Click bleed

[BKoop]

Hey everyone

I was wondering if anyone has found a good way to remove click bleed from a track. I recorded an acoustic guitarist and kept telling him I could hear the click coming through into the mic, but he was convinced I was wrong cuz he had turned his click down really low, but lo and behold it was there after we were done recording. I don't have the ability to get the player back in to re-record the part (and I'm not sure he'd play it that good again anyway) so I have to do something to get rid of the click. It's driving me crazy!

Thanks everyone

[GeneOuse]

Try to use a reversed phase click on guitar track and see if it cancels the recorded click. You might be able to cut some of it but not entirely.

[Jperkins]

Yeah, I never understood why they make the click sound so bright, the click I like to use sounds like a stick click, except it's really really bright sounding, so I always insert a 1-band EQ after it and do a lowpass filter around 3 or 4k because it seems like the click bleed that I used to get before i thought of this was always pretty high frequencies, so making the click less bright reduced the bleed quite a bit...it's been quite awhile since I've had a problem with click bleed, and I'm thinking this is why...good luck..

[Steve@ZooWest]

The beloved MPC click doesn't seem to bleed as bad as some others...

[Andi R]

Try to use a reversed phase click on guitar track and see if it cancels the recorded click. You might be able to cut some of it but not entirely.


stupid question, but how do you get that reversed click into the guitar track?
make a click track, and bus it to the same aux as the guitar track??
Thanks!!

[EGS]

Try the above phase idea to rescue your current performance. Here's a couple of ideas for the future, though. Try to use quality closed-back headphones, and make sure they are securely "seated" around the player's ears. I have found the AKG-K171S to be great for this, but there are other good closed-back headphones. If you're still getting click bleed, you have to basicically insist that the click level be brought down. If you explain why it's a problem, most people will cooperate. Also, at the end of the song (or other quiet sections) try to turn the click track off. Hope this helps!!!

[Stig Eliassen]

Good ideas here. You can also automate the click track (if you are busy with other things) so that the click gets lowered during quiet parts, and muted when it's no longer needed.

[Andre Knecht]

To expand on the suggestions made by EGS, in-ear plugs paired with ear mufflers are a great solution to this problem. No bleed whatsoever.

IHTH.

[flymax]

Another possibility is to play a perc part along with it and use it as part of the sound.
Drummers iso headphones are a good bet in the future.
-Pete

[tball]

I love the Vic Firth headphones when dealing with clicks. They really dont sound that good, but they are made to protect a drummers ears and isolate very well. I havnt had any click bleed since Ive started using them.

[blairl]

Everyone complains about the sound of the digidesign click plug-in, but in reality these types of fast transient sounds help to avoid click bleed problems. When you start using cowbells and other sounds with longer decays, it becomes much more of an issue.

[Styles Bitchly]

I was recording guitar tracks with an artist who couldn't stand the robotic click track, and she just couldn't follow the beat. Plus, I was having bleed problems as well, so I devised a solution that worked out perfectly. Granted, this takes a little extra time (the actual length of the tune) but, I recorded the talent counting off the measures along with the click. Ex., "1,2,3,4; 1,2,3,4;" and so on. I then deleted the click track, and played back her count in its place. This allowed the artist to place the proper emphasis on the proper beats using her voice, and it totally cancelled my bleed problem. After that, she got the guitar track in one take, and fell right into the groove. It's a way of getting great results without buying new headphones, or compromising your set-up. Hope this helps.

[Improv]

You could also try, if you can, setting up your recording chain in exactly the same way as you recorded the original vocal, and just record the sound of the click through headphones (I don't think you need to go so far as to have a them on a head, real or fake ). Add this, phase reversed, into your original signal before any further processing. Could get rid of more than the usual phase reverse trick.

[EGS]

Great solution, Styles! Here's another age-old solution to using the robotic click track: use a simple drum beat. In my PT session template, I've got a muted Reason track ready with a simple beat pre-programmed. Just set the tempo, unmute and go. Still, the potential problem of unwanted headphone bleed... I've had great results withe these excellent sounding, closed-back phones (I've got 6 of 'em):
http://www.akg.com/products/powerslave,mynodeid,186,id,251,pid,251,_language,E NUS.html

[Styles Bitchly]

You could also try, if you can, setting up your recording chain in exactly the same way as you recorded the original vocal, and just record the sound of the click through headphones





The only problem with this "solution", is that it will only work if the sine waves of the different signals match. I really doubt you'll be able to record a second take and have the exact signal as the first. Think about all the things that affect sound waves: ambient air temperature, relative humidity, amplitude of signal, etc. . . Then imagine trying to duplicate the original signal with a second take. Sounds like a good idea, but I'd bet a paycheck you won't get the results to completely cancel the original once the phase is reversed.

[Improv]

You could also try, if you can, setting up your recording chain in exactly the same way as you recorded the original vocal, and just record the sound of the click through headphones





The only problem with this "solution", is that it will only work if the sine waves of the different signals match. I really doubt you'll be able to record a second take and have the exact signal as the first. Think about all the things that affect sound waves: ambient air temperature, relative humidity, amplitude of signal, etc. . . Then imagine trying to duplicate the original signal with a second take. Sounds like a good idea, but I'd bet a paycheck you won't get the results to completely cancel the original once the phase is reversed.



I think I was unclear. The performance is not to be recreated, only the click bleed! You set up an identical recording chain, minus the performer. Heck, try to position the headphones the same distance and position relative to the mic even. Then just record the click, soloed, going through the headphones, captured by the mic, onto another track. Then use this, phase reversed, to try and cancel out the click bleed. Make sense?

[Styles Bitchly]

Oh yeah, I knew exactly what you meant. But I still don't think you'll be successful. There a soooo many nuances to audio that the chances of getting the sine waves to match enough to cancel (one phase is reversed) is going to be extremely difficult. How are you going to mimic the head turns of the original click bleed? I doubt very seriously that the talent is standing motionless while recording - well, you have to duplicate those movements as well, because those dictate amplitude of the recorded signal, as well as Haas effect, etc. . . In theory it's a GREAT idea, but it will only work if the second click is captured EXACTLY the same as the first. Try it and let us know how it worked.

[MikeWeiss]

If it was just a 1/4 note click, just do a little surgical editing, pencil tooling, and crossfading to get rid of it. It can be done. If it was a 1/16th note click, you're going to be in hell for a while.

Worst case - tell the artist you really like this great new loop you created playing along with the acoustic, which will of course, hide the click.