KVR Audio

heffus · Post by **heffus** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 7:32 pm

anyone know how i can get rid of single coil hum on my guitar tracks? i've tried the noise reduction in cubase sx but it clips off the ends of notes.

shamann · Post by **shamann** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 8:09 pm

I hear Waves has the best plugin for this. X-Hum in its Restoration bundle:

http://www.waves.com/content.asp?id=59

Lawnmower Of The Damned · Sat Mar 11, 2006 8:25 pm

Do you use a CRT monitor or an LCD? CRTs create TONS of magnetic interference for guitar pickups.

You might also want to look into an ISP Technology Noise Decimator. Odds are it a quarter the price of the Waves plugin (And no dongle!

).

EJo · Post by **EJo** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 9:51 pm

(removed)

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 10:43 pm

EJo wrote:
heffus wrote:anyone know how i can get rid of single coil hum on my guitar tracks? i've tried the noise reduction in cubase sx but it clips off the ends of notes.
Get a humbucker. There's humbuckers that sound just like singelcoils.

/Jonas

or EMG SA single coils....another HUGE thing you can do is to get some copper sheilding tape and make sure all electronic cavities are sheilded as well as the back of the pickguard or cover (be sure that sheilding from the pickgaurd or cover overlaps some and makes a contact with the cavity sheilding)...make sure all layers of sheilding touch each other to maintain a connection and ground the sheilding...

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 12:29 am

Grounding definitely helps. Mind you, my apartment is so polluted with EMI that it doesn't get rid of it.

The TonePort's "hum reducer" algorithm does a good job of it, but it attenuates certain harmonics of certain notes. Usually you don't notice, but sometimes you'll be soloing and bending a high note thinking, "where did my note go?" Not that it's completely GONE, but just that it's lacking what you expect it to have.

Cubase's shouldn't be clipping any notes. It must be a noise gate that they've labelled a "noise reducer," which is an entirely different beast.

Processing the dry track offline in Audition, Acoustica, or Audacity using the noise removal algorithms can be very helpful, too.

Greg

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 12:40 am

AA has awesome noise reduction...shielding though is a step beyond just grounding...but nothing is perfect. I use to live on the top floor of a high rise and on the roof was a pager antenna (early 90's). I use to get this horrid noise through my marshall...not just hum either...buzzes, beeps god awful sounds...forced me to move out...

heffus · Post by **heffus** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 5:36 am

thaks to everyone for all your suggestions.

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 6:02 am

When I said "grounding" I actually meant to say "shielding." I have "quieted the beast" on both of my guitars, including completely rewiring them to a star-grounding system.

Greg

PeterL · Post by **PeterL** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:52 am

With my M-Audio DMP-3 (used as DI-Box/PreAmp) I have no noise from Single-Coil anymore.
I had the same problem with my Squier Strat before.
Maybe a simple DI-Box could help (before recording of course).

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 7:08 am

Here's something that someone could clarify for me, since it's a related question:

Many DI boxes have a "ground lift" which can allegedly help the noise levels. Is this assessment true or false (complete speculation here, but it'll be handy to know in the future):

1. The noise reduction associated with ground lift is because ground loops are then eliminated.

2. If your guitar is properly shielded, and the shield is grounded with NO ground loops, shouldn't it be therefore more quiet to keep the ground engaged, rather than lifting it?

Greg

deaf dunderkwac · Post by **deaf dunderkwac** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 8:18 am

Lunch Money wrote:Here's something that someone could clarify for me, since it's a related question:

Many DI boxes have a "ground lift" which can allegedly help the noise levels. Is this assessment true or false (complete speculation here, but it'll be handy to know in the future):

1. The noise reduction associated with ground lift is because ground loops are then eliminated.

2. If your guitar is properly shielded, and the shield is grounded with NO ground loops, shouldn't it be therefore more quiet to keep the ground engaged, rather than lifting it?

Greg

Hi Greg
most of the noise associated wih the need for a ground lift switch on di's has to do with having equipment on different power sources. In the us, where the power is unbalanced the sound system can be on one leg of a 220 system and the stage on another., or an even totally different power source. (becoming rarer over the years tho). This type o performance issue is why ground-lift boxes and such were instigated.

The other happenstance is when you have multiple grounds to the same boxes (loop-de-loop for the grounds, as you seem to have gone out of your way to disengage.) This problem, again, mainly in the us, is caused by equipment that is poorly grounded, i.e the case ground is attached to the signal ground. Not a problem unil you hook up another piece of equipment with the same grounding scheme... instant ground-loop.
You can also pick up ground loops from patchbays esp if they use a ground buss scheme.

Most audio consoles should be used as the central point of the ground, but then the computer needs to be isolated from that ground via balanced lines or transformers with no grounds thru.

It gets more complicated the more equipment you have attached to the computer without this method.

In the case of hum in a single-coil guitar, I've found in most cases it's the monitor(crt) that causes the most offense, with the computer itself a didtant second.
The easiest cure is to just move away from the source of noise when recording, (about 2 meters or more) and moving the guitar around until you find a null direction, but if thats to hard to do it's time to bite the bullet, buy an LCD monitor and isolate your soundcard from whatever other device you're using to interface with the guitar.

Most, but not all DI boxes use a transformer to isolate the ground and do the impedence match-up.
This IS a good thing as it tends to isolate the noises the computer (with a somewhat flaky power supply) puts on the electrical grounds.

It's not an impossible task to remove ground noise and pick-up noise problems, you just have to be very methodical in your troubleshooting.

It's late and I'm off to bed before proofreading and such, hope I've added some useful information

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 8:22 am

Very useful, and confirms that I was on the wrong track, which is important to me.

I have a box here with an "ISO" switch, and it seems to help even more than the "ground lift" switch. Now I know why.

Greg

aciddose · Post by **aciddose** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 9:55 am

ceramic transducers!

single coil noise