AUTOMATIC NOISE GATE SETTINGS FOR MULTITRACK DRUM RECORDINGS

A method has been developed for automating the settings of a noise gate. The method has been applied to a kick drum track containing bleed from secondary drum sources and white noise. The optimal settings are found by maximising the signal to distortion ratio (SDR). The SDR has contributions from the distortion caused to the kick drum signal, and the residual bleed and noise. These two components are weighted, enabling the gate to be controlled by a single parameter. It is shown that the improvement in the SDR can be obtained when the two components of the SDR are approximated, enabling the optimal settings to be calculated from the noisy signal and a single kick drum hit. It is found that the optimal threshold is slightly above the peak level of the noise component of the signal.