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Old 05-20-2019, 12:02 AM   #1
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Default Getting rid of electricity buzz from electric guitar

I'm recording my playing through behringers UCG102 usb interface and I get that electricity buzz coming from my guitar mics. I don't wanna start fiddling with the guitar electronics, but what is the best other way to get rid of it?

Can I plug a noise gate pedal between my guitar and the interface?

Is there any affective plugins that would do te same job?
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Old 05-20-2019, 01:26 AM   #2
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I'm recording my playing through behringers UCG102 usb interface and I get that electricity buzz coming from my guitar mics. I don't wanna start fiddling with the guitar electronics, but what is the best other way to get rid of it?

Can I plug a noise gate pedal between my guitar and the interface?

Is there any affective plugins that would do te same job?
1. If it's mains hum on yr guitars pickups ( does it get better / worse if you touch the strings / bridge ?) It may be that you're too close to a source of interference. Computer? Power supplies? Try moving around the room - is there a quieter spot?

2. A noise gate will work, but can muck up your sound unless it's set right.

3. Plugins.
Once you've got the guitar recorded
(a) you can try gating it, with less worry about spoiling the sound.
(b) ReaFIR ("subtract" mode) is pretty good at removing mains hum and the like. Record a bit of just the noise and let ReaFIR "learn" that. The you can apply that to your guitar. I'd mess with the wet/dry knob so as to use only just enough.

If you're using some amp sim - it can be better to record the clean signal from your guitar - it's often easier to clean that up.
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Old 05-20-2019, 02:31 AM   #3
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1. If it's mains hum on yr guitars pickups ( does it get better / worse if you touch the strings / bridge ?) It may be that you're too close to a source of interference. Computer? Power supplies? Try moving around the room - is there a quieter spot?
This. It gets better if I touch the strings. Tried moving around the room, but there's not much difference. I see If I need to change room.

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3. Plugins.
Once you've got the guitar recorded
(a) you can try gating it, with less worry about spoiling the sound.
(b) ReaFIR ("subtract" mode) is pretty good at removing mains hum and the like. Record a bit of just the noise and let ReaFIR "learn" that. The you can apply that to your guitar. I'd mess with the wet/dry knob so as to use only just enough.
Thanks!!! I'll try this.

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If you're using some amp sim - it can be better to record the clean signal from your guitar - it's often easier to clean that up.
I'm trying various amp sims at the moment. Amplitube 4 seems to be ok.
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Old 05-20-2019, 07:49 AM   #4
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Does your guitar use single coil pickups?
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Old 05-20-2019, 10:20 AM   #5
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This. It gets better if I touch the strings.
If it's just for recording, some say connecting yourself to the guitar (bridge?) - or something else grounded - with a bit of wire wrapped round a suitable body part can work. I'd only try this if I was sure sure everything was electrically sound.
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Old 05-20-2019, 02:31 PM   #6
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Are the pickups earthed?
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Old 05-20-2019, 05:29 PM   #7
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It gets better if I touch the strings.
Quick fix, plug a second patch cable into your interface and run it into your sock, touching your feet.

This will do the same thing as touching the strings and reduce noise for the recording.


... I'm serious, one of my bass guitars I do this every time I record with it.
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Old 05-21-2019, 02:08 AM   #8
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Are the pickups earthed?
No idea.
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Old 05-21-2019, 02:09 AM   #9
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Quick fix, plug a second patch cable into your interface and run it into your sock, touching your feet.

This will do the same thing as touching the strings and reduce noise for the recording.


... I'm serious, one of my bass guitars I do this every time I record with it.
You mean the second cable to the headphone plug?

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Old 05-21-2019, 02:36 AM   #10
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Does your guitar use single coil pickups?

Epiphone 650R Humbucker Open-coil and Epiphone 700T Humbucker Open-coil
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Old 05-21-2019, 04:52 AM   #11
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Bunny, I found a great improvement by using better quality guitar cables. Not the "over the top" expensive ones, but I found D'Adario Planet Waves cable reduced RF interference for me.

Not associated with D'Adario, just a happy customer.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Fergler View Post
Quick fix, plug a second patch cable into your interface and run it into your sock, touching your feet.

This will do the same thing as touching the strings and reduce noise for the recording.


... I'm serious, one of my bass guitars I do this every time I record with it.
Thanks for the tip Fergler, I might just try that.

rob
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Old 05-21-2019, 10:45 AM   #12
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No idea.
If the bottom wire of the pickups was not connected to "ground" at the output jack, then you'd get nothing but buzz and there would be no question cause you'd know it's broken.

It is possible that connection isn't great. It's also possible that the cable/jack connection isn't great, though that is more often an intermittent thing. It's definitely worth trying another cable if you have one. You are sure this is a proper shielded "instrument" cable, and not a speaker cable?

Is this a new thing, or just the first time you've tried?

Noise issues can be tricky, especially with guitars. HBs generally should not be too bad, but no guitar is silent. It's very much a matter of relative noise level - signal to noise ratio - though. If it's only noticeable when you're not playing, then it's probably as good as it'll get. You can gate that out - either with an actual gate or using "strip silence" or just manually edit or automate out the places where you're not playing. If it's actually really noticeable over you're playing, then it's probably something more seriously wrong with the guitar or cable, though I guess I don't completely trust the "ground" on cheap bus powered interfaces like that either.

Lots of heavy distortion (what people call "high gain") obviously makes it seem worse because it severely reduces your dynamic range by making the loudest and quietest parts of the signal a whole lot closer together.
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Old 05-21-2019, 03:40 PM   #13
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This is not necessarily a "cheap" solution, but I do a lot of post work where I have to remove all kinds of garbage, from handling noise to unwanted train horns. For this I've found Izotope RX7 to be able to do just about anything. The "light" version (129 USD) does have a hum remover.

**To be clear, you should always hit it at the source instead of futzing with the the recording after the fact** (as the fine people above have helpfully contributed) - but if you end up recording that perfect lick but it's surrounded by buzz, there are some pretty crazy corrective plugins out there.
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Old 05-21-2019, 09:59 PM   #14
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I suspect it's just the regular distortion buzz, which will hide in the mix. OP posted clean samples of the guitar in the another thread and there's nothing unusual about them.
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Old 05-28-2019, 01:05 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by westie07 View Post
Bunny, I found a great improvement by using better quality guitar cables. Not the "over the top" expensive ones, but I found D'Adario Planet Waves cable reduced RF interference for me.

Not associated with D'Adario, just a happy customer.




Thanks for the tip Fergler, I might just try that.

rob
Ok I could do that one too as I have the cheapest you can get.
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Old 05-28-2019, 01:12 AM   #16
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Originally Posted by ashcat_lt View Post
If the bottom wire of the pickups was not connected to "ground" at the output jack, then you'd get nothing but buzz and there would be no question cause you'd know it's broken.

It is possible that connection isn't great. It's also possible that the cable/jack connection isn't great, though that is more often an intermittent thing. It's definitely worth trying another cable if you have one. You are sure this is a proper shielded "instrument" cable, and not a speaker cable?

Is this a new thing, or just the first time you've tried?

Noise issues can be tricky, especially with guitars. HBs generally should not be too bad, but no guitar is silent. It's very much a matter of relative noise level - signal to noise ratio - though. If it's only noticeable when you're not playing, then it's probably as good as it'll get. You can gate that out - either with an actual gate or using "strip silence" or just manually edit or automate out the places where you're not playing. If it's actually really noticeable over you're playing, then it's probably something more seriously wrong with the guitar or cable, though I guess I don't completely trust the "ground" on cheap bus powered interfaces like that either.

Lots of heavy distortion (what people call "high gain") obviously makes it seem worse because it severely reduces your dynamic range by making the loudest and quietest parts of the signal a whole lot closer together.
This is the first guitar, first cable and first amp I have so I have no experience of anything else.
The playing sound is ok. Just when not touching the strings in buzzes.

It clearly comes from dimmer lights and my laptop.

Thanks for help!!
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Old 05-29-2019, 02:51 AM   #17
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This is the first guitar, first cable and first amp I have so I have no experience of anything else.
The playing sound is ok. Just when not touching the strings in buzzes.

It clearly comes from dimmer lights and my laptop.

Thanks for help!!
Yes, older dimmer switches are terrible for this. Turn them off and use some other (not dimmed) lighting.

Run your laptop on battery when recording.
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Old 06-03-2019, 12:23 AM   #18
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Run your laptop on battery when recording.

Ha! Did not know that! Thanks!
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Old 06-08-2019, 03:50 PM   #19
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I have a fair amount of experience recording guitars. Forgive me if I'm repeating stuff. Single coil pickups can be noisy, especially P90's. Humbuckers not usually so much so as long as they aren't too cheap and nasty. A bad earth on the guitar will cause problems. Lighting has been mentioned..strip lights can be a nightmare..and indeed, dimmer controls. Similar problems can occurr on stage too. Someone mentioned recording with a laptop on battery and not psu/charger..that shouldn't be necessary unless the psu is poor..maybe a cheap generic replacement. Best to use a proper audio interface and not the machine's on-board audio.

A few ideas..
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Old 06-08-2019, 08:37 PM   #20
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Dimmers are almost certainly the biggest culprit here. They are terrible for audio gear. I learned this from living in a house once that had dimmers installed in the area where my studio was set up. If the dimmer was even slightly dimmed, my studio monitors, guitar, everything would buzz like crazy. Its also very bad for electronics that are on the same breaker as the dimmers.

For some reason, this isn't common knowledge either. I went on a tour of another studio down the street from mine recently, a REALLY nice 7.1 mixing stage for film. The place looked incredible and was decked out with a nice AVID S6 console, a huge screen, and a really nice speaker system. It was a fairly new build-out designed by a professional. The biggest problem is the first thing i noticed walking in this room was the noise floor from the buzzing speakers.

My eyes darted to the switch panel on the wall for the lighting, and sure enough there were dimmers on every switch. The cheap Home Depot style plastic fader kind. The more dim they were set the louder the buzz got too.
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