Is cutting out breath sounds the bane of your existence? Then this tip is going to take your breath away. The effect is called Noise Gate, it's free, it's built into Final Cut Pro, and once you set it up it removes breaths automatically.
Where to find it
It lives in your effects browser all the way down in the audio effects, but just type "Noise Gate" in the search bar. Apply it to your clip, open the inspector (double-click the top of the inspector to extend it), head to Noise Gate, and click the controls icon.
Threshold: the "must be this tall to ride" sign
Most of the time, the threshold is all you'll need to adjust. It's the sensitivity of the effect: anything below a certain volume (breaths, background noise, hum) gets cut off. Think of it like a "must be this tall to ride" sign. Any volume lower than the sign doesn't get to ride.
To set it, find a loud-looking breath with Noise Gate temporarily disabled so you can measure it. Two quick helpers: the clip appearance icon lets you make audio waveforms bigger, and clicking your audio meters opens them as a larger window. Put your playhead at the start of the breath, play it, and watch the meters. Say it peaks around -32 dB: enable Noise Gate and set the threshold to about -31, just above the breath.
Too low and breaths sneak through. Too high and it cuts so much that your subject sounds like they're on a call with horrendous cell service.
Reduction and hysteresis
Reduction is how much gets eliminated below the threshold. Keep it at -100 to remove breaths fully.
Hysteresis (yes, I had to look up how to pronounce it) is what you adjust second. It sets separate threshold levels for the gate's opening and closing actions. In practice: watch the gate indicator while your dialogue plays. It should stay open while you talk and close on breaths and gaps. If you see it flashing closed during dialogue, adjust the hysteresis until those flashes stop, so the gate only works on the breaths.
The attack and release section controls how fast the gate clamps down and lets go. It depends on your audio, but you'll generally be fine leaving those on default and only touching threshold and hysteresis. Audio engineers, tell me how much you hate me for saying that in the comments.
Save it as a preset
Best of all: click the dropdown menu, hit Save Preset, and name it something meaningful, like the microphone and location it was dialed in for. Next time, apply Noise Gate, pick your preset from the dropdown, and every setting loads instantly.
If this was useful, my other tutorials will treat you well too. Have a great day!
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