Okay folks, buckle up. Wanted to try this new Squabble Up sampler everyone’s buzzing about. Heard it could make those background noises sit right without fiddling for hours. Figured, why not? Downloaded it yesterday morning feeling pretty optimistic.
First Attempt: Total Mess
Opened it up inside my project. Looked simple enough, just slapped it onto my vocal track. The sampler has these buttons: “Source”, “Target”, and a big “Sample” button. Hit “Sample” thinking it was magic. Played my track. Guitars, drums, vocals, the whole chaotic soup. Clicked “Apply”. Sounded… worse. Way worse. Like someone threw a blanket over the speakers and cranked the bass too high. Vocals sounded muddy and distant, but that annoying hi-hat was screaming. Felt pretty stupid. What did I miss?
Figuring Out the Buttons
Took a deep breath, closed my eyes for a sec. Maybe I should actually read something? Checked out the little guide. Okay, dumb moment realized. The “Source” isn’t just any sound. You gotta tell it exactly what noise you want it to learn from. The hi-hat was the problem, right? So, found a section where only that pesky hi-hat was playing cleanly. Solo’d it.
Clicked “Source”. Hit the “Sample” button again while just the hi-hat was playing. Squabble did its little blink thing, meaning it listened.
Second Try: Getting Closer
Un-solo’d, played the whole mix. Clicked the “Target” button next. My understanding here is this tells Squabble where you want that learned sound to go. Or rather, what track is making the problem noise? Still my vocal track. Clicked “Target”. Then hit “Apply” again.
Big difference this time! That harsh hi-hat sound sitting over the vocals was noticeably calmer. It didn’t disappear, just… blended better? Like it wasn’t stabbing my ears anymore. The vocals popped out a bit clearer. Okay! Progress! Fist pump moment.
Tweaking & Finding the Sweet Spot
Felt good, but the background still felt a tiny bit unnatural. The “intensity” slider was there looking at me. It defaults to 50%. Decided to experiment. Pulled it down to about 35%. Applied again. Subtle, but better – smoother transition without losing that nice hi-hat reduction. Tried boosting it to 65% and yeah, too much, started sounding squashed and artificial. Found the sweet spot for this track between 35% and 40%.
Important stuff I stumbled into:
- Clean Source is KING: You gotta give it a clean shot of the noise, no other junk playing. Solo that annoying sound!
- Target Matters: Make sure you pick the track where the noise is actually bugging you. Don’t just slap it anywhere.
- Intensity Ain’t Set & Forget: Default is okay, but fiddling with it makes a huge difference. Less is often more.
- It’s Not Total Removal: Don’t expect it to vanish completely. It does great at knocking it down and cleaning up the space so your main thing shines.
Final Thoughts (For Now)
So, after that initial facepalm moment, Squabble Up genuinely saved me a ton of time messing with EQ cuts and complex dynamic chains just to tame that one sound. Once you get the Source/Target thing figured out, it’s crazy fast and pretty smart. Still figuring out if it works as well on more complex background noises, but for distinct, repetitive sounds like that hi-hat? Absolutely worth it. Saved that project setting.
Gotta play with it more on different stuff, see where it trips up. But for a quick way to quiet down annoying background elements without making everything sound weird, thumbs up from my messy little setup. Left hand finally stopped slapping my right hand trying to EQ it out manually.
