Hi,
I am trying to remove a nasty bow sound from a violin recording. Here’s a link to a short recording; listen at about 9 and 10 seconds. You hear it clearly on the last two or three notes.
I have tried using a DeEsser (as shown), and an EQ (as shown); but it doesn’t seem to do much?
Any thoughts? Am I going to have to re-record it? Should I move the mic further away - it was about 3’ away. I am recording in stereo with a Neumann KM 184 (pencil mic) and a Shure SM7B.
When using the de-esser I would try switching on the side chain and try to zoom in in the frequency where the bow noise is the loudest.
Else, i don’t think it is too bad, but then I have not much experience with recording violins. If it is part of an arrangement, it probably gets masked anyway.
If it is supposed to be a solo violin, you could also try manually editing the audio: zoom in on the event until you find the offending bow noise, split the event shortly before and after, lower the level of the noise event and then select the three resulting events and hit “x” for crossfade.
Might give better results than an automatic process.
It could also probably doable in a spectral audio editor like Izotope RX or Acon Acustica, but that would require an investment and in that case, re-recording might be the faster option
To add to @fese’s suggestions, that’s the sound of the bow hitting the string near the frog. It’s a matter of taste and style as to whether it’s nasty or not.
Here’s the result I got fiddling (!) in Spectralayers Pro. I didn’t want to entirely remove the sound, just lessen it.
Spectralayers One can probably do the same thing, or you can even download the trial of the pro version.
You say the mic is 3 feet (3’) from the fiddle, but it sounds more like 3 inches? Mic-ing a violin means getting some room sound to, if you have a nice room, or running the track through a reverb that fits the style, etc.
YES - the problem is my room is small and all carpeted. As you stated when recording violin, the best ‘rooms’ are typically wood or least have a wood floor. I actually moved the mics at the edge of the room and stood about 3 feet away in the hallway. And yeah, it does sound like I’m 6" from the mics.
Hi,
YES… I did have Spectral Layers. It’s sweEEEEEEeeet. I found where the noise was. I lassoed it, and removed it. It didn’t alter the sound much at all.
Thank all of you!! Spectral Layers is AMAZING. It’s makes a fiddle player like me, sound like Paganini. OK, well not quite but it sure can clean up some junk.
