Solved Removing Hiss

[OneBass]

I’ve made a recording on my bass guitar and throughout the song I have a noticeable hiss in-between my bass notes; see arrows.
Years ago when Audacity was my DAW of choice, I could select that hiss and instruct it to remove that content anywhere it appears in the track.

What is the best way in Studio One to accomplish this hiss removal without altering the EQ of my recording?
Selecting them manually and deleting them is too tedious.

 

[Jemusic]

There are noise reduction plugins that can sample the hiss on its own creating a noise profile and then remove it from the bass recording leaving the bass sound primarily intact. They are not standard within Studio One though. Its the best way to do it. It may require you to invest. These noise reduction plugins are handy for all sorts of reasons. They can remove buzz and hum too very well.

Audacity is still around and free as well. Adobe Audition has it built in. A powerful audio editing program for mono and stereo files is also a great investment along side Studio One. These editors will often have some noise reduction features standard. There are also AI sites that will do it for you and the first few might be free so try it.

You could also use a gate on the track and set it so the bass sound opens the gate easily but the hiss will be muted. Set the side chain part of the gate to also only respond to the bass. If the bass playing is sensitive with level changes and things the expander might be a better choice.

 

[OneBass]

Jemusic, thanks for the ideas, I'm experimenting with the Gate at the moment.

Yes, I still have Audacity and as a Plan B could use it but Studio One being a deep and rich DAW and my desire to stay within it is driving me to explore its capabilities. Attached is an FFT of one of the "red arrow" problem areas. I'm guessing that the two areas indicated are where the problem might live. I also understand there is an AutoFilter available that might contain a notch filter.

Are you aware of a YouTube or website that addresses all things noise reduction, ideally using Studio One?
I'm learning there is quite a bit to (surgically) identifying and eliminating noise without stepping on areas of the spectrum that I want to keep.

A comprehensive treatment of the subject would be valuable.

 

[OneBass]

In an effort to try to give something back to the community, I came across this article.
Clean-up Using Studio One

He mentions:
Noise Gate
The Compressor plugin
iZotope RX
Repair Tool and
Pro EQ

What he says about the Repair Tool sounds particularly useful to me but I can't find it in ver 7.1

 

[Jemusic]

Well if the Repair Tool is built into Studio One I certainly cannot find it either. As far as I know there is no noise reduction facility in Studio One that captures the noise profile and then removes that noise over the whole audio file. Unless I am wrong. If it is in there, then this is one of those ridiculous amazing features built into Studio One that no one can find! I have checked the manual and no mention of it either. Click and pop removal yes but no specific noise reduction using a profile. I have always done it in Adobe Audition.

Here is another article that also implies it is there:

5 Ways to Clean Up Your Audio in Studio One | Boris FX

It almost goes without saying that clean, clear audio is one of the hallmarks of a great producer. It doesn't matter if you're recording an award-winning podcast or putting together a demo in your bedroom - sound quality is critical to convincing your audience that what you produce is worth...

borisfx.com

But this also lacks a step by step process in navigating to and using the Noise Reduction Tab. Gregor and Joe Gilder have not done a specific video on this either meaning they should have by now if it was really there. He does mention Izotope RX and this is an added extra. Maybe he is referring to the Repair Assistant in RX

 

[OneBass]

Yep, my guess is that these music journalists copy and paste amoungst themselves which can propogate bad info.
In any event I stumbled on something called Strip Silence which ended up removing my hiss; my instincts told me S1 wouldn't let me down

As for Gregor and Joe, those guys are great.

 

[Jemusic]

I agree that the writer may have got confused with this. Once installed, an external plugin can easily look like a built in function. (eg Melodyne) The Strip Silence method of removing hiss is certainly a good one. But the hiss will still be there on top of the bass sounds. Masking will kick in here with the louder sound masking the softer hiss. The noise reduction approach actually removes it from the bass part. I have found light amounts of noise reduction initially can remove a lot of background noise with no discernible artifacts to the original audio in doing so.

 

[SwitchBack]

Why not try Stem Separation first? AI will do all the analyses for you and should produce a bass track without the noise. Simplest option before attempting any of the above

 

[OneBass]

Switchback, I don't think you quite understand this thread.
Stem Separation is not appropriate here because there is nothing to separate.

The bass track that contained the hiss resulted from me recording my playing as I play on my bass guitar.

 

[SwitchBack]

Switchback, I don't think you quite understand this thread.
Stem Separation is not appropriate here because there is nothing to separate.

The bass track that contained the hiss resulted from me recording my playing as I play on my bass guitar.

So you have a track with bass and hiss. Stem Separation will split that into a bass track and an 'other' track which will have the hiss. Keep one, dump the other. Can't make it easier than that.

 

[Jemusic]

It's worth a try for sure. But it also depends on how well it separates the hiss out and also if any artefacts result in the bass track that is left. Audacity might do it better.

 

[ianaeillo]

So you have a track with bass and hiss. Stem Separation will split that into a bass track and an 'other' track which will have the hiss. Keep one, dump the other. Can't make it easier than that.

Yeah this is a good idea.

 

[Jemusic]

It should do it better than Audacity. Thanks to SwitchBack for bringing it up another way.

 

[OneBass]

I find it necessary to apologize to Switchback for thinking he didn't understand this thread. The truth is he did understand this quite well. I had always thought of the Stem Separator as limited/trained on separating instruments only. But that algorithm is smart enough to treat noise as an "instrument" too . . . some brilliant AI programming.

Here is what I did to confirm this.
1. I dragged in a complete song and separated out the bass (no problem as I do this quite frquently).
2. I then created a track of white noise using the Tone Generator.
3. I then exported the bass line and white noise tracks as a mixdown.
4. Then I dragged the mixdown back into S1 to verify the bassline was heavily contaminated with the noise (and it was).
5. Then I Stem-Separated the contaminated track to extract the bass, and it worked like a charm. The bass was noise-free.

Kudos to the Presonus engineers for designing such a robust stem separator.
And kudos to Switchback for thinking nonlinearly and outside the box to suggest this idea.
I now have another noise reduction tool in my tool kit

 

[SwitchBack]

Currently Stem Separation does vocals, drums, bass and ‘other’. So white noise falls in the ‘other’ category together with say guitars, horns, keyboards, applause and background clatter. I think it would be excellent to give noise (as in monotone hisses and drones) its own subdivision. For AI it should be relatively easy to identify and isolate these steady background noises. The noise subdivision would instantly make the stem separation tool THE noise removal tool, allowing you to eliminate hisses, 50/60Hz hums, fan noises and that sort of stuff from any track, as is currently only possible with vocals and bass (and to a lesser degree with drums).

 

[chuckwow]

this is a really good idea. now if i can remember it when the time comes.