate or compression
help?
 
Compression will only make it worse and a gate will only help during the parts where you arent playing.

Make sure you have your levels set correctly. Turn the guitar (if it has a volume) Up to about 90%. Turn the input on the preamp up as high it needs and turn the output up just to the level you need, the lower the better. Set your computer to record at unity level.

What preamp are you using?

Even a cheap mic will sound a lot better than most pickups. By cheap I mean a SM57, though. Not radio shack.
 
im using a m-audio audiobuddy for the preamp, audiophile 2496
and a dean markley pickup.but no volume control on the guitar. i think the level on the preamp is set as low as possible but maybe not, i will work on it tonight.

ive only been in this home recording game for a few weeks but i seem to learn something new everyday on this site.

thanks for your help
 
I used to have one of those Dean Markley's. They are 'okay' for live use but not that great for recording.

The audio buddy should be clean enough so really all you can do is set your levels right and live with the noise until you get a mic.
 
For the price of a decent plug in you could purchase a MXL V67 or an SM57. $99 and $79 respectively. You already have the phantom power in the audio buddy to power anMXL V67.

Pete
 
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