Road Noise from Window

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 25 May 2018 7:16 pm

My rent house is literally 20 feet from a highway. Cars, trucks, semis drive by about every 30 seconds.

My computer sits right in front of my bedroom window with a window unit AC/heater. Road noise comes through the window and probably through the AC unit even more.

This make getting a clean recording with a mic pretty difficult.

Any thoughts on how to reduce the noise in my room?

I can't really move to another room.

Jeff Valentine · Post by **Jeff Valentine** » 25 May 2018 7:44 pm

What DAW are you using to record? Thereâ€™s a plugin called X-Noise thatâ€™s quite good at getting rid of sounds like that without messing with the recording.

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 25 May 2018 10:17 pm

Well, I have pretty much every iteration of Cakewalk since it was called Cakewalk. Thinking about switching to Studio One. I probably already have the plugin. I have lots of them. But that still doesn't fix the real issue.

admin · Post by **b0b** » 25 May 2018 10:41 pm

Audacity can reduce noise. You give it a short sample of the noise at the beginning of the track and it scrubs that sound from the whole track. I don't know if it will work for random highway noises, but it should work well for steady sounds like your AC unit.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 26 May 2018 12:04 am

This is a common problem , even if we live far away from the highway. A nice Condenser Mic will pick up the mailman or the kids next door.

Someone rings the door bell and we can kiss that track goodbye too !

The solution , as you already know, is DIRECT recording.

OR, build a soundproof room !

In my "non noiseless " ( subject to outside noise) home studio, everything except vocals is now recorded direct. I will try to squeak in a mic'd Dobro or Acoustic track live but I don't go crazy if I can't. I have posted several times regarding direct recording, for me, a quality channel strip was the solution for me.

Tracking live mics is indeed an issue for HOME tracking and may require your amp and mic placed in a isolation box or a closet. A vocal shield may also help eliminate some noise as well .

I recall years back in a pro retail studio in downtown Bridgeport Ct, they didn't begin tracking until maybe 9 or 10 PM... too much "downtown noise". It worked well for them as they tracked and produced 2 or 3 major radio hits back in the 70's. They worked around the noise !

Sha Nah Nah Nah Nah, Nah Nah Nah Nah , Hey Hey Hey , Goodbye

Here's a recent thread where I talk about direct recording. As you said, it ain't the DAW.

Purpose of our tracking is everything , keep that in mind.

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=330736

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 26 May 2018 7:03 am

I'm recording mostly bluegrass. So direct is not really an option.

The original question remains.

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 26 May 2018 8:37 pm

b0b, I turn off the AC when tracking. Although, I did forget to turn it off one time. It was a pretty good vocal track so I used one the noise plugins to clean it up. Still leaked a little noise at the beginning and end.

Howard Parker · Post by **Howard Parker** » 27 May 2018 5:56 am

What king of mic are you using? You might research mics with tighter patterns (more side rejection) to mitigate some noise.

I think the odds of eliminating all noise is slim. Mixing with a noise gate enabled would help during silent spaces.

Find a closet?

hp

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 27 May 2018 6:21 am

Usually a Studio Projects C1.

Howard Parker · Post by **Howard Parker** » 27 May 2018 6:28 am

I'd tinker with a noise gate plug in. You can set the gate threshold pretty tightly.

Track with noise and all. Enable the gate plug-in when mixing. You can track with the gate but that's not my favorite method.

h

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 28 May 2018 6:29 am

I mix a lot of live multi-track recordings, and there is almost always some sort of leakage or noise that you'd like to get rid of. I've found Izotope RX to be a great tool for 'fixing' tracks. It takes a little learning, but it's very powerful.

This is the basic version, there are also other more in-depth demos on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/qL0KicrQRLo

Bill D. Terry · Post by **Bill D. Terry** » 28 May 2018 7:47 am

Bill Terry wrote:I mix a lot of live multi-track recordings, and there is almost always some sort of leakage or noise that you'd like to get rid of. I've found Izotope RX to be a great tool for 'fixing' tracks. It takes a little learning, but it's very powerful.

This is the basic version, there are also other more in-depth demos on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/qL0KicrQRLo

I concur with my namesake...Izotope Rx is very, very good, after a learning curve.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 28 May 2018 12:32 pm

Isotope rx does work pretty well. I would also look into multiple mic placement techniques that use polar patterns and phase cancellation to isolate the sounds you want. Might take a little investment in better quality mics though.