Understanding Noise.

Gain Staging:

Gain staging is probably the most important stage of music production and is that first step to creating a good mix. Gain staging is about bringing the gain down on each channel to ensure that none of them are clipping. “Audio clipping is a form of waveform distortion. When an amplifier is pushed beyond its maximum limit, it goes into overdrive. The overdriven signal causes the amplifier to attempt to produce an output voltage beyond its capability, which is when audio clipping occurs.”

(McAllister et al., 2020)

“Proper gain staging is to allow your sound system to achieve the best signal to noise ratio.“

(Anon, 2020)

Noise:

At its simplest form, noise is any unwanted sound in your signal, whether it bleeds from the other instruments onstage or the low level hum and hiss that occurs in electronic circuitry. Whether you are working with all acoustic instruments and an analog desk or your working with a top spec digital equipment each gain stage will induce unwanted noise. That could be from cables, from amplifiers or anything else. Each gain stage can induce noise into the signal path and has the potential to amplify this noise. Proper gain staging allows you to minimise noise by amplifying it as little as possible, and you can cut a lot of noise by emulating unnecessary gain stages altogether.

(Anon, 2020)

Signal-to- Noise Ratio:

“The signal to noise ratio (S/N) is the proportional amount of dB between the nominal operation level and the noise floor. The higher the S/N, the lower and less noticeable the noise is.” The louder the volume is the louder the unwanted noise is too.

(Anon, 2020)

How to start with the best possible sound:

“There are many ways to ensure you’re starting off with the best possible sound, but here are a few quick tips. For microphones, getting each mic as close to the source as possible is key, because you’ll get a stronger signal and pick up less noise. Avoid using pads if possible (see more about pads below), but don’t overload your mics. Guitar amplifiers feature a pair of gain stages that are notoriously mismanaged. Unless the guitarist needs to crank the output to get the right kind of distortion, try to encourage lower stage volume. This will allow you to run cleaner signals through the PA, and it will cut down on spill into microphones across the stage.”

(Anon, 2020)

Noise Gates/ Reduction:

Noise gates, also known as gates or audio gates. It Is a type of dynamic processor that controls the volume of audio signals. Noise gates lower the volume of a signal when that volume drops below a certain level that has been set, this is called the threshold.

(LANDR Blog, 2020)

Noise Gates work on a similar basis to compressors as they are triggered by setting a certain level called the threshold. However they do use this threshold in different ways. A Noise gates, takes that threshold that has been set and reduces and attenuates the signals that are below that threshold. Where the compressor attenuates the signal above that threshold.

Noise gates will help remove:

• Ambient background noise

• Unwanted reverberations

• Crosstalk

• Static

• Small mistakes in performance

• Other instruments caught in microphone bleed

Terms used to talk about noise gates:

• Threshold - (Measured in dB) Specifies the point at which the noise gate is triggered. Between the open and close position.

• Attack - (Measured in mS) The time that is taken for the gate to fully open once the threshold has been exceeded.

• Hold - (Measured in mS or S) A minimum amount of time that the gate must stay open after the threshold has been exceeded.

• Release - (Measured in mS) The time taken for the gate to fully close after the signal falls below the threshold. Sometimes, also called ‘Decay’

• Range: (Measured in dB) The amount of (dB) off signal the gate allowed to pass even when it is closed. Rather than eliminating the noise entirely, it can be controlled and limited. It's also sometimes called the floor depending on your plugin or equipment.

(LANDR Blog, 2020)

JWJ