Bob,

While I respect your recording background and your success using a noise gate, a noise gate approach on microphone recordings will only take out what shouldn't be there after the vocal or other source drops below the threshold level set on the gate. If you're in a basement with a low ceiling, or up near a reflective wall, those early reflections easily get into the recording while the gate is open particularly with large diaphragm condenser microphones that while advertised as cardioid in response, have a quite broad response pattern.

I close mic, and I use some treatment. Without the treatment, I don't like the sound of the recorded tracks - and I'm not talking noise in the background.

I'm glad your approach works for you. I find that similarly with recording acoustic instruments in a large enough room away from walls and ceiling, I can use a good ol dynamic microphone like the EV PL model that I have and get a very good recording without treatment OR a gated approach. Haven't tried that with vocals yet, but I will be next month.

-Scott

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