Hi all, I’ve been using Audacity for years without a single issue. I know how to install plugins and have done it many times, never a problem. However, I just downloaded the Nyquist Noise Gate plugin and it does not work at all. It shows in the effects list and I can open it but no matter what settings I put in, it just will not work. Has anyone had a similar issue? I’ve tried searching Google but it seems nobody has had this problem! I’m desperate as I need to finish a podcast in 48 hours.
Noise Gate is one of those effects that reads good on the tin, but may not be the angelic gift it seems. Even when it’s working right, it can give an odd sound with pumping noises in the words. Depending on the noise, it can give you hissy snake voices or Peter Frampton talking motors or busses.
Describe the problem in detail. Is this something Noise Reduction may be able to help with? Notch filters?
It’s just not a good sign when a producer is looking for emergency, rescue from the dead, revival tools.
But to specifically answer you, Noise Gate will not work right if your show is very low volume. Is your voice peaking about 50% or -6dB on the sound meters?
Hi Koz, I think I got it sorted now, it just didn’t work how I expected. The voice recording is around -3db peak with breath noises around -25db. It’s for the breaths that I need the noise gate. I assumed that having the gate threshold around -25db and starting with a level reduction of -24db would sort it but it didn’t, seemed to make no difference at all. A gate threshold of -11db seemed to do the trick but I’m confused as to why it didn’t work when I targeted the actual db level of the unwanted noise.
A Noise-Gate only attenuates the audio when it drops below a user-defined threshold, ( so it’s like squelching).
When the volume is above-threshold it does nothing to the audio. Typical use of noise gate is to completely-silence a signal when no-one is speaking / playing instrument : completely removing any low-level hiss & hum noises in portions which should be silent.