Need help reducing guitar amp noise

[michaelmouse]

Does anyone have any suggestions for reducing amp noise? Doing it with EQ kills the dynamics (is this because I'm not using EQ properly?).

If it helps, I'm using Roland JCM 120 amp.

[SimpleNatureSpirit]

Reduce all your ground loops and use the hipass filter on your input (unless your doing bass guitar. Also ground yourself (the player) to the guitar and move the guitar and player away from the amp.
People are antennas. One thread recommends you 'shield' all the guitar internals. They accomplished this with copper foil. The foil is connected to the Sleeve side of the 1/4 instrument connector.

If it already recorded and you need to use it, a noise plugin suite may be necessary. You can also try a notch filter (an EQ with a very Q setting) right at 60hz.

You can also consider AC humm filters. If everything is plugged into the same wall plug, your ground loop will be minimal.

[albee1952]

I find that I can "aim" the guitar in a certain direction where the noise goes almost completely away. If you are recording in front of your computer, standard monitors are terrific noise generators so try pointing the headstock at the monitors. If you have already recorded your tracks, try the advice above. If you have a few seconds of nothing but noise, you could also try looping the noise(on a new track), reversing the polarity(phase reverse on an EQ plugin) and mix it with the guitar track(same panning) in the hope of cancelling the noise.

[michaelmouse]

Thanks.

I have already recorded the tracks. But these tips are super helpful for the future.

Any other ideas for when you're stuck with a noisy track are welcome. Any suggested plug-ins?

[Matt Whritenour]

possibly too much gain on the amp

[Third Eye Studios]

Waves Restoration bundle is excellent at this, although I hesitate to even mention their name after reading about the unfortunate problems people around here have had with them.

Check your PT install disc too, as I think the digi NR plug-in is on there with a demo.

If you don't have the luxury of NR plug-ins, or don't want to use them (they all leave artifacts) you can do some other things. Usually if their is alot of noise, it's because it was recorded with lots of gain. Most times (not always) music with lots of guitar gain (rock, metal, alternative, or whatever) allows you to hide hiss under the music. Try to do really tight edits with good crossfades during times of guitar silence, where it's only noise; you can even write volume automation. Edit the start and ends (zoom in real far) making silent the track all the way up to the point where the guitar starts and stops.

I record a direct guitar track along with my normal guitar set-ups these days, so I can go back and reamp, or use plug-in amp simulators. This helps too if the amp originally used had alot of noise, just find one that doesn't for reampiong and presto!!!

Incidentally, when I've used a Roland Jazz Chourus like you described, I have found them to be pretty darn clean, and not very noisy. Maybe, as suggested before, in the future, check your signal path for buzzes and try ground lifting the amp.

[Sharritan]

I that Roland a tube amp? If so, you may want to make sure your tubes are fresh.

[GregJ]

You could try the 'strip silence' feature in PT. I use version 6.4, and I don't know if it is available in earlier versions. This has given me really good results in some cases with noisy hum recorded in between riffs/rythyms.

GregJ