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Old 03-04-2021, 04:44 PM   #1
lyrical_scripts
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Default Compressor Settings - Noise Floor?

This is definitely a Newbie/novice question. . I set up very slight compression in Audacity for voiceover tracks, and it includes a setting for noise floor which is set for -40 dB.

The Audacity manual says: Noise Floor: The compressor adjusts the gain on audio below this background level so as to prevent it being unduly amplified in processing. This is mainly useful when compressing speech, to prevent the gain increasing during pauses and so over-amplifying the background noise.

I view Reaper as superior to Audacity, which is why I am trying to transfer my knowledge (limited though it may be) from Audacity to here. So far in processing, that has been true, at least as far as I am able to discern.

I don't see this noise floor setting expressly in the ReaComp compressor. Do I need to concern myself with this while in Reaper? Would someone please explain this in basic terms so I can understand? TIA, maybe I'm not the only one!
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Old 03-04-2021, 04:55 PM   #2
foxAsteria
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Most compressors don't give af about noise floor..."your problem, dude," they all say.

If it's indeed a problem for you, dude, the solution is ReaGate (or any other noise gate on the planet for that matter). Put it before your compressor to block the noise from ever reaching it.

A more advanced solution is to create a noise profile in Reaper's FFT filter (during a "silent" section where no wanted audio is present, but the noise is).

This kind of processing is more intensive and can create audio artifacts if set up poorly, but set up correctly, can pretty much eliminate the noise from the recording.

You'll want to render or freeze the track after setting this up tho, as the plugin will instantly give you a lot of latency.
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Old 03-04-2021, 08:40 PM   #3
DVDdoug
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Yeah... It looks something like a noise gate which is downward expansion to offset make-up gain which boosts everything, including the background noise.

Quote:
I view Reaper as superior to Audacity, which is why I am trying to transfer my knowledge (limited though it may be) from Audacity to here. So far in processing, that has been true, at least as far as I am able to discern.
Different plug-ins/effects are "different" and you can't always say one is better than another in every situation.

I consider Audacity to be an "audio editor", not a DAW, and there are lots of things it can't do but some people don't need a full DAW.

Audacity doesn't apply effects in real-time and that allows a 2-pass process. When you apply make-up gain that's a 2nd-pass normalization effect that adjusts for 0dB peaks after compression.
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Old 03-05-2021, 12:58 PM   #4
lyrical_scripts
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Thanks so much for your responses. I was wondering if I was missing something but I have been able to apply ReaFir to bring down the noise floor. I got caught up in the apples for apples, trying to take the processes I use in Audacity and figure out how to apply them in Reaper. It's definitely not a one to one transfer, but as long as I am able to get a cleanly edited file, I am happy!
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