Annoying white noise on lead sounds

[Smokei]

Hi,

I've recently started noticing this more and more and now it is starting to get really annoying.
I mostly use slynth1 and nexus for my leads. I will usually layer 3-5 synths for a lead sound (while trying not layer only saws for example), pan some to the right, some to the left, eq them differently and send them to a bus where I will put a compressor, final eq and reverb..

Now, I've noticed that when I eq the individual layer channels, on almost every layer I can hear white noise (I've double checked everything, there is no oscilators producing white noise), and in order to get rid of it I usually have to cut the high frequencies at 10000-12000 Hz which, sometimes even less. That leaves me with lead layers that are actually cut at lets say 10k Hz, and that takes away life from the track, it seems dull. Has anyone experienced this white noise in their lead sounds and how did you fix/avoid it.

The monitors I use are KRK Rokit rp6 g2.

Thank you for your time

[SMOR3S]

Are you using Ableton?

I am not saying it's a prob with Ableton, but I get a background white noise sound too, It might be my DAC, but idk :/

[Smokei]

I'm using FL Studio 10

And well like I've said, it's pretty much killing me lately, I start a track, make a good melody, start layering and then this occurs. I give plenty of time to each individual layer when eq-uing but in order to completely remove that white noise I sometimes have to cut all the way to 10k hz, which means, high end is really really bad.

[mthrfnk]

Is anything clipping, are you adding resonance on the EQ, have you tried de-essing?

[Smokei]

Nope nothing is clipping, no resonance added, I'm using fab filter pro q as my EQ (It is the same with fruity eq or any other eq), fab filter just suits me best. I've got no frequencies boosted, I usually start with low cuts and then I tend to high cut 18 or 19k Hz, depending on the sound. But in most cases I'll hear that white noise and in order not to hear it anymore I'll have to high cut all the way to 8-12k Hz range which is really annoying and makes the sound sound like crap.

I havent tried de-essing, but isn't it supossed to be used on vocals mostly?

[mthrfnk]

Nope nothing is clipping, no resonance added, I'm using fab filter pro q as my EQ (It is the same with fruity eq or any other eq), fab filter just suits me best. I've got no frequencies boosted, I usually start with low cuts and then I tend to high cut 18 or 19k Hz, depending on the sound. But in most cases I'll hear that white noise and in order not to hear it anymore I'll have to high cut all the way to 8-12k Hz range which is really annoying and makes the sound sound like crap.

I havent tried de-essing, but isn't it supossed to be used on vocals mostly?

Well you can de-ess anything in theory, I use it on leads and on cymbals/hats a lot just to remove all the harshness.

[Artie_Fufkin]

This is a shot in the dark, but try increasing your latency and see if it goes away.

[arktrix45hz]

I'm using FL Studio 10

And well like I've said, it's pretty much killing me lately, I start a track, make a good melody, start layering and then this occurs. I give plenty of time to each individual layer when eq-uing but in order to completely remove that white noise I sometimes have to cut all the way to 10k hz, which means, high end is really really bad.

are your soundcard inputs selected to automatically turn on when your daw and asio drivers launch?

[SMOR3S]

As the replies said above, it might be a buffer time issue, or latency with your soundcard, and your DAW...

What source of an audio interface, or soundcard, are you using?, and what are you current sample rate, and latency settings like, in your DAW?

As a starting, try to set your sample rate to 44.100 Hz, and if you can, set your buffer time to like 5ms-10ms... Also make sure your input/output latency is no more than 20ish ms...

I hope at least something here helps *fingers crossed*

[Smokei]

I'm using M Audio Fast Track C 400 soundcard. Sample rate is 44,1 kHz, and buffer time doesn't seem toi make a difference, it is the same with 4096 samples and 512 samples.

However, I've tried Waves X-Noise stereo, it has the ability to remove some of the noise pretty nice, however, it still takes a little life from the top end and it delays the signal a bit so it seems off, guess it is impossible to use it in fl studio as automatic plugin delay compensation does nothing -.-

[mthrfnk]

Could you post an example of the problem on SoundCloud?

[bassinine]

low pass mutha fucka, do you use it?

but seriously, low pass that shit, then have it open and close depending on how much white noise you want to come through. white noise is great on top of things, but only if it's not ALL the time.

[Augment]

Cut all the high end and make a layer dedicated to filling the higher frequencies. I personally like some whitenoise on toop of my leads

[SMOR3S]

Could you post an example of the problem on SoundCloud?

^ This...

[Artie_Fufkin]

Turn it up loud and see if you get feedback

[Isley]

use a high shelf not a low pass

[JBE]

Is this still a problem after you render it out to an mp3 or wav? If it's only in the DAW and not in the rendered version then it's an issue somewhere in the signal from your DAW to your output source.

Also are you resampling these leads? A lot of times you can end up with a white noise after you resample the same sound a lot and keep normalizing it. Also, are you normalizing?

It's really an issue I've never experienced before. So it's kinda hard to really understand exactly what you are experiencing. It would be nice if we could hear an example of the problem.

[Smokei]

I can send you a soundcloud link, it's not dubstep tho.

[mthrfnk]

Just post it here...

[Smokei]

Ok, here is an example: http://soundcloud.com/danny-v-4/danny-v ... -1/s-JoSZE, the melody kicks in at 2:10, and you can see that it lacks some high freq. because I've had to high cut a lot to remove that white noise shit.