9 Top Free Noise Gate VST Plugins 2025

One of the most important parts of editing and mixing is audio cleanup and audio sweetening. Various tools are typically employed to achieve these ends, and as a music producer it would be wise to become acquainted with the various resources available, and how to use them.

Noise gate is an essential in the sound engineer toolkit. It can help you take the buzz out of a noisy guitar amp, clean up the unwanted background noise in a vocal track (recorded at home while the furnace is on), reduce unexpected bleed from headphones, and so on.

Gate is not a miracle worker, but it certainly can help in your mixdown efforts. And so, here are the best free noise gate VST plugins available.

Renegate by Auburn Sounds

The stunning Auburn Sounds hits us up again with their exquisite Renegate, which they refer to as a “smooth workhorse gate.”

In case you didn’t know, Auburn Sounds plugins are always beautifully designed, and not much needs to be said here about that (because we’ve surely said it elsewhere). But let’s just say the attention to detail to the outer often reflects the inner too.

Unlike some of their hybrid or specialty creations, Renegate is a much simpler, full-band gate plugin. And they’ve developed it as a straightforward, simplified gate that’s easy for anyone to operate.

Although the free edition doesn’t come with fancy extras like additional gain reduction options, oversampling, built-in sequencer, or raw knob for adding grit, it’s still a more than competent gate for most needs.

Renegate comes with a few presets to help you get started. That’s always a nice feature. And you can get it for Windows and Mac on the Auburn Sounds website.

Download: Auburn Sounds

Analog Rack Noise Gate by Nembrini Audio

“Don’t give me anything fancy… Hit me up with a simple, powerful plugin. Maybe something a little old school.”

If that sounds like your inner dialog around noise gate plugins, then trust me, you’re not alone. Sometimes, a simple, straightforward plugin puts your mind at ease, and it may even be all you need to achieve your desired effect. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of the equation and helps you get to your sonic destination faster.

Analog Rack Noise Gate’s primary controls are limited to the threshold and range dials. But you do get input and output controls too, just in case.

The effect is quite noticeable, so you will find that you can clean up your guitar and bass tracks quite efficiently using Nembrini Audio’s gate. To take advantage, you will require the free iLok License Manager and iLok account.

Download: Nembrini Audio

Bob Perry Gate 2 by Bob Perry Audio

Here’s a gate plugin that looks quite sweet – the Bob Perry Gate 2. Right off the bat, you can see that it has an attractive, semi-realistic looking design. The chrome control knobs (with a lime green accent) are set against a navy gradient console backdrop. A serif font was chosen for the labels – an unusual choice, but it seems to work in this case. As well, the Bog Perry Gate logo is striking and apropos.

This free, entry-level noise gate plugin comes with five primary controls – threshold, attack, hold, release, and range. But there are also switches for curve (linear, logarithmic, S-curve), and source (side chain and channel). While this is a simple, beginner-friendly setup, it is more than some noise gate VSTs – even some on this list – come with.

With high resolution processing and a high-resolution graphical user interface, though, this plugin offers a slight touch of luxury.

While it’s not explicitly stated, this appears to be a gate ideally suited to drums, especially snare sounds. That said, you can try it on any track requiring some cleanup and see how it feels to you.

With Bob Perry Gate 2 (versus the original), they added GUI scaling, global preference saving, visual waveform display, threshold line, undo/redo, presets, as well as AAX support.

Bob Perry Gate 2 is available for Windows and Mac, but it doesn’t seem to support all DAW hosts, so be sure to check the website before attempting to download and install it on your machine.

Download: Bob Perry Audio

FLOORFISH by Sascha Eversmeier

Sascha Eversmeier’s FLOORFISH is not a new VST plugin by any stretch of the imagination (at this point, it’s 20+ years old). Stemming from his “fish fillets” collection, FLOORFISH is a very simple, very nicely designed free noise gate VST. Even by today’s standards, I would say that FLOORFISH features an eye-catching GUI.

This is a 32-bit noise gate / expander plugin, which might prove a disappointment to some. But it might not be much of a deterrent to others.

Controls include detect freq (with listen button), sense (with soft button), expansion, attack, release, and two separate self-explanatory bypass and stereo buttons.

Even to this day, FLOORFISH is an effective and competent noise gate. If you don’t need anything fancy, this is a good pick for your VST arsenal.

Download: Sascha Eversmeier

DD Gate by Dead Duck Software

Dead Duck Software’s DD Gate is a simple 64-bit noise gate with sidechain control.

Some consider it the best free noise gate VST plugin available. I’m not so sure if that’s true, but it is a competent, easy-to-operate, no-frills plugin.

Your basic controls include input, threshold, attack, hold, trim, low cut, and release. You could say that it’s adequately set up for just about any kind of application, whether it’s drums, bass, vocals, or guitars.

Reducing unwanted noise is quite straightforward with DD Gate, as the effect can be applied quite heavily when needed.

I certainly don’t think there’s anything to lose with this free plugin, so give it a try for yourself.

Download: PLUGINS 4 FREE

GGate by GVST

In the early days of software- and computer-based recording, there were certain developers that bestowed us with a suite of free VST plugins. GVST was, and still is, one such creator.

Their full list of plugins includes a compressor, limiter, reverse delay, chorus, compressor, bass stereo imaging, pitch-correction, and may more.

Though I have not used all their plugins, I’m certainly familiar with GSnap, given that it’s basically a free autotune plugin, and I have even used it on certain projects (usually in a very minimal way). Not the best autotune plugin out there, but for slight corrections, it works well.

GGate is quite possibly the simplest of all noise gate plugins on this list with just three knobs – threshold, attack, and fade. While it might not be the most powerful gating tool available, it does what it’s been designed to do.

Again, it might be a little old school by today’s standards, but that doesn’t mean it won’t do the job.

Download: GVST

T-Force Trance Gate 2 by Mastercode Music

Mastercode’s T-Force Trance Gate 2 is certainly a smooth looking plugin. Its Halloween themed color scheme gives it a certain visual appeal that seems to help its very industrial, old school looking console design.

This envelope controlled rhythmic gate effect was designed to transform your synth pads, guitars, or other instrumental tracks into rhythmic patterns. This was a popular thing to do, especially in classic trance (electronic music) tracks, but that isn’t to say there aren’t other uses for this VST. The most comparable thing in the world of guitar would be the “kill switch,” which gives you control over your signal and create rhythmic in-out patterns.

With various built-in tools like an internal step sequencer, sidechain mode, and a multimode filter, you can achieve some fun and exciting effects using this gate. It’s great for creating variation in your sounds and it’s even great for builds.

So, it should be stated, just in case, that this isn’t really a “cleanup” effect so much as a rhythmic pattern generator that takes advantage of gating. But if that’s what you’re looking for, you will enjoy T-Force Trance Gate 2.

Download: Mastercode Music

StormGate 1 by AraldFX

StormGate 1, like the T-Force Trance Gate 2, is a rhythmic gating effect that can be controlled via amplitude patterns. And these patterns can be created by hand or with the help of built-in drawing tools.

Whether it’s a synth pad or other static sounding tracks, you can use StormGate 1 to inject rousing rhythmic patterns that add variety, color, and texture to your projects. StormGate 1 even simulates compressor sidechaining.

While its design is primitive, this is a versatile tool that does what it’s been designed to do. So, if you need to add some rhythmic color to your musical palette, give StormGate 1 a try.

Download: KVR Audio Software

A1TriggerGate by Alex Hilton

A1TriggerGate is yet another plugin that will chop up your audio signal to create a trance gate style effect, also known as “sequenced gating.”

Some of the stellar features include host sync, integrated effects (lowpass filter, drive/distortion, echo/delay), as well as pattern commands.

Check out the video and you will see for yourself – this VST works just as advertised, transforming your simple synth parts into stimulating rhythmic sequences. Taking advantage of the built-in tools can help you turn even a repetitive loop into a thrilling ride with dips and builds.

Alex Hilton seems to know something about UI design as well, and his plugins often are nicely put together. That goes for A1TriggerGate, too. While a little busy, the interface is nevertheless balanced, and puts all the controls at your fingertips. And some even say this is a better-quality plugin overall than some paid options.

If you’re not making electronic music (trance), this is more of a fun, experimental tool than anything else. But given that it’s free, nothing’s stopping you from giving it a whirl.