The Best Audio Restoration & Noise Reduction Plugins for Metal

Let’s talk about noise. Not the glorious noise of a cranked amp or a perfectly nasty scream, but the other kind. The hiss from your high-gain DI track. The 60-cycle hum from sketchy wiring at your practice space. The cymbal bleed washing out your killer tom fills. This is the stuff that can turn a powerful mix into a messy, amateur-sounding demo.

We get it. The internet is flooded with debates about which plugins are "the best." People get intense GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) for plugins, collecting 20 different EQs when they really only need one or two they know inside and out. For general tasks like EQ and compression, the specific plugin you use matters way less than your skills. A great mixer can pull a killer sound with stock plugins because they know what they’re listening for and how to get it.

But audio restoration and noise reduction? That’s different.

This is one of those specialized tasks where having the right tool for the job makes a world of difference. You’re not just broadly shaping a tone; you’re performing sonic surgery. Trying to remove amp hiss with a regular EQ is like trying to perform surgery with a sledgehammer. You need a scalpel.

These are the plugins that function as those surgical tools, helping you clean up your tracks so your creative processing can shine.

The Workhorses: Industry Standard Noise Reduction Suites

When you need to fix serious audio problems, you call in the specialists. These are the comprehensive toolkits that can tackle almost any noise issue you throw at them.

iZotope RX 10

There’s no way to talk about audio restoration without putting iZotope RX at the very top of the list. It’s the undisputed industry standard for a reason. While the full Advanced version is a hefty investment, even the Standard version gives you more than enough firepower for most metal production tasks. RX can run as a standalone editor for deep surgical work or as individual plugins inside your DAW.

What it’s great for: Pretty much everything. It’s a complete solution for cleaning up audio from tracking.

Pros for Metal Producers:

• Spectral De-noise: Absolutely essential for cleaning up noisy high-gain guitar DIs. Before you even hit your amp sim, you can use this to learn the noise profile of the amp/pedal hiss and remove it transparently, leaving your tone intact. This is a crucial first step to getting a great sound when you re-amp metal guitars.
• Guitar De-noise: A purpose-built module that can intelligently reduce amp hiss, fret squeaks, and pick attack noise. It’s shockingly effective for taming some of the unwanted artifacts that come with aggressive playing.
• De-bleed: A lifesaver for drum recordings. Got a heavy-hitting drummer whose hi-hat is bleeding into the snare mic like crazy? De-bleed can analyze the snare track and a source track (the hi-hat) and surgically reduce the bleed, giving you much cleaner and punchier drum shells to work with. (For tips on preventing bleed in the first place, see Jens Bogren’s complete guide to miking drums.)
• De-click & De-crackle: Perfect for cleaning up vocal tracks. You can eliminate mouth clicks, pops, and other distracting noises without affecting the core performance. Once your track is clean, you can move on to other crucial vocal editing tasks like aligning harmonies with Vocalign.

Things to Watch Out For:

• RX can be CPU-intensive, especially on higher-quality settings.
• There’s a learning curve. It’s a powerful tool, and you can easily do more harm than good if you push the settings too hard and create weird, watery-sounding artifacts.

Actionable Tip: Load a noisy guitar DI into the standalone RX editor. Select a small section of pure silence between riffs where you can only hear the hiss. In the Spectral De-noise module, click “Learn” to capture that noise profile. Then, select the entire file and apply the reduction. Start with gentle settings (e.g., Reduction around 10-12 dB) and listen carefully to make sure you’re not sucking the life out of the transient.

The Quick Fixers: Simple & Effective Suppressors

Sometimes you don’t need a full surgical suite. You just need to quickly and easily tame some background noise without thinking too much. That’s where these plugins come in.

Waves NS1 Noise Suppressor

The NS1 is a stone-cold classic for a reason. It’s literally one fader. You push it up until the noise goes away. It’s been a secret weapon for metal guitarists for years because of how effectively it can act as an intelligent, aggressive gate.

What it’s great for: Tightening up chugging, palm-muted metal guitars.

Pros for Metal Producers:

• Speed: It’s incredibly fast to dial in. No complex parameters to worry about.
• Aggressive Gating: It creates that super-tight, choppy sound on palm mutes that defines modern metal.
• Low CPU Usage: You can slap it on every guitar track without breaking a sweat.

Things to Watch Out For:

• It’s not transparent. If you push it too hard on sustained notes or clean parts, you’ll hear it working and it can sound unnatural. It’s best suited for percussive, rhythmic parts.

Actionable Tip: Place the NS1 as the very first insert on your DI guitar track, before the amp sim. During a heavy, palm-muted section, push the fader up until the space between the notes is dead silent. This ensures your amp sim and distortion aren’t amplifying any unwanted noise or string ringing between chugs.

oeksound Soothe2

Okay, is Soothe2 technically a noise reduction plugin? Not in the traditional sense. It’s a dynamic resonance suppressor. But in metal, one of the biggest "noise" problems we face is harshness, fizz, and annoying resonant frequencies, especially from cymbals and distorted guitars. Soothe2 is a master at fixing this.

What it’s great for: Taming guitar fizz and harsh cymbals automatically.

Pros for Metal Producers:

• It’s “Smart”: Soothe2 automatically identifies and turns down harsh resonant frequencies in real-time. It’s like having a hyper-fast engineer riding hundreds of tiny EQ bands for you.
• Preserves Tone: Unlike static EQ, it only works when the nasty frequencies are actually present, so it doesn’t dull your overall tone.

Things to Watch Out For:

• It’s easy to overdo it. A little goes a long way. If you push it too hard, your mix can sound muffled and lifeless.

Actionable Tip: Put Soothe2 on your main rhythm guitar bus. Set the processing to target the high-mids and highs (say, from 2kHz upwards). Use the "Delta" button to listen to only what the plugin is removing. Adjust the depth until you’re just hearing that nasty, fizzy harshness, then turn Delta off. You’ve now successfully tamed the fizz without gutting the aggressive bite of your guitars. This is a perfect example of a specialized tool solving a problem that a normal EQ can’t handle as elegantly. (Want to see another advanced frequency-shaping trick? See how Joey Sturgis uses multiband compression to control guitar low-end.)

Don’t Forget The Basics: Your DAW’s Stock Gate/Expander

Before you spend a dime, don’t forget the humble gate that comes with your DAW. For many tasks, especially cleaning up drums, it’s all you need. The philosophy holds true here: knowing how to use a simple tool effectively is key.

What it’s great for: Cleaning up drum shell bleed (toms, kick, snare) and creating tight, rhythmic effects.

Pros for Metal Producers:

• It’s Free: It’s already in your DAW.
• Zero Latency (Usually): They are incredibly light on the CPU and won’t introduce processing delay.
• Total Control: You get precise control over Threshold, Attack, Hold, and Release to perfectly shape the dynamics of your drums.

Things to Watch Out For:

• A poorly set gate can sound choppy and unnatural, cutting off the natural decay of a drum.
• It can be triggered by bleed from other instruments if the threshold is set too low.

Actionable Tip: Put a gate on your tom tracks. Set the threshold so it only opens when the tom is actually hit. Now, adjust the Hold and Release times to control the length of the tom’s sustain. You can either go for a super-short, punchy sound or let it ring out naturally before the gate closes. This simple move cleans up massive amounts of cymbal wash from your mix. (For a deep dive on this specific technique, here’s an article on how to properly gate a snare drum.) (Gates are a form of dynamic control, just like compressors. To learn more, check out our guide to compression for mixing rock and metal.)

Putting It All Together: The Real Secret Is The Workflow

Having these tools is one thing. Knowing how and when to use them is what separates a clean, professional mix from a noisy mess. The top-tier producers don’t just randomly slap plugins on tracks; they have a deliberate process.

Watching a pro like Jens Bogren, Nolly Getgood, or Will Putney handle a problematic recording is an education in itself. They know exactly which tool to reach for, how hard to push it, and—most importantly—when to leave it alone. They’ve spent years honing the ears and instincts to make those decisions.

On Nail The Mix, you get to be a fly on the wall for exactly that. In our massive catalog of sessions, you can watch dozens of the world’s best metal producers mix real songs from bands like Gojira, Lamb of God, and Periphery. You’ll see them use these exact plugins to solve real-world problems, explaining their thought process every step of the way. That’s how you move beyond just knowing what a plugin does and start mastering the art of building a pro-level mix.