Background noise on lead vox

[gritz]

Ok stupidly recorded vox with singer without muting the speakers in the studio - now I’m moving the vox around but getting the sound from the original track leaking onto the mic - how best to remove background noise on a vox track ?? Eq it out silencer or gate it? What would you consider

[PhillipOrdonez]

If I didn't have access to tools like Rx 7, I would try a gate. It really depends whether it will help enough or not. Either riding the fader during silences or a gate, however none of these will remove the leak whilst the singer is singing. Hopefully somebody else has better knowledge on the matter and can provide better assistance.

[Boombastix]

iZotope RX7 is $8 right now at PiB, it does a decent job. DSM V3 by Pluginalliance is more powerful when used in expansion mode, it is the best I have tried (less artifacts, unbelievable reduction).
Klevgrand has a cheap one and Waves has WNS, I haven't tried those too much, since I have both DSM V3, RX7.

[TheDragonborg]

Just how loud were your speakers? Enough that you can hear the track in the vocals in the mix? If you can't hear the background noise in the mix I'd leave it alone or at least use a gate. Though it might be a problem if you want to use the vox in quieter part of the track... you could also try a band pass filter if you can find the root frequency of the vocal.

[xboix]

Absolutely the best way is to re-record the vocals, but you probably know that!

Failing that, you'll have to gate and EQ as best you can and then put it in the mix, where the rest of the track should conceal the bleed unless you have dramatically changed the backing from the one used by the singer.

[Aquila]

You can also manually chop the tracks in the sequencer to delete the unwanted audio. Far more tedious but way more accurate than a gate.

[aeox]

iZotope RX7 is $8 right now at PiB, it does a decent job. DSM V3 by Pluginalliance is more powerful when used in expansion mode, it is the best I have tried (less artifacts, unbelievable reduction).
Klevgrand has a cheap one and Waves has WNS, I haven't tried those too much, since I have both DSM V3, RX7.

Trash2 for 8 dollars? Thanks for the heads up sir!

[PhillipOrdonez]

Rx7 elements, that is. I should have specified that I mean rx7 advanced or at least standard, so you have tools like music rebalance, de-bleed, dialogue isolate, spectral de noise...

[guitfnky]

the first thing I would do (if I couldn’t re-record) would be to make sure the vocal track was aligned sample-accurately with the rest of the tracks. your recording is likely going to be very slightly delayed from the original, due to the time it takes for the sound to come out of the speakers, then get back into the interface/DAW. that’s going to create phase issues.

once that’s taken care of, I would first try a gate, keeping an ear out for anything that sounds funky. you may need to automate the threshold or attack/release settings here and there to get it to sound natural. if you think it’ll require a lot of automation, in that case, you may be better off just manually cutting up the track.

[esefelipe]

Treat it like a live vocal take, so you’ll want a soft expander gate, not a hard gate, and only reduce by -9 to -16dB (or less, depending on the vocal presence in the mix). Otherwise it’s too obvious. Waves PSE would do the trick quickly, but the Reason Mixer channel gate could be fussed to work as well.

The bleed certainly limits your vocal compression and vocal delay/mod effects later in the mix.

[hollyn]

you might try placing the mic in the same general spot and recording the playback in the room. this should cancel out the original audio -- it worked fine for me on a past track.... just fyi.

[TheDragonborg]

you might try placing the mic in the same general spot and recording the playback in the room. this should cancel out the original audio -- it worked fine for me on a past track.... just fyi.

You forgot to mention that you need to invert one of the tracks for this to work.

[hollyn]

you might try placing the mic in the same general spot and recording the playback in the room. this should cancel out the original audio -- it worked fine for me on a past track.... just fyi.

You forgot to mention that you need to invert one of the tracks for this to work.

Yep, thanks! Was just logging back in to mention this. Thanks for catching that.