How to record clean tones without amp hissing?

[Bardagh]

I don't hear any hiss worth worrying about on that recording, especially if that little clip is representative of the kind of music you are working with (kind of alt rock sounding). I'm listening at mixing volume on studio monitors. If you add so much as a hi-hat keeping time behind that guitar, nobody will hear anything, and to be honest, a little natural noise is not even a bad thing in this day and age. Faint white noise is not obtrusive, unlike radio frequency or electromagnetic interference which will ruin your tracks.

However, you do need to get that guitar tuned and setup right.

 

[Devin]

I don't even really hear hiss in your clip; just extraneous string noise because it wasn't played cleanly


Either way if there is some hiss you probably wouldn't even notice it in a full mix

 

[phil b]

I honestly dont hear any noise in that track. One question though.. are you having a hiss issue or a hum issue? Those are two very different issues when troubleshooting noise.

Listening to the track you want to get close to, have you tried e.q.ing things differently? Your track is pretty bright compared to the Youtube track. You might be able to knock off some slight hiss by just taking off some top end and upper mids slightly.

 

[311boogieman]

OP- what amp is this? Do you have all signal path items plugged into the same outlet as you should? When was the last time you messed with preamp tubes? Just trying to think of anything that has not already been brought up. All recommendations so far are good ones. I didn't hear anything hissy. What about your dirty tone? I like @phil b 's comment about hiss vs hum.

I have hiss on my high gain amp with volume rolled back cleans. But on my clean amp, dead silet

I was going to say on my Dual Rec I have some hum (on red or orange) that I just chalk up to high gain amp noise. But my Single Rec and Splawn, even on high gain modes - is almost dead silent. NS-2 helps of course.

 

[bigchungusstuckinmymouth]

I don't hear any hiss worth worrying about on that recording, especially if that little clip is representative of the kind of music you are working with (kind of alt rock sounding). I'm listening at mixing volume on studio monitors. If you add so much as a hi-hat keeping time behind that guitar, nobody will hear anything, and to be honest, a little natural noise is not even a bad thing in this day and age. Faint white noise is not obtrusive, unlike radio frequency or electromagnetic interference which will ruin your tracks.

However, you do need to get that guitar tuned and setup right.

wdym setup right

 

[bigchungusstuckinmymouth]

OP- what amp is this? Do you have all signal path items plugged into the same outlet as you should? When was the last time you messed with preamp tubes? Just trying to think of anything that has not already been brought up. All recommendations so far are good ones. I didn't hear anything hissy. What about your dirty tone? I like @phil b 's comment about hiss vs hum.




I was going to say on my Dual Rec I have some hum (on red or orange) that I just chalk up to high gain amp noise. But my Single Rec and Splawn, even on high gain modes - is almost dead silent. NS-2 helps of course.

jcm800 2203

 

[DanTravis62]

wdym setup right

It sounds like some of the chords are slightly out of tune.

@Bardagh is (charitably) assuming that you tuned the guitar normally before recording, and that the chords that are out of tune because of an intonation issue with the guitar or something like that

It's not really bad or anything, just something else you could do for free to improve your recording quality

 

[DanTravis62]

also, clean tones are always more sensitive to intonation issues - and picky, chordal things like your recorded example doubly sensitive to them

 

[bigchungusstuckinmymouth]

It sounds like some of the chords are slightly out of tune.

@Bardagh is (charitably) assuming that you tuned the guitar normally before recording, and that the chords that are out of tune because of an intonation issue with the guitar or something like that

It's not really bad or anything, just something else you could do for free to improve your recording quality

nah it just wasnt tuned before recording

 

[DanTravis62]

nah it just wasnt tuned before recording

ah, yeah, that'll do it

Always gotta be super careful with that, especially with clean tones. That out of tune notes tend to "pop" more, especially on recordings

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

ah, yeah, that'll do it

Always gotta be super careful with that, especially with clean tones. That out of tune notes tend to "pop" more, especially on recordings

I fucking hate when i forget to tune before a recording. I have done it way too many times

 

[DanTravis62]

I fucking hate when i forget to tune before a recording. I have done it way too many times

Yeah i'm pretty sure everyone has done it

The worst is when you do like half a dozen rhythm tracks, and you switch guitars and realize that even though the guitar was in tune with itself, it was 25 cents sharp/flat from A440 and all your hours and days of work is worthless

 

[Metalhex]

Yeah i'm pretty sure everyone has done it

The worst is when you do like half a dozen rhythm tracks, and you switch guitars and realize that even though the guitar was in tune with itself, it was 25 cents sharp/flat from A440 and all your hours and days of work is worthless

I'd imagine alot of lazy people would just raise or lower the pitch of the track.

Nope! I'm tuning it again and doing it the right way

 

[DanTravis62]

I'd imagine alot of lazy people would just raise or lower the pitch of the track.

Nope! I'm tuning it again and doing it the right way

No way! Raising and lowering the pitch changes the whole feel of it

I wouldn't feel bad raising or lowering pitch for keyboards or drums or something, but guitars? hell naw

Plus redoing the tracks is your punishment for not checking the tuning beforehand

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

Yeah i'm pretty sure everyone has done it

The worst is when you do like half a dozen rhythm tracks, and you switch guitars and realize that even though the guitar was in tune with itself, it was 25 cents sharp/flat from A440 and all your hours and days of work is worthless

It is weird, this is the example i was thinking. I double tracked it another day and fucking nailed it, but it was sharp....

 

[Bardagh]

I’m so sensitive to hearing things being out of tune I am tuning all the fucking time. What really messes with me though is I will get hyper focused on it while recording to the point I am sure there are parts going too sharp on pick attack etc but listening back afterwards it won’t be noticeable at all.

 

[DanTravis62]

I’m so sensitive to hearing things being out of tune I am tuning all the fucking time. What really messes with me though is I will get hyper focused on it while recording to the point I am sure there are parts going too sharp on pick attack etc but listening back afterwards it won’t be noticeable at all.

I think we all hear those "fretted sharp" type artifacts when were tracking - invariably, they always disappear in a mix though, surrounded by the rest of the instrumentation

(knock on wood)

I feel like an aztec who sacrifices people to make the sun rise every morning saying that - now, watch, it WONT disappear in the mix from now on

 

[tjnx]

I think everyone here's nailed it already, but in general if you're recording quietly and turning up the gain on your interface to compensate you'll get hiss due to the ratio of the noise floor. In that case record a little louder and turn your interface's preamp down.

Go off whatever improves the final recording rather than some solid rule or fixed advice. It may get you close but your situation may require something different.

For my setup I have to orient myself to a certain spot and keep instrument cables away from power cables. My amp hisses with the master volume up and preamp down, so I do the opposite. I've noticed that computer monitors, bluetooth, and cords with transformers on them (the little black boxes like on a laptop power supply) contribute to interference so I turn them off. I also use the Bertom Denoiser Classic plugin.