Gating toms

[GeertSamuel]

Just curious how you guys gate a tom properly. I seem to bump into this a lot and never seem to get it compeltely right.

I've read posts with people saying that they just use a gate, and others do it manually. But I'm curious how you guys do it and what the release, attack..etc.etc.. is on the gate then. And/if you do them manually, how do you work that out exactly? How long is the tom still on after the hit? Do you fade it out then or something?!

Here are 3 toms so you can give examples if you'd like...
http://www.sneapforum.celtiaproductions.co.uk/Funky Animal/tom-12.wav
http://www.sneapforum.celtiaproductions.co.uk/Funky Animal/tom-14.wav
http://www.sneapforum.celtiaproductions.co.uk/Funky Animal/tom-16.wav

 

[broken81]

yea Ive had trouble as well but i also think my Mic placement was a big factory as other stuff would interfere with my gate. so i always did manually which can be a pain in the ass.

But I'm also curious about attack and release and maybe even some of the best gate plugins you people like.

 

[-Gavin-]

If i'm lazy i bus and gate...

If i'm feeling less lazy, i automate the volume on the bus.

If i'm in the mood to actually do some work, i'll load each tom mic in Sound forge and manually silence.

 

[Andy Sneap]

manually erase and fade

 

[462studio]

manually erase and fade

'

I agree with Andy for sure.

Ever since I got my house kit (a few months ago) I've been really trying to punch up my drum kit recording techniques and proficiency.

I've tried a lot of different methods and it seems like using a trigger set like the Ddrum triggers to trigger a gate may be the only "lazy" way to go about it.

Since I haven't afforded a set of triggers yet, I've been doing the manual tom track silencing and fading method because it really seems to be the only way to get the job done effectively.

 

[JeffTD]

If you've got a trigger track, you could duplicate it, shift it back a few ms, and have that open the gate.

 

[Ermz]

Lookahead gate. After getting the Sonitus one, I've got no more issues with gating (thanks Gavin). I hate manually editing toms... I seriously can't think of anything more tedious to do in a mixing situation, other than autotuning vocals in graphic mode line by line.

 

[joeymusicguy]

paste perfect tom hits at each transient, delete the old tom tracks

 

[Ben Johnson]

manually erase and fade

You can hear Andy endlessly editing and clicking away into the wee hours of the morning, the sound echoing through the bowels of his castle.

 

[Deaf Ear]

manually erase and fade

Same here, usually to a subdivision.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

manually erase and fade

Same here.

 

[AudioPhile777]

manually erase and fade

...you know... I started out doing this, but figured I was the beginner way of doing it... shows what I know... :Smug:

 

[kaomao]

Erase or die that's it!

 

[Polpotkin]

manually erase and fade

 

[Ermz]

What are the benefits to doing it manually over look-ahead gating or side-chain gating with a trigger track?

 

[LSD-Studio]

manually erase and fade

+1

 

[AudioPhile777]

What are the benefits to doing it manually over look-ahead gating or side-chain gating with a trigger track?

Less garbage sitting in the tracks?

In some cases, a faster CPU performance?

I'm just pulling things outta my ass here... lol...

 

[-Gavin-]

What are the benefits to doing it manually over look-ahead gating or side-chain gating with a trigger track?

I suppose that nothing can "go wrong" or false openings...

 

[LSD-Studio]

What are the benefits to doing it manually over look-ahead gating or side-chain gating with a trigger track?

More control.

let me just give an example:

when there's one Tom-Hit I can manually set the fade how I like it... usually pretty long for a natural sound.

when there's a fill over let's say 3 toms I fade the first (and then second) tom faster, cause the following tom is still carrying the tail of the first tom and so I can edit the first shorter without losing the natural sound.


.....
on breaks I edit differently again...then when there's ride-bleed on the floortom I edit that tom differently than when there's just a silent hihat or so....

so I set the fade-out differently on pretty much any hit.


hm...that decription sucked..I hope you get the idea anyway

 

[Ermz]

Yeah that makes enough sense, LSD. Cheers.