Obsessing over a clean noise-gated audio chain costs you more retention than room tone ever did

Obsessing over a clean noise-gated audio chain costs you more retention than room tone ever did

A hard gate clamps your quiet moments to dead silence, and dead silence between phrases reads as a glitch, not a beat. Slightly noisy continuous room tone keeps the human presence the gate strips out. Listeners tolerate noise. They flinch at digital gaps.

— Heavy gate for music and ASMR
— Light or no gate for talking-head presence

Clean isn't the same as alive.

Agree or fight me?