Using noise gates to clean up harsh sibilant sounds during pre-processing (+ Screenshot of settings)
Step one: Ensure your gate is the first effect in the channel.
- Load your noise gate into the effect channel. This should be the first effect you have loaded in.Putting the gate before anything else will help in ensure the raw vocals are being processed to a preferred state before completing the general mix.
Step two: Attack and Release adjustments
- Set both your attack and release knobs to 0.00ms or the smallest unit possible on the noise gate.Setting the attack and release to such low values will ensure that you are only attacking the sections you want to remove or decrease, nothing else. If you have a hold or sustain knob on your gate, please be sure to turn that down as low as it goes as well!
Step three: Threshold adjustments
- Set the threshold to a level between -14dB and -28dBChanging the threshold is what determines what volume levels are being attacked by the plugin. the higher the threshold level, the more aggressive the gate will be.
Step four: Volume control
- Apply a ratio change, setting the ratio to ~4:1, and adjusting the knee (if applicable) to ~5dB.Changing the ratio is will act as a form of softer volume control. For every dB under the threshold, the ratio will reflect in a relative gain reduction. e.g. a 5:0 ratio would cause a -5dB gain reduction. Adjusting the knee simply makes the reduction more natural, nothing more.
Step five: Sibilance targeting
- If your gate supports it, set the high pass filter to ~12.3kHz, and adjusting the plugins output gain to the desired volume.If your Gate supports it, adjusting your high pass will help ensure you are only reducing the sibilant pieces of the vocal track.
