As a dynamic signal processing element, the noise gate is used in music production and performance to suppress aesthetically undesirable noises in an audio recording or audio signal. The so-called "threshold" can be set on the noise gate for this purpose. If the signal falls below this threshold, it is automatically attenuated to such an extent that it can only be heard very quietly or not at all. All other signal components are amplified and become more prominent in the sound image. Increasing the signal-to-noise ratio in this way prevents the background noise of electronic devices in the signal chain, for example, from reaching the loudspeaker. The dilemma, however, lies in the fact that the supposed noise also expresses attractive, exciting and unique moments of musical performances. The breathing noises when singing, the slipping of fingers over guitar strings or artefacts of distorted audio signals are de facto subject to the smallest individual changes, which run the risk of being suppressed, excluded or over-adapted, perfected and smoothed out at the noise gate.

People have always developed tools, devices, technologies and media to regulate their relationships with each other and with their environment. These relationships are also evident in contemporary media cultures. The Noise Gate therefore serves here as a metaphor and figure of thought that spans the space between music production and socio-cultural practices, technologies and politics.

In the recording studio, at the door to the club, in science, in teaching concepts or on algorithm-controlled playlists, we are symbolically or literally at the gate and thus faced with the decision about what or who is too much noise or causes too much noise and should be excluded, or which voices should be heard. Roland Barthes' famous thesis on the "roughness of the voice" (grain de la voix) as something impure that touches because of this impurity, Dick Hebdige's emphasis on subcultural 'noise' ("as opposed to sound") as an aesthetic as well as political disturbance or Jacques Attali's succinct comment that nothing happens in the absence of noise bear witness to the fact that the relationship between sound and noise is often a substantial element of aesthetic, musical, social and not least political threshold and decision-making processes. Seen in this light, power relations are revealed at the noise gate - decisions between inclusion and exclusion, mainstream and niche or between noise and silence. The relationship between non-human and human actors increasingly plays a role in contemporary music production and reception. The gate is "turned off" (!) according to certain individual, societal, technical and social criteria. At the centre of all these aspects is the function of the noise gate as a tool for setting points and locks, but also for regulation and differentiation.

Metaphorically, a noise gate can be read and evaluated in different ways: Science, for example, necessarily functions as a "noise gate". Without the reduction of complexity, selection and combination of relevant facts, it is not possible to gain knowledge. Similarly, we are aware of the long history of the suppression or marginalisation of certain positions in the scientific community. This applies to the status of research into popular music in the humanities or the arduous path that gender or postcolonial studies also took in popular music studies. In this respect, the academic world itself functions as a filter or gatekeeper in the immediate sense. Another example is the research and presentation of the history(ies) of popular music. Here, too, filtering and selection take place so that history can be told at all - always at the risk of hiding complexity and nuances.

In a figurative sense, the noise gate acts as a narrative, social, cultural, educational and political filter effect. From its significance in production environments to questions of science policy, its "tuning" will be explored and discussed during the conference from various perspectives of popular music studies.

The publication of individual contributions as part of the IASPM D-A-CH Vibes series is planned.

All other important information can be found on the registration and information page.

Contact persons:
Susanne Binas-Preisendörfer & Sidney König

We look forward to an interesting conference in spring 2026 at the University of Oldenburg.

Susanne Binas-Preisendörfer (Music and Media, University of Oldenburg)
Möritz Höger (Media Music Practice, University of Oldenburg)
Christofer Jost (Centre for Popular Culture and Music, University of Freiburg)
Sidney König (Music and Media, University of Oldenburg) and the
members of the IASPM-D-A-CH board and advisory board