Clean Tone With No Hiss?
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I am not having much luck creating my own clean patches or downloading ones from ToneCloud that don't have a ton of hiss unless the patch volume is turned way down, or the amp gain/volume is turned way down, to the point where the patches are unusable. I get the hiss during playing so it's not a noise gate issue. I've tried adding a noise reducer pedal at the front of the chain (maybe it goes at the end?) and that helps some but not enough. The issue gets doubly worse when trying to use the guitar match feature for some reason. I don't have this issue with high gain patches. Any good tips on getting clean tones without a ton of hiss, or better yet, no hiss at all?
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@ifcruickshank said in Clean Tone With No Hiss?:
I am not having much luck creating my own clean patches or downloading ones from ToneCloud that don't have a ton of hiss unless the patch volume is turned way down, or the amp gain/volume is turned way down, to the point where the patches are unusable. I get the hiss during playing so it's not a noise gate issue. I've tried adding a noise reducer pedal at the front of the chain (maybe it goes at the end?) and that helps some but not enough. The issue gets doubly worse when trying to use the guitar match feature for some reason. I don't have this issue with high gain patches. Any good tips on getting clean tones without a ton of hiss, or better yet, no hiss at all?
What sort of guitar are you using? What kind of humbucker are you playing on? I find that if you try using a clean that has a lot of brightness, you get a lot of hiss. New strings is also something to consider!
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@erick_g I'm playing a strat with a hotrails pickup in the bridge position. I've played with the software some more and am finding that less is more in order to get better results (one amp, one cab, one or two fx pedals). I'll have to play around with it some more, but if I want to add any more than that I'll have to figure out what previous item in the chain is now contributing to the hiss. I still don't know why using the guitar match feature doubles the noise. I'll try changing the strings too and see if that helps.
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Just wanted to bump this thread with some findings after playing around a bit and doing some research online. I'm still playing with the available options to get a nice clean sound with little to no hiss but upon further research online I've found that a noise gate, noise reducer, compressor, and using bass amp and cab sims and an equalizer at the end of the chain are the way to go. You can add delay, chorus, reverb, etc. to flavor as needed. I'm still getting a bit more more hiss than I care for if I were recording a track that had ONLY guitar in places, but paired with even a mild drum track the hiss is not bad at all. Glad I kept playing with it and looked around online. After I get a patch dialed in a bit more I'll have to try recording a quick song, or part of one, and see if run into any issues with mixing now.
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@ifcruickshank When I was new to the tone game I too struggled with the nasty tone hiss as I played clean tones. But through lots of trial and error and tons of YouTube videos later, I’ve solved the problem. It’s predominantly an EQ issue. The hiss is due to the extremely high frequencies coming in thru the tone. You absolutely must counter this by adding a high cut at around 6-7khz. What this does is it tells your EQ to filter (kill) any frequencies that are higher than 6 or 7 khz. Moreover, kill any and all frequencies that are more than 8khz, just drag the -db sliders all the way down on all of them. If you still are hearing the slightest hiss after all this has been done, grab the Loomis EQ option and set the high frequency knob to a specific frequency that you suspect still lingers. Let’s say you suspect a lingering frequency of 6.5khz is still coming thru on your tone. Set the high frequency knob to 6500hz and then grab the knob to its left called “High” and lower the db’s until the lingering hiss goes away.
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@jerry-king Thanks for the input! Sort of confused though, firstly, where in the chain do you put the EQ, or are you talking about a LPF? Secondly, if I cut all the frequencies above 6khz in the first step, aren't all of the frequencies you mention after that already cut? I hope this doesn't come across as sounding rude, I'm just not fully wrapping my head around what you're suggesting. Thanks so much man!
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If you're using a computer to output audio, there is likely hum, hiss or other noise in the audio. Upgrading the sound card or installing a PCI or PCIe card may help to reduce or even eliminate this noise. Using high-quality external audio interfaces may fix the issue of computer noise as well.
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@charlottejenkins878 I've got a Samson mic with an input jack for instruments which sends the signal into my laptop through a USB port. It's served me well while I've been learning to record full songs but perhaps it's time for an upgrade to another audio interface. Thanks for your input.