to minimise squeaks:
polish up strings, especially when new.
lick the tips of your fingers just before each take.

clean your strings after the session to discourage their digestion.
it's strong stuff, saliva.

and never allow mice to chat during recordings.

 

i agree with what you've said, but 90% of the squeaks in that video are being generated by the finger-picking and not the fretboard action.

 

what do you think about it https://allihoopa.com/s/HfUMHqaS

 

Yes totally agree. The Squeaks are what make is sound real, and after all it is a real guitar.

 

Appreciate all suggestions and will try to apply.

Meanwhile here is a short clip of my annoyance https://clyp.it/aps42hhg It's horrible and off putting but as I understand from you all that I mainly have to work on my technique first then look into other solutions.

Thanks guys for your superb input.

 

If all else fails and you're stuck with a take with squeaks on it, rememeber they're very short transients that can be easily dealt with using volume automation.

 

If the space is noticeable do what I do if I decide to micro edit things out or fix blatant timing issues from guitarists and other instrumentalists and even vocalists (of course never my own because my timing is perfect, LOL). Take a snippet of sound where they are not playing and use it to fill in the gaps left over when you move the note. Sometimes you need to crossfade in and/or out to make a seamless paste. If you do it right it will not be noticeable and nobody will be the wiser. I know a fellow who mixed a huge hit from a band everybody knows where the singer/guitarist was kind of fucked up when he did his lead and it sucked big time. He pieced it together from various takes to what we all know as a very bitchin' and signature piece of music history doing exactly the same thing that I just described. Don't ask 'cause I won't tell. I am sworn to secrecy.

 

aw c'mon. you're among friends here. we won't tell. honest.

 

Sorry, I will never betray a trust. I won't say which song or album, but it was a famous Kurt Cobain lead. 'Nuff said, maybe too much. If I am disappeared because of this tell my wife and daughter that I love them.

 

Here he automates an eq to take the squeakiness out of the fret sliding sound so it still sounds natural

 

Last edited: Mar 18, 2017

Exactly what I was going to recommend.
I love the empty space tip, @superliquidsunshine!
Also, if recording acoustic, I've never been as happy with the sound from the piezo (built in preamp) as I am with the guitar mic'd up properly, though there are some who blend that with the mic'd tracks to create a fuller sound. It may be why the squeaks are so accented.
Compression on an acoustic will really accentuate the squeaks also, automation of threshold might be the fix for that, but I've never tested in practice.

 

Another option you can try is *if* you have the same riff played with less squeaks (for example 2 bars repeating) you can copy and paste that part, fine-tune the crossfade and save it as a new track/event.

I do this all the time when quad tracking guitars for metal songs. If you want a tight and defined guitar sound, an "off" note or resonance can be heard and set you back. But if you can get it from another part of the riff (even from a different track). Then it's fixable

 

I actually dial in a bit of "squeak" when I'm recording VI guitars (MusicLab, Electri6ity) to make them sound more realistic and am always disappointed when I can't hear it (they pop in at random, or sometimes, not at all, unless I crank things up to "annoying"). For recording, superliquidsunshine's method is what the pros usually do, or did in the pre-Pro Tools age (they probably still do it). For live performance, depending on the type of music and the venue, I'm not sure it matters so much.

 

Wait! I once worked for weeks on a sampled guitar to make it sound like being a recording of a live played accoustic guitar. Then, when people listened, they cheered me for the wonderful accoustic guitar recording (which they told from the squeaks and fret noises I intentionally worked in) and I was so damn proud. And now you tell me it is undesired? Well, at least it saves me weeks of hard work and atd...

 

I think it would also be possible to reduce the volume or delete them using Melodyne.

 

Just get in there with the magnifier tool or zoom in like we used to do for vox. Make a samll clip out of the offending part and turn down just the sibilants and breaths. But in this case the fret/string noise. The eq automation trick is nice too. Especially If you use a DAW that can do per clip fx. That way you dont have to do so much automation.

 

Last edited: Mar 22, 2017