Getting rid of noise from an audio sample is one of the most irritating things.
But by using the right techniques, you can effectively remove noise from an audio sample.
In FL Studio, noise can be removed using stock or third-party plugins.
Stock plugins like Edison have integrated noise detection technology, allowing for better audio detection and removal.
Other standard techniques include using a combination of plugins like the de-esser, noise gate, parametric equalizer, etc.
In this guide, I’ll show the step-by-step process of removing noise from an audio sample in FL Studio.
Most of these techniques only require stock plugins that come with FL Studio.
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Remove Noise using Edison (Stock Audio Editor): The Best Method
FL Studio has a great audio editor plugin called Edison built into it. Think of it like a mini version of Audacity within FL.
Edison is an effect plugin and you can access it via the mixer panel.
You can use it to cut down most types of noises, including vehicle noise, white noise, rumbles, static noises, etc.
The noise removal tool built into Edison works by frequency matching, allowing you to cut down unwanted noise-causing frequencies.
Follow these steps to remove noise using Edison:
Step 1: Opening Edison
To open Edison, go to the mixer window by clicking the view mixer button or pressing F9 on your keyboard.
Once FL Studio’s mixer opens up, go to the effects slots section of any mixer channel (master or insert).
Click on any of the slots, and a list of effects plugins will show up, from them find and choose Edison. Once you click it, it’ll get added to the effects rack.
You can also add Edison to a channel by dragging and dropping it from the plugin database shown on the browser window (as shown in the image below).
Once Edison is open, you’ll see something similar to this.
Step 2: Adding Audio Sample to Edison
To add an audio sample to Edison, either click on the empty audio view window or the save button and select the load sample option.
Once you do this, File Explorer will open up. From there, you can navigate to your file location and select the audio sample.
You can even drag and drop the audio sample directly into Edison.
Once the audio is added, you’ll see a screen similar to the following, showing the amplitude spectrogram of the audio sample.
Step 3: Finding Noise
Once the audio sample is loaded into Edison, analyze it and determine the noise you want to remove.
If the audio sample is not taking up most of the headroom, it’ll be difficult to find the parts with noise. In such cases, normalize the audio before editing it.
You can either normalize a section of the sample or the whole at once.
Once the audio clip is clearly visible, play and find the noise-only parts in the audio sample.
For example, I found a long stretch of noise between two words in the acapella sample I loaded into Edison.
Then select the section with noise by clicking and dragging the cursor over it.
Step 4: Analyzing and Removing the Noise
Once the section with noise is selected, open up the Clean up (denoise) tool inside Edison.
You can find it in the top toolbar of Edison. Its icon looks kind of like a toothbrush.
Once you click the icon, it’ll open up the denoiser tool.
Now click on the green “Acquire noise profile” button on the Denoiser tool. This will scan the noise and analyze its spread across the frequency range.
Once the scan is complete, it’ll close the denoise tool. Open it again to see the acquired noise profile.
Now click on the “Preview” button to see if you can hear the noise from the audio or not.
If not, it means the acquired noise profile is good and can properly remove that noise.
You rarely have to analyze the noise multiple times to capture the correct profile. In most cases, you’ll get it on the first try.
As you work with more audio samples, you’ll get better at it.
Further, you can play around with the denoiser tool’s settings to adjust the noise removal intensity.
If you are a beginner, work with the basic controls like the “Threshold” and “Amount” sliders.
Once you are happy with the output, select the whole audio sample or a part of the sample from which you want to remove the noise.
Now go back to the denoiser tool and click the “Accept” button.
This will initialize the noise removal process. The time to complete the task will depend on the length of the selected audio.
Once it’s complete, you won’t hear any persistent noise in the sample. You can also see the result in the audio waveform.
Yay! Noise is removed!
Now you can drag and drop, save, or send the noise-removed audio sample to the playlist to continue working on your project.
Remove Noise using The Limiter Plugin
A limiter plugin is the best alternative for cutting down static noises from audio recordings.
The limiter plugin built into FL Studio lets you apply a noise gate over the audio when it is sent through the channel the limiter is loaded.
Here’s how you do it:
Step 1: Open “Fruity Limiter”
Go to the mixer in FL Studio and add a Fruity Limiter to the insert channel where you’ve routed the audio sample.
For example, here, I routed the audio to the 10th insert track. So I’ll have to load the Limiter plugin on that.
Now, I’ll add the Limiter plugin to that mixer channel.
Step 2: Adjust The Noise Gate
Once the limiter plugin is loaded onto the channel, work with the noise gate settings to adjust the gating intensity.
To set the level of noise you want to remove, turn the THRES (Noise threshold) knob to the right.
Don’t turn it to 100% (0.0dB) as it won’t allow any audio signal to pass through the gate.
A threshold value of -35dB is the optimum setting to remove most noise. Though it varies based on the intensity of noise you’re working with.
You can further play around with the gain and release time settings to find a nice spot for optimum noise removal.
Remove Noise using an Equalizer Plugin
Equalizer plugins are great at finding and suppressing noise-causing frequencies. They are especially good at suppressing sibilances like a “sharp S” (De-essing).
You can use the FL Studio’s stock “Fruity Parametric EQ 2” plugin to remove such noises.
Open up the EQ effects plugin on the mixer channel, boost any of the bands, and move it around to find noise-causing frequencies.
Once you find the frequency you want to remove, bring the band down to negative dB values. This will suppress its presence on the audio.
In most cases, you’ll find unpleasant sibilance noises within the frequency range of 5,000 – 8,000 Hz (5 – 8 kHz).
Remove Noise using Third-Party Plugins
You can also remove noise from audio samples using other third-party noise reduction plugins.
These plugins are from other companies that you have to separately install on your computer. They are not from Image Line (developer of FL Studio).
The following are some of the denoising plugins I like:
- iZotope RX 10 – Best paid third-party noise reduction plugin
- Bertom Denoiser – Best free third-party noise reduction plugin
- Adobe Enhance – Best web-based software (requires internet)
- Acon Digital Restoration Suite 2 – Paid
- Waves Z Noise – Paid
- Voxengo Redunoise – Free
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get rid of the buzzing sound on my mic in FL Studio?
The buzzing sound from your mic is primarily due to the issues associated with the outlet, sound card, and electrical factors. If you use a wireless microphone, ensure it’s fully charged. Inside FL Studio, you can work with the high buffer settings to cut down some buzzing sounds, but this takes more processing memory.
Does FL Studio have a noise gate?
Yes, FL Studio has the noise gate feature available. You can access it through their stock plugins like Fruity Limiter, Edison, Fruity Equalizer, and Maximus.
How do you get to the Fruity Limiter in FL Studio?
You can access the Fruity Limiter plugin on FL Studio from the plugin database on the browser window or from the mixer track FX (effect) slot section. To access it from the FX slot, click on any empty FX slot and choose the “Select” option. This will open up a list of plugins. By default, the Fruity Limiter plugin is put under the “Dynamics” section.