How to get rid of noise generated by hand moves on the fretboard ?

  • Hi !


    I often get these annoying noise while recording ( please listen to this recording at 1:16 ) , my hand is sliding on the string while going from a chord to another one ...


    How do you get rid of it ???


    I don't want to kill my dynamics with a strong noise gate. Maybe a simple EQ would do it ?


    I also noticed it's very dependent on the amp/rig ( treble settings I guess).


    Thx,


    R

  • I wouldn't use eq, since that would affect the whole signal, not just the sliding noises.
    I would approach the 'problem' at it's source.


    this should help:
    1) better technique ;) no offense please, less pressure on the string while sliding around, unless you want it to sound like that;
    personally, I like it (to a degree...)
    2) less compression
    3) different strings (and I don't mean flatwounds), in my experience some brands are more likely to cause this behaviour than others
    4) Fast Fret or similar products

  • love that scratchy noise when punching some palm-muted chords. When I tried to get rid off that sound for a friends recording I just put a hairband(hughe thing) slightly on the edge of the first fret. And it pretty much killed the noise from what I could tell. Maybe that helps :)

  • Thank you ! I'm ok with a bit of fret noise, but on some recordings you ear it as loud as the guitar part, it's too much, and I noticed it on a lot of my recordings.


    I won't change my string brands , I love my Ernie Ball , but will try to improve my technique . I almost never use compression. I have some fast fret , so I'll try it also as well as the hairband, looks like a popular method since I see it on a lot of gigs / vids. There are some dedicated hardware for this purpose , I understand now what they are used for.

  • See Don Petersen's suggestions. Additionally, if you're recording and you have a nice take, but some hand / fret noise bugs you, many DAW's offer some real helpful tools. Magix Samplitude Pro X has spectral editing as a standard and a more flexible tool in the "cleaning and restoration suite". See some videos on youtube for this. This is really a powerful tool to edit out only (only!) unwanted noise.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeRYBLyVyEk</a>

  • As already stated, technique is the best answer for this. I taught myself to raise my fingers off the strings when I move around the neck, now it comes naturally.


    Yep. I had to take classical guitar lessons when I was a performance student at the University of North Texas. When you're completely exposed you see how crucial good technique is and how intertwined technique and tone are.

  • High gain presets exacerbate these kinds of extra sounds- you could try a string dampener like Guthie Govan uses (but I think it looks kinda cheesy..)


    String dampeners date back to the 50's, they used to have a metal clamp which could be closed to stop open strings from ringing when playing lead. In the 80's when two handed techniques became really popular, string dampening became en vogue but rather than using the bulky clamps someone came up with the idea to use a hair scrunchy or pony tail holder as a cheap and practical solution.


    All that said, they do nothing to quiet the sound of fingers sliding on the strings with high gain employed. That can only be squelched via technique.