Automatic gate goes against the beat?

[Lon]

I am struggling with a recent drum mix:

when i use gates and heavy compression, the beat seems to flow less and lack drive. Could this be due to the gate chopping off the earliest transient and thus the hits seem late to the ear?

When i take off all processing the beat flows better and has more drive.
I used gates in the first place because the bleed is a bit much.

Did someone experience this before and what was your solution?

 

[Lon]

anyone? i know this is quite esoteric but really important...

 

[Mago]

yeah for sure.

Try making a trigger track of the shells you want to gate, shift it forward a bit and trigger the gate via sidechain from that track.
See if it helps.

Could be one of the comps though...drumbus or mixbus sometimes does that, can even alter the feel of the speed of the song.

 

[Lon]

i switched to a gate with lookahead and took of most of the compression, less is really more. the beat is still not as fluid feeling as i'd like to but its way better now.

edit: are there any rules-of-thumb on determining if a certain processing tool is beneficial or bad to the groove except... listening? ears get worn out pretty fast when trying to do this.