Freesound Forums

I am trying to record some acoustic upright bass to post on this site. I have run into a major snafu though. I can't seem to get a good recording without my AC and other hiss bleeding through. I tried EQing in post production but to get rid of the hiss also means getting rid of the tonal quality of the bass. I am not made of $$$ so I am looking for a cheap fix to the problem. Freeware would be awesome. I am thinking maybe a good compression while I am recording (I know it is a sin but as a bassist I don't own compression). Do you think this would solve the problem?

any suggestions?

I am open to all suggestions.

Compression will not solve your problem - try dehissing the file with iZotope RX which can be downloaded and used in Demo mode for a while - long enough for you to dehiss your file

Cool Edit removes hiss quite wonderfully. On there you record silence which will therefore contain the hiss. You take the sample of hiss and then remove it from any other waveforms.

perhaps you can tell us how and what you record with.... you might be able to alter that and achieve the proper results without too much editing afterwards.

I understand your not made of money.... but for recording you can run your bass through some REALLY cheap pedals.... anything that has a compressor or a filter on it. Izotope OzOne is also good, and for removing hissing you can get a color spectrum analyzer and the hiss will look ALOT different then the tone, then just eliminate that frequency range. But any Pedal would be better. . . . they go for like 60 to 100...... or 3000 lol but thats pro shit

get a cheep contact mic. they run about $6.00 that should clear up your problems...

stickman
perhaps you can tell us how and what you record with.... you might be able to alter that and achieve the proper results without too much editing afterwards.

I am using an AT4033a mic.
into a SM6MP preamp
Into a Lexicom lambda
into my laptop.

I am recording using
Cubase LE (it came with the lexicon)

I tried there plugins and they really decreased the quality of sound.

Could you guys tell me more about IZOTOPE and COOLEDIT? where to DL the free trial of IZO?
Is Cool edit a piece of software?

would really like to know what I am getting before I purchase.

Thanks for all the help so far.

yaledelay
get a cheep contact mic. they run about $6.00 that should clear up your problems...

I have tried contact mics in the past and they are no better than a pickup. at that point I might as well record the electric upright or use my pickup. Less hiss, but what I really want to give you guys is a good quality sample that sounds like a real instrument. IMO pickups and contact mics sound like an electric signal and rob the sample of the true wooden sound of a real upright bass.

My game plan is to eventually (it will take some time) record a large number of samples of acoustic upright that you can use to get a more organic sound for your compositions.

the hardest part so far has just been getting started. Once I can isolate a good sound, I hope to crank out some quality samples for you.

Here is the link for the Denoiser Plug In iZotope RX:
www.izotope.com/products/audio/rx/

and Ozone 3

www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/

do you have a specific soundproof spot for recording your bass as well? like certain electronics could be sending out some weird signal for the bass also, Secondly in terms of cleaning it up cosmetically in the electronic sense, RX and Spectrum Analyzers do wonders....and someone here can always find a way to clean and use your samples. Give me on and I'll see if i can take the hiss out, then Ill tell ya what i did

if you have to use a demo just for dehiss your file try the best: www.waves.com

http://www.waves.com/Content.aspx?id=325

http://www.waves.com/objects/Images/Screenshots/sshot_big_deesser01.jpg