Live Sound noise gate tip for vocals

Quick and simple, what ever is messing with your threshold should be used as a source to compress a double patched version of the vocal. If snare bleed is too loud in “vocal 1“ (and you have a strong vocalist singing) then make a 2nd copy of “vocal 1“ which will be compressed (sidechain) via the snare drum. Then take THAT vocal and make that the key input for the sidechain of your real live vocal 1’s noise suppressor. This is an easy way to get some more detail back on your live vocals. I was able to lower my threshold by roughly 6dB once I switched to the “snare squashed“ version of the vocal as the gate key. That means my singer can be 6dB quieter and still open their gate. Win. You’ll have to mess with the compression to get it right but it works wonders. If your singer is not loud or has poor mic technique this might not work. I’m using this on my background vocalists who’s mics never move on stage and they happen to be very loud vocalists. Cheers.