scratching on acoustic

[JayDeLuca]

Im recording some acoustic guitar tracks and im using a Shure KSM32, and the recordings are great, but the player plays very quiet so i need to crank the gain and it is picking up scratching. I was wondering if there is a plugin or something that could get rid of scratching? or some kind of trick or something. I use Cubase LE for mixing. ive EQ'd it as much as i could to get it dim but its still there. just looking for an easy way out

any help is appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[travelin travis]

you could tell him what you'd like to do to his mother. that might put a little umph behind his playing. it's either that or live with it.

 

[metalhead28]

You could try this:

www.Acoustic-Guitar-Scratchy-Sound-Remover.com

Seriously, I doubt there is much you can do unless the scratches do not occur during the playing and you can physically cut them out. There may be somebody around here that knows a good trick, but I'm sure it would depend on several factors involving the track and it wouldn't be just a generic and easy fix.

I would ask him to play more loudly or without any scratching

 

[JayDeLuca]

hahahahaha
i clicked that link.
i feel stupid.

 

[Jouni]

Dunno if you mean the sqeaky sound of fingers gliding over strings?..

If so, keeping hands in warm water could help that, or palm lotion, heck.. try your favourite super-lube?..

and then try some different mic-placing..

 

[Gnash5150]

Pointing the diaphram away from the pick hand, and towards the fretboard could help ya, if your still tracking. Try giving the player a thicker pick. Thin picks tend to sound a little overbearing on acoustic. Communicating these little problems to an artist, nicely, before punching record, is the best solution. Preproduction baby!

 

[YeshuasFan]

What type of strings is the player using for recording? if he is using roundwounds, he might trying switching to flatwounds, or what are called "groundrounds." The latter are strings which are a compromise between flatwounds and roundwounds. They start out as round wounds but the windings are then milled or ground flat to reduce the squeaking made when fretting and should not be confused with a low-fat type of meat for making hamburgers.

 

[scrubs]

Well, retracking would be best. If you have a decent parametric EQ (the Nyquist EQ is a decent freebie), you could try to cut the offending frequency with a very narrow slice. You might also try a de-esser where you can sweep the frequency to find your culprit (Spitfish is a good free de-esser).

 

[rpe]

A wind screen will help a little.

rpe

 

[sk8bobby10]

use a harder pick
i know that thin picks scrape alot more.

 

[faderbug]

get another player to do the job.

 

[Codmate]

get another player to do the job.

So true.
You can only work with what you've got!

 

[Unsprung]

The scratching wouldn't be a bad thing, if y'all was recording "Diamondhead," but I'm not quite sure how that one would sound unplugged.

Matt in Indiana

 

[TheRockinDonkey]

I know I'm probably in the minority, but I love the sound of fingers gliding along the strings on an acoustic guitar while playing an arpeggio.

I also seem to have that problem playing acoustic. I think I'll try some flatwounds to see if it helps.