# Underlying distortion / white Noise when playing instruments, particularly stringed, through sample players in Cubase.



## d4vec4rter (Mar 11, 2021)

It's an issue that's been bugging me for some time now and has got to a point where I really want to sort it out if I can.

As the title suggests, I notice, what appears to be, some kind of underlying distortion / white noise when I'm playing instruments through sample players like Kontakt in Cubase (11.0). It gets louder the more instances I use and it's more evident when I play string or orchestral libraries. 

I initially though it was just a velocity thing but I have Studio One 5.0 and it doesn't happen in that DAW so I'm led to believe it's an issue more to do with Cubase than anything else.

Has anyone else come across this or have any ideas on what is causing it?


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## chrisr (Mar 12, 2021)

Can you post a short audio clip from each DAW Dave?


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## d4vec4rter (Mar 12, 2021)

chrisr said:


> Can you post a short audio clip from each DAW Dave?


Yes, I will do. I thought that might be something that would help. I've got a 3 hour Zoom meeting coming up at 10:00 am so I won't be able to get it done until later on today though.


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## d4vec4rter (Mar 12, 2021)

Here's an audio example of the noise I'm hearing. There were a few plugins on the mix bus but they shouldn't cause this, surely? I did take them off and it was less distinct but I think that's only because the noise isn't being processed in any way and I shouldn't be getting this kind of result anyway. It's nowhere near as bad in Studio One.

Any clues?


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## chrisr (Mar 12, 2021)

That's sounds like incredibly high room tone to me Dave, which I think is originally in the sample itself - what library is that?? The noise _isn't_ in the reverb tail - so you're adding your own reverb here I guess? If it was an underlying problem the noise would be in the tail too.

Are you by any chance using an 'automated' eq tool like gulfoss or teote? - if so, that might be the culprit - seeking to boost lows to a fixed ideal (white noise) where really there should be no such boost. That sort of processing, along with a lot of compression would possibly result in what you're hearing in this example.

But I don't think this is anything to do with the daw, if that helps.

best,
Chris


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## d4vec4rter (Mar 12, 2021)

chrisr said:


> That's sounds like incredibly high room tone to me Dave, which I think is originally in the sample itself - what library is that?? The noise _isn't_ in the reverb tail - so you're adding your own reverb here I guess? If it was an underlying problem the noise would be in the tail too.
> 
> Are you by any chance using an 'automated' eq tool like gulfoss or teote? - if so, that might be the culprit - seeking to boost lows to a fixed ideal (white noise) where really there should be no such boost. That sort of processing, along with a lot of compression would possibly result in what you're hearing in this example.
> 
> ...


Chris, many thanks for your response. I think you may have hit the nail squarely on the head here.

It just so happens that I had both Gulfoss AND TEOTE on the mix bus and it does look like they were doing exactly as you say. Took them off and a far better result. It is still more pronounced in Cubase than it is in Studio One though.

I did wonder whether it was something inherent in the actual samples, more to do with bow sound. I've since taken a look at another thread that goes into some length discussing the unwanted noise that can come with string/orchestral libraries.

As I often use plugins like Gulfoss and TEOTE on my mix bus, I'll explore ways of filtering the orchestral tracks out from being processed, possibly a combination of high pass filtering and channel routing.

Thanks again for your support.


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