remove breath sounds from flute track

[alJones]

hey,
does anyone know how to remove breath sounds from flute track?

I imagine I would use a compressor and use the sidechain feature to try to isolate the offending frequencies.

Does this sound reasonable? Or does anyone have a different idea?

thanks,
Al

[lionaudio]

have you tried a de-esser? It may not work, as most de-essers that I have used aren't so specific that it would only remove breath and leave the actual tone of the flute intact. and I would actually think that i would WANT breath sounds in the flute track. It is a woodwind after all.. If you mean that the flute was recorded improperly and the mic was placed so close to the mouth that it sounds like someone blowing in your ear, then I would re-track the flute.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

If you're recording on the computer I'd just zoom in on the breath part of the waveform and erase or mute it. On tape I might try spot erasing (if I had a back-up of the track and I was feeling brave).
If the breath and flute sounds are happening at the same time then muting and erasing won't work. Try cutting the lows and highs. You could probably high pass into the upper mids without killing the tone of the instrument.

[drumsound]

Volume automation, or actually doing it with a fade if you're mixing on a console without auto.

[eleaschm]

Try cutting the lows and highs. You could probably high pass into the upper mids without killing the tone of the instrument.

I would also suggest trying this out. It has worked wonders for me in the past?not necessarily with the flute, but with "heavy breathing" in general.

[Aquaman]

If you remove the breath sounds entirely, you will run the risk of giving the impression that a non-breathing robot is playing the flute.

If the breathing is too loud, just duck each breath with some volume automation until the track sounds like a human being playing a flute instead of a sucking wind cave.

[Snarl 12/8]

Some woodwind players play with a very breathy style. When I was in college my jazz band teacher was Yousef Lateef. As a cocky kid, when I first heard him play I thought he was playing wrong. I thought maybe his reed was too dry or something. After hearing records and the power coming out of his horn when he sat in with us I realized that was just his style. Make sure you don't eq out this flutist's signature sound.

[alJones]

thanks for the suggestions folks. I will try them all out!

Al