The EASIEST Way to Reduce Background Noise in FL Studio

In my opinion, the short bolded paragraph I’ve written below is the best way to remove noise in FL Studio using stock plugins because it’s quick and easy. However, I prefer using a traditional noise gate.

To remove background noise in FL Studio
1) Open Edison in the mixer
2) Load your audio into Edison 
3) Select the noisy area
4) Click “Acquire Noise Profile”
5) Preview it to check it first
6) Select the area to reduce and then left-click the “Accept” button
7) Drag the new audio into the Playlist

6 Ways to Remove Background Noise in FL Studio

My personal favourite noise gate to use is the Bob Perry Noise Gate (it’s free – no catch), which can be used in a pretty surgical way to remove almost any sound you’d like. You can get it from Plugins4Free.

Melodyne 5 – Editor is awesome too and I’ll show you how to use it in the following section. You can try out the Studio version of Melodyne for free.

I included the Edison Denoiser at the start of the article because it doesn’t require a plugin download. It’s not my favourite though because I don’t find it works as well as the other methods.

Additionally, I’ll keep it real with you and say that the best way to remove noise is to not make the noise in your recordings in the first place. No free tool will allow you to perform last-minute precision audio surgery – at least no free tool I’m aware of. Anyway, let’s begin.

1) Use the Bob Perry Noise Gate

A) Open the BPA Noise Gate in the Mixer

You have to click on the arrow beside “Slot 1” and then you can choose your installed plugins from the “More Plugins” Menu.

B) Set Every Parameter to Maximum (Attack, Hold, Release, and Range)

Hit play on your recording and then set everything like what’s shown above. In simple terms, it’s the Attack, Hold, and Release settings set as fast as possible and the Range (or reduction) set to max.

The threshold is fully open which means it’s letting everything through and not really gating anything. Once you start to slowly increase your threshold, you’ll notice immediately once you’re getting to the right threshold range.

C) Set the Threshold Between -25dB and -45dB to Find the Signal’s Volume

Once you’ve found the spot where you’re reducing the sounds you want, but leaving the desirable parts intact, you can start adjusting other parameters.

Pay attention, because this is the most important part of the process. You may have to adjust the threshold by 0.1ms increments to get it in just the right spot.

D) Set the Range to Maximum for Total Noise Reduction

The Range on the BPA Noise Gate appears to act as a ratio. It controls how much you’re reducing the sound once it exceeds the threshold. Set it to halfway if you just want to reduce the noise. Set it to maximum if you want to eliminate it entirely.

E) Set the Attack to 20ms

In simple terms, the attack is how quickly the noise gate latches on to the signal to reduce the volume. If you really want to get rid of those sounds the moment they come up, the attack is how you do it. A fast attack, like I’ve used here, is 20ms. A slow attack is 100ms.

F) Set the Hold to Halfway to Avoid Chattering

Chattering is the sound that’s produced when the noise gate is opening and closing repeatedly. It’s really unpleasant and you’ll definitely want to avoid it. You’ll know what chattering is once you come across it. It’s when the noise gate makes a truly awful static sound.

G) Set the Release to 0.1ms To Release the Volume As Fast As Possible

I didn’t really need a super fast release time, because I just needed to attenuate the noises between my starts and stops on the guitar. And that’s it for this method.

If you’ve got a slow part, a slow release is probably all you’ll need. But if you need your gate to open and close quickly, you’ll want a fast attack and release.

In this case, I had a fast attack and release and then a hold of 127ms. This made my recording so that it cuts out all noise between the starts and stops of my guitar playing.

2) Using Melodyne to Remove or Attenuate Background Noise

A) Load Melodyne on Your Insert Track

The nice thing about using it in FL Studio is that you can change the shape of the interface in any way you’d like, unlike GarageBand. Melodyne is still solid in GarageBand though.

B) Hit Transfer in Melodyne And Then Play the Track in FL Studio

C) Isolate the Problem Area To Delete or Attenuate It

You can also click the note separation tool to cut the note wherever you need to.

D) Use the Amplitude Tool to Decrease the Volume

I’ll usually use a mixture of both because deleting it can be too abrupt and unnatural. Reducing the volume is a good way to merely reduce annoying sounds, without removing the natural vibe of the recording.

E) Or Outright Delete the Problem Area

I’ll usually do this in sections where my hand is scraping up against the guitar strings right before I’m about to start playing. Melodyne is great for this, although, many premium DAWs allow you to do this as well.

3) Using Edison to Remove Background Noise

FL Studio’s sampler, the Edison, has a feature that helps you remove background noise among other useful functions. This is the “Clean up (Denoise)” feature of the plugin.

In fact, if you want to remove the noise amid your recording, and not just between starts and stops, this is probably the best way to do it. However, it’s important to note that you will degrade the quality of your recording.

A) Insert Edison Onto a Mixer Track

To insert Edison onto a mixer track, open the Mixer > Select a Track > Load Edison. Edison will be opened up in the mixer track you have selected.

B) Load Audio into Edison

For you to start editing the audio, you need to load it up into Edison. Click the icon on the top left of the audio sample and then, from the dropdown that appears, click “Edit sample”. This opens up the audio in the Edison already inserted into the mixer.

If you have not inserted any instance of Edison into a mixer track, an instance of Edison will be opened on the master channel, and you can also do your editing from there. You can route the master audio into an insert track as well.

C) Select An Area of the Audio That’s Just Noise

Now, select an area of the audio sample that contains nothing but noise. To do this, it is as simple as left clicking and holding, then dragging your mouse across the area with only noise.

Quick Tip:

When you make a selection, you may find that it’s hard to get it to stop selecting more and more audio. To stop the selection process, double click on the grid to remove it.

You will need this to let Edison define what the noise in the sample sounds like (acquiring noise profile)

D) Acquire the Noise Profile

Next, right-click the “Clean up (denoise)” button to acquire the noise profile (It’s the one that looks like a toothbrush) When you hover your mouse over this button, the hint panel shows “Clean up (denoise)/acquire noise profile“.

[Quick Tip: If you don’t understand a feature in FL Studio, hover over it, and check the hint panel for a description. The hint panel is located at the top left corner of the FL Studio window. This works only for stock plugins.]

E) Select the Area of The Audio to be Denoised

Use Ctrl/Cmd + A to select the whole audio (when zoomed in, “Ctrl/Cmd + A” only selects the area zoomed in. So, zoom out to capture the whole sample), or if you only want to select a specific area, click and drag to choose the area.

F) Clean Up the Audio

To clean up the audio, left-click the “Clean up (denoise)” button (the one that looks like a toothbrush). This opens the Denoiser window in Edison.

G) Denoiser Settings

The Denoiser window has several options. It features a frequency spectrum that shows regions of high noise activity. The spectrum can be adjusted using the “Freq scale” slider (frequency scale). 

The threshold slider determines the volume level at which the denoiser detects noise. Anything below the threshold level is considered noise and is removed. 

The amount of noise removed is controlled by the “Amount” slider. Remember that the “noise” and the “good part” of your recording exist together in the audio.

Simply put, don’t be tempted to move the “Amount” slider all the way to the right (to eliminate the noise totally). Use the “Preview” button to see how much the denoiser affects your recording. 

Clicking the “Output noise only” checker will reverse the effect, and instead of removing the noise, it will remove the “good part” of the audio and output only the noise.

This can be useful in listening to how much of your recording is being removed with the noise and helps you adjust the “Amount” slider appropriately.

(Uncheck this button when you’re done, except if you actually want to output noise only.) When you’re satisfied, click “Accept.”

H) Drag And Drop the Clean Audio to The Playlist

Once you’re done with removing the background noise, you have to add your newly cleaned audio to the playlist.

Hold down the “Copy” button and drag your mouse to place the newly edited audio on the playlist. There you have it. You have successfully removed any background noise from your audio using Edison.

4) Using Fruity Limiter

Fruity Limiter is a stock FL Studio effects plugin with limiting and compression functions. You can learn more from the online FL studio manual. It also has Noise Gate (reduction) functions. The noise gate section features three knobs: “Release (REL)”, “Gain” and “Threshold.” 

The threshold determines the level at which all sounds below that level are considered noise. Gain determines how much of the noise is reduced. Release determines how fast the noise is reduced.

A) Route Your Audio to The Mixer

To be able to use Fruity Limiter on any audio, you need to have routed that audio to a mixer channel. Then you can add Fruity Limiter to the channel to affect the audio. There are a few ways to go about it, here’s a simple one:

First, double-click the audio on the playlist. This opens the sampler where you can do some basic editing. Now, locate a “Track” button at the upper right corner of the sampler.

Then click and drag up/down. As you do so, you’ll see the track number change. Drag up/down till you find which track you want to route it to.

Alternatively, after opening the sampler window, press Ctrl/Cmd + L to directly route the audio to the next free track on the mixer.

B) Insert Fruity Limiter

The next thing is to insert the Fruity Limiter to the track you have already routed audio to. Open an effect slot from one of the slots on the right side of the mixer view. Then select Fruity Limiter from the list of effects.

C) Set the Threshold Level

Once you have opened up Fruity Limiter, find the section that indicates “Noise Gate”, Then adjust the threshold knob to set where the threshold for noise will be.

Any signal that doesn’t pass the threshold will be determined as noise and the volume will be reduced depending on how high or low you set the gain.

D) Adjust the Gain

The gain knob decides how much reduction is put on the noise. If it is set to the highest, there is no reduction in the noise volume, and if it is set to the lowest, the volume of the noise will be reduced completely. Decide how much reduction you want, you can adjust the gain knob appropriately.

E) Modify the Release

The release says how fast or how slow the reduction in noise volume will happen. If it is set all the way to the left, there is a sharp/fast volume reduction, while moving it to the right creates a slow release.

A fast release may be too abrupt, while a slow release may take too much time which might cause no actual noise reduction, therefore choose the right spot.

Once a signal about the threshold is received again, the volume reduction is stopped. Adjust these settings until you’re satisfied with the results.

5) Using Denoiser by Bertom Audio

Denoiser by Bertom Audio is a free VST that works with a similar technique to Fruity Limiter. It has a threshold slider, which you can use to set the noise level, and then reduces the volume of your audio once the signal is below that level.

The uniqueness of Bertom Denoiser is that it has the option to reduce the noise profile of different frequency bands separately from each other.

This is useful for removing specific noise (e.g. high-frequency noise), and if you know the noise frequencies in the room you’re recording in, it will help you be more specific with the noise reduction.

It features a threshold slider and some frequency sliders to independently denoise different frequency bands.

To Use Bertom Denoiser, you must have installed Denoiser by Bertom on your computer and added it to your list of plugins on FL Studio, Then you can follow the steps below.

A) Route Your Audio to the Mixer

B) Insert Denoiser in the Effects Chain

Select an effect slot from the list on the right side of the mixer window. From the list of effects, choose Denoiser.

C) Determine the Threshold

Raise the threshold slider to a point where you can notice a duck in the volume whenever you stop singing or playing in your recording. That is the point where only the noise comes through.

D) Decide the Denoise Amount

Set how much of each frequency will be denoised using the sliders. Play around with these settings until you find what works for you.

6) Removing Noise by Cutting It Out

Another easy way to remove a noisy section of your audio is to cut it out, the same way that you would if you were using GarageBand or Logic.

Initially, I struggled to figure out how to do this but it’s pretty straightforward. The first thing you want to do is zoom in on the section of your audio so you can get really precise in your edit.

A) Use Command/Control + Mouse Scroll to Zoom In On the Problem Area

B) Press “C” On Your Keyboard To Bring Up the Blade Tool

C) Click on the Grid and then Drag the Line Along the Grid to Cut It

I couldn’t take a screenshot because you have to hold on to the mouse in order to continue with the cut, but it’s easy to do. You just click on the closest grid line then you drag the line along the grid to cut a perfect line.

D) Press “B” to Exit the Slicer Tool Then Right-Click to Delete the Area

Then you have two specific edits. This is a good thing to do if you’ve got a long stretch of noisy audio where nothing important is playing.

3 Tips for Reducing Background Noise in FL Studio

1) Turn Off Fans, Air Conditioners, Heaters, TVs, Radios, and Replace the Battery in Your Fire Alarm

If you haven’t replaced the battery in your fire alarm yet and it’s constantly beeping, you’re going to have to fix that because you can’t have that in your recording.

Additionally, it’s a nightmare if your air conditioner turns on and off while you’re recording. My air conditioner, while amazing in the summertime, has been the bane of my existence while making YouTube videos and recording. I just turn it off now when I record and deal with the stale air.

2) Pad Out Your Room With Rugs and Mats

The rugs and mats absorb the sound and stop it from bouncing off the walls and making things sound dull and lifeless. I bought approximately 6 of them from Way Fair (I’m not an affiliate for these guys, by the way). They make decent quality home furniture stuff for a reasonable price.

3) Watch Your Mic Placement, Get A Pop Filter, And Make Sure to Use Decent Cables

I included all of these basic tips as one because, for me, personally, the only one that I’ve noticed has made a big difference is using the pop filter.

I feel obligated to mention the other ones because they’re commonly recommended by people who know more than me.

Other Articles You May Be Interested In

• How to Use A Noise Gate in Garageband (Step-By-Step)
• How To Get Rid Of Background Noise In Garageband
• Why Are My Songs So Quiet in FL Studio? +7 REAL Solutions
• 15 Editing Tips For Garageband (That Are Actually Useful)
• How To Mix Vocals In GarageBand

Important Things To Note About Removing Background Noise in FL Studio

1) There Is No Free Tool That Can Completely Remove Noise

At least I’ve never come across it. At the end of the day, you just have to work on recording things properly the first time.

Removing the sound of an air conditioner in the background of your vocal recording is going to be next to impossible, at least with today’s technology. Who knows how far we’ll get in the future?

2) Captured Noise Is Part of the Audio Data

Piggy-backing off the first point, it’s important to note that any noise captured in your audio recordings or samples will be part of the audio data.

As a result, removing the unwanted part of the audio (the noise) will sometimes also mean removing parts of the audio you may actually want. Although there are ways to minimize this, you can expect some degree of quality degradation.

3) Allegedly, iZotope’s RX10 Background Noise Remover Is A Great (But Pricey) Option

Personally, I’ve never actually used this plugin but I’ve heard rave things about it. Give it a shot if you’re willing to spend money. I won’t include a link simply because I haven’t used it and can’t personally endorse it.