Applying gates and expanders
To the right of the ENVELOPE section in Fruity Limiter, we can see the NOISE GATE section:
Figure 6.6 – Noise Gate
Gates and expanders are useful tools for music producers and can be used in a wide variety of situations. They can be used independently from the rest of the controls in Fruity Limiter.
To understand gating, let’s compare it to simple compression. Simple compression works by reducing the loudest parts of a sound above a threshold level. Gates and expanders do the opposite. Expanders reduce the parts of a sound below a threshold level. Gates completely remove the audio below the threshold (don’t allow anything through the gate). Expanders reduce the audio below the threshold but don’t eliminate it completely. From here on in, we will refer to examples using gates, but the same overall concept is used with expanders too.
Why would you want to use a gate? Imagine you had a dialog recording in a...