Originally posted by Breezes:
Any ideas for reducing the fuzz noise from semi-noisy to noisy amps when recording?

:) Have you tried a noise gate or expander? Seems the amp would mask any noise while being played. The gate would be set to slowly shut down the input to a set level until you are ready to rock again. The gate, or gates can be wired as an insert.

Just a suggestion,
--Rick

Hi,

There's a few things to try,
(in no particular order!)

1. Try a different mic position- if you've got the mic near the centre of the cone, you'll pick up more of the top-end "fuzz". There'll be a spot where you get the bite and tone of the amp, without the "fizz". You could also try rolling off some "treble" on the amp.

2. Is the guitarist using a stomp box? Sometimes having too long a lead going from the guitar to the stomp box with a high gain will accentuate noise. Also, if the guitar player is too near a PC monitor, the pickup will pickup lots of HF "scuzz". Sometimes just moving the position of the guitar player in a room can help. Also, try a different guitar. Some are just plain noisy if the wiring/screening is lousy.

3. If you're doing a high-gain "lead" part, noise can be more troublesome than in a rhythm part. If using a stomp box, get the player to stamp in just before the lead bit, to minimize noise between parts. Also, muting between parts can help. Sometimes I like to keep a lead track "open" just for some "air", and a more natural sound.

4. Try a different mic. A good condensor can actually be a little too good for Marshall-style guitar sounds. Because of their frequency response up to 20k, they'll naturally accentuate any top-end noise, especially fizzy/fuzzy stuff. A good dynamic like an SM57 or similar with a response which rolls off at 16k might be good to try.

5. Check your amp- preamp tubes can become microphonic and make a terrible noise. With the amp on and the gain and volume set to an average level, carefully tap the preamp tubes (the smaller ones) with an the eraser end of an eraser-ended pencil. If any tubes are microphonic, when you tap them they'll ring!

Experimenting with all the different parameters should do the trick. There's never an easy answer to good guitar recording.

Hope this helps :tu:

Mark

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"Oscillators don't, amplifiers do....."
Anon.

I always use an expander.A good all together strip for this is a VXP BY PRESONUS.I record guitar tracks all day and have no problem with noise when using this method.Good luck.

ROBB007

if you want, I can send you a very decent recreation of JCM800 with 4 speakers, entirely done with AMP FARM. Some people say, go for teh real thing.. I have been playing guitar for almost 20 years, I can say that thing is really decent.

Well, I use a V-Amp 2 to record most of my guitar parts, but I love the sound of a marshall recorded with a nice crisp condenser. I play through a les paul so monitor noise isn't a problem. I think it's just a noisy pre-amp. It's not as bad as it could be.

I will play with the mic positions to figure things out. Thanks guys.