Improving workflow with Detach at Silences?

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1

Hi everyone,

I’m always looking at ways of speeding up my workflow when editing double enders in Audacity and I found this video clip on creating Strip Silences by using a Noise Gate and Detach at Silences. https://youtu.be/CSi2vSu0WTA

Edit/Clip Boundaries/Detach at Silences

I was able to make it work no problem, but I found the transition from speaker to speaker was audible and abrupt. Is there any way of adjusting the noise gate so that it leaves a little bit of a gap before the noise gate is open to let the sound of the speaker in? I think this would then make smooth transitions between speakers.

For my workflow, once we start recording, I click my fingers 3 times as a marker in Zoom and my local recording and we don’t say anything for 10 seconds. When I receive the other person(s) tracks via WeTransfer / Google Drive. I apply noise reduction for the 10 seconds for each track and then the Compress Dynamics plugin. Next I use the Punch Copy/Paste plugin to grab the noise floor frequencies over the 10 seconds and use the Punch Paste plugin to remove all the background noise for each track when the speaker isn’t speaking. This takes quite a time, but I’m very pleased with how it makes the tracks sound before I starting editing, but I’m wondering whether there is a way of making this process quicker using the noise gate and detach at silences

Thanks in advance. I’m learning so much from you all.

Best wishes

Joe

2

  1. Ensure that the “threshold” level is set as low as possible so that it only catches the noise floor. Setting the Threshold correctly is very important.

  2. Use the latest version of the Noise Gate and set the “Hold” to allow a bit of space after the ends of words (default 50 ms).

  3. Read the Noise Gate manual and ensure that you understand what all the settings do: Noise Gate - Audacity Manual (feel free to ask if there’s anything you are unsure of).