Gating Techniques.

[KeithRT99]

When do you guys use gates? how hard do you gate? how short? what don't you gate?

the reason i thought to bring up this topic is because i find myself unsatisfied with my gating skills. I always end up frustrated. Especially when trying to gate snares. Maybe i'm just getting too much bleed in my drums tracks.

discuss.

 

[egan.]

If your tracks are really lean then gating w/ 6-20 dB of reduction (to taste) can work well. If you have a ton of bleed (hat for example) the IME expansion often works better.

 

[greyskull]

for gating snares...
i side chain the gate off a trigger, either a sample or a ddrum CLANG.
makes it much tighter and more natural

 

[izzyrock]

Use an Expander, not a gate. That will make the hits smoother and without the annoying cymbal bleed "splash"

Waves GATE has the expander option on it and thats what i always use.
Zero Attack, and release to taste.

 

[scorpio01169]

i find the best way to gate is to gate until you hear an audible change...then back off until you dont.

 

[ahjteam]

When do you guys use gates?

live only. You can clean up stuff at studio.

how hard do you gate? how short?

so that the drums don't die too early and so that the attack still remains

what don't you gate?

Vocals

 

[KeithRT99]

i meant to include expanders as part of the discussion. I've been toying with the range control alot, but i can't quite get it there yet.

 

[Ouroboros]

I gate the bass guitar, with the kick drum track selected in the sidechain, automating the gate's bypass for sections where the kick and the bass really need to lock in together. Adjusting the threshold, attack, hold and release to keep it sounding tight but smooth, and not inhumanly tight.

Otherwise, I'm not much into noise gating. I let my overheads pick up most of the snare anyway, add compression to the snare accent mic, so the hits become more consistent. Usually, I have luck with the kick drum, as it hardly picks up any snare/cymbal bleed at the source.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Grab a Ddrum snare trigger, record that along side your miced snare.

In the editing phase, shift your trigger track about 3-5 miliseconds ahead of the miced track. Sidechain your snare's gate (set attack to 0) with the trigger: Your gate will now open 3-5 ms before the snare strike, giving you 100% of the snare hit. I usually set the release anywhere from 150-200 ms. Should give you a very nice, clean snare hit.

The other trick is not to go overboard with the boosting EQ on a snare track: You'll just be turning up the cymbal bleed. Try to use subtractive EQ instead.

 

[grywolf627]

The Drum Guru has spoken...with good advice, as usual.

Oz, check your PM sometime.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Hey, I just stole the idea from James.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Grab a Ddrum snare trigger, record that along side your miced snare.

In the editing phase, shift your trigger track about 3-5 miliseconds ahead of the miced track. Sidechain your snare's gate (set attack to 0) with the trigger: Your gate will now open 3-5 ms before the snare strike, giving you 100% of the snare hit. I usually set the release anywhere from 150-200 ms. Should give you a very nice, clean snare hit.

This works well as long as your snare mic isn't getting too much hi hat.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

This works well as long as your snare mic isn't getting too much hi hat.

Placement is everything.

 

[broken81]

The other trick is not to go overboard with the boosting EQ on a snare track: You'll just be turning up the cymbal bleed. Try to use subtractive EQ instead.

Funny this is a no brainier but yet i asked my self how come I'm always trying to boost highs and getting tons of the hats in my snare. Ive even read your drum guide and i still just fall back on my beginner ways of boosting. Then i just end up just replacing the snare 100% so i can boost highs. Even after spending all that time getting a great mic position and sound. Dohhhhh!

Thanks oz for saying this for the 100th time I'm sure! Its subtractive eq has finally clicked with me

 

[Andy Sneap]

Hey, I just stole the idea from James.

who got it from....

 

[broken81]

who got it from....

You!!!

who got it from?

 

[Glenn Fricker]

who got it from....

Hey, if you're going to steal, steal from the best! notworthy

Honestly, I had no idea. I stand corrected!

 

[Sloan]

If your on COMPUTER, can't you just open the gate before the actual attack? What's with all this tomfoolery of having to use triggers and shit?
I set a pre-open to around 5ms and the attack to 1 for most things that I gate.

Lately I've been going gate-crazy and gating all kinds of shit for live recordings, even vocals since the mics often pickup a lot of drums and ruin the stereo imaging when the vocals are compressed.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

If your on COMPUTER, can't you just open the gate before the actual attack? What's with all this tomfoolery of having to use triggers and shit?

I don't think it's tomfoolery. It's usually a lot easier to properly set a gate with a trigger than a mic signal.

BTW I think this is the first time i've ever used the term tomfoolery...

 

[Sloan]

I'm just trying to understand all this JIBBAJABBA. I can just blast into my gate and type the number "5" in the pre-open ms value box and it's done.

I don't use samples, but I would imagine since a lot of folks use samples here, and sample-triggering is easier with drum triggers, than I guess if you already have that trigger-signal it's easier to just setup a gate on that? Is that what you're all on about?


gah, i suck at wording these things. i just read that and even i'm like WHATFUCK?!

(Tomfoolery is an awesome word!)