Pick Noise

[MrJoshua]

I was tracking an acoustic part the other day and while the part itself is good, there are a few parts where there is quite a bit of percussive noise from the player letting his pick strike against the pickguard/body on the downstroke. I mentioned it to him during the first take and he said he'd try to watch it, but it still came out in a few bits.

 

Now, the good news is that he isn't the guitarist for this band and this isn't supposed to be the final take. But it was a well-played part other than that and would be a keeper, IMO, except for that percussive noise.

 

Anything you can do to help avoid that? I considered moving the mic but it just sounded really good where it was at, other than that, so I didn't want to try moving it (plus I wasn't sure angling it away from the body would really do that much to minimize picking up that sound).

 

Or is this just an issue like stick-clicking on drums where all you can do is tell the player about it and let him fix it or not? We did a few takes so I can probably do some editing and get rid of most of it, but still. It'd be nice to know what techniques others use in case this comes up again in the future.

 

Oddly enough, it hasn't been a problem with this player in the past. I've recorded about a dozen acoustic tracks for this guy and it's the first time I've noticed this problem. This was a little bit of a trickier part - maybe he just had to concentrate on his left hand so much that his right got a little out of control.

[UstadKhanAli]

I unfortunately do not know the answer to this.

 

But twice now, I've seen the subject header and thought it said "Pick Nose."

 

[Zooey]

There's a big fat article on recording acoustics in this month's Sound on Sound. I haven't got through it all, but I think de-essing was mentioned as a possible solution to extraneous noises. It might only work on string squeak, which is higher up the spectrum than pick noise.

[nice keetee]

How does the part sound in the mix?

[UstadKhanAli]

 

There's a big fat article on recording acoustics in this month's Sound on Sound. I haven't got through it all, but I think de-essing was mentioned as a possible solution to extraneous noises. It might only work on string squeak, which is higher up the spectrum than pick noise.

 

 

And de-essers do pretty well for those string squeaks, but he's talking about the pick striking against the pickguard or the body, and short of editing them out "manually", I'm not sure how to get rid of those.

[Lee Knight]

 

but he's talking about the pick striking against the pickguard or the body, and short of editing them out "manually", I'm not sure how to get rid of those.

 

 

Right... assuming the noise is that actual sound of the pick striking the body, it's tough to do automatically. I'd go through the file with a fine toothed comb and automate either volume moves or eq or MB compression to work only when the actually strike occurs.

 

If it is a part of the rhythmic part but just too obnoxious. MB compression might be your friend. You want to hear the hit just not in balance it was played. So dial in that range in the MB and set it up so it grabs whenever that freq goes past your threshold. Set the lever where you want it and you're good

[CME]

Sounds like a track I recorded once. However I was the player. I was using the engineer's acoustic, as it sounded gorgeous, however I kept "thumping" the body when I strummed. In the mix it disappeared but it surprised me when I heard it solo. I have noticed the "more high-end" the acoustic the more they seem to amplify everything. Guess that's why the sound so good but can make you sound bad if you get lazy. lol

[Phil O'Keefe]

is this just an issue like stick-clicking on drums where all you can do is tell the player about it and let him fix it or not?

 

Pretty much. You can do various things to lessen it later (editing, waveform redraws of the attack transient with the pencil tool, tight volume automation, frequency keyed gating, etc.), but the best way is to get rid of it at the source. Everything else is a hassle / takes time / is a PITB by comparison.

[GZsound]

I run into pick noise all the time. Recording mostly acoustic instruments, it raises it's ugly head on banjo and acoustic guitar occasionally.

 

The best fix is to tell the player and re-record the part if possible. Failing that, I normally go the hard route and edit each pick hit out of the file, normally by zero crossing and cutting it out. Occasionally that will mean I need to stretch the file to fit, but that's not a horrible problem and if there are only a few pick hits, it isn't necessary.

 

String squeeks are normally tamed with judicious use of EQ.