Scraping

[Rich Gags]

Hey y’all. I’m recording myself playing for the first time with a Focusrite interface into Logic Pro.

Any tips or tricks on how to eliminate or cut down on the scraping of the strings noise when traveling from one note to the next? I am playing a Sire Marcus Miller with newish strings. It seems like they have deep grooves. I have played my father’s old Fender which I don’t remember having such grooved strings. Maybe they were just worn down?? I almost wish there was a coating product I could put on them to reduce the grooves (like run a bar of soap down the grooves LOL). Is that such a thing?

 

[StereoPlayer]

I, personally, like the zing…

 

[Killing Floor]

Thomastik Infeld strings. And/or lift your fingers and use all 4 fingers so you don’t have to move as much, economize motion.

 

[5StringBlues]

I, personally, like the zing…

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[MuseChaser]

Take off the roundwound strings and put on flat wounds?
Dial back the treble?
More front pickup/less bridge pickup (if that's an option on your bass.. don't know how yours is set up)?
More practice?

 

[EvilJ]

1khz(+/-) at -15, or wherever your eq goes to minus eleven...
That works on my rig YMMV

 

[P. Aaron]

When test recording acoustic guitar today, I noticed a habit had formed as I'd gear up to strum from low E across the strings, I was letting the pick scrape a bit of the string before I wanted the playing to actually begin. Something one might get away with 'round the campfire but, I had to refine my technique to clean it up.

String damping isn't such an issue at rehearsal, practice or live playing but even finger style can make all sorts of noise in a studio environment. The technique of eliminating human noise to let the music come through. An art in itself.

 

[StatesideRambler]

My advice, learned from my classical guitar teacher: work hard on your technique. The squeaking you hear is your fingertips still in contact with the strings as you move. The Focusrite/LogicPro has simply called your attention to it. The only way to reduce or eliminate that is to move only while your fingers are NOT in contact with the strings. No accessory or piece of equipment can make that happen. You need to practice S-L-O-W-L-Y and diligently.

 

[BOOG]

Technique. It’ll significantly lessen over TIME if you’re practicing with purpose. The mantra I learned a long time ago seems to work for me…
SLOW IS SMOOTH-SMOOTH IS FAST
I mean that in the most painfully deliberate way.

 

[ProbablyTooLoud]

A Hi-cut filter, like on GK amps, does a great job reducing transient string noise.

 

[MuseChaser]

Technique. It’ll significantly lessen over TIME if you’re practicing with purpose. The mantra I learned a long time ago seems to work for me…
SLOW IS SMOOTH-SMOOTH IS FAST
I mean that in the most painfully deliberate way.

Absolutely correct, and a lesson that, even as a life-long professional musician, I didn't appreciate fully early enough and that still becomes increasingly crystalline.

Slow practice IS THE fastest way to learn to play cleanly, evenly, and proficiently at fast tempi simply because slow practice IS fast practice. Let me explain...

There really is no way to move from one note to another slowly and cleanly. By definition, the instant one note ends and the next one begins, if done well, is a rapid motion. If it wasn't, both notes would sound at once for a bit, or there'd be a smear or some other undesirable artifact. When you slow down your practicing, you're really only slowing down the amount of time each note sounds, NOT the speed from which you go from one note to another. This gives you time to REALLY listen, and time to plan until muscle memory can increasingly take over.

When one plays faster than one's current level of technique will support, one might not notice the sloppiness simply because it's hidden in a flurry of notes and it goes by too fast to be objectionable to lesser-trained ears, but it's there. Record it, then listen to the track slowed way down. It'll be embarassing. Trust me. BTDT, a bajillion times. Made me learn to practice slow. REAL slow. Saved me a TON of time in the long run. It's still practicing fast changes from note to note... just not fast notes. It's the CHANGES that are important.

Kind of like the old joke... a kid comes back from his second drum lesson and excitedly tells his dad, "DAD!! Today I learned how to play a 64th note on snare drum!!! Want to hear one?"

 

[Tim Skaggs]

More or less the least to most zing; (a few near equals in there)

• Flats
• Tapewounds
• Half rounds (ground or rolled)
• Elixer poly web or equivalent
• Elixer nano web or equivalent
• Pure nickel
• Nickel plated stainless steel
• Stainless steel

 

[coy garcia]

Good advice here. I'd say raise the action a bit, flats, technique... Some bass players have made a career out of noisy bass playing though.

 

[Rabidhamster]

Fingerease spray or using elixir coated strings will reduce finger noise, but that’s not to say I recommend either of them, just that other people have before.

 

[Stylee Mousse]

Do you usually practice through an amp? Chances are the frequencies that you hear prominently in the recording are not produced by many amps. So try a low pass in logic. Sweep it lower until the sound of the bass gets dull then sweep it up a bit.

also: technique

also: listen to some soloed bass tracks and realize that no one really hears that in a mix so the platonic ideal of complete silence other than notes is a not starter.

 

[Discount Bassy]

Improved technique for the win. I use this stuff as well before and after I play as well as washing my hands thoroughly before I touch my bass. It cleans and lubes the strings. The lube helps some and less sticky crud on the strings helps as well, but in its absence, lighter and more fluid technique for the most improvement.

 

[Rich Gags]

Thank you everyone.

 

[Stylee Mousse]

So I’m in the studio this morning and working up a song, playing a Fretless with new roundwound strings through a mixer into a good quality powered pa speaker. This is as bright sounding setup as I have.

observation: the string siding sound is audible but significantly quieter that any notes I play. I think a lot of the techniques to minimize are so ingrained in me that I do them without any conscious thought: really light left hand touch on the strings, barely touching them when moving positions, muting with my plucking hand when moving, muting with my hand. This is all happening really quickly and not interfering with my playing at all.

In effect the string sounds are more like breaths between phrases and, like a singer taking a breath, is expected and musically not a problem unless overly accentuated by mic or compression.

you could get really over the top editing a vocal performance to remove all breath sounds in a DAW but for what?

 

[seamonkey]

Ignore string noise unless it's messing up a Mix

Try gloves
But caution, when you see "Bass Gloves" they are likely for fishing.
Look for guitar player's gloves.

Although Scott uses gloves for medical reasons, he has some serious good tone with them:

 

[Basslice]

Lots of good advice above- especially practice. Flats also can mellow it all out.

Fortunately, there is much clanky, squeaky, zingy stuff that just doesn't come through a mix or live. I am sure many of you, like me, have listened to some famous bass tracks isolated and they sound rather poopy. Technique and EQ will get you where you need to go. Unless you are in a music store trying to impress people with your playing or cutting youtube videos on your chops, it is probably a bigger problem in your head than you think.