Noise gates: The good, the bad, and/or the ugly?

jcooke · Post by **jcooke** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:57 pm

I have no experience with noise filters. What do you tape oppers use them for? What do they work poorly on? What is your preferred make and model of them?

Jcooke

jcooke · Post by **jcooke** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:32 am

cornelious bumpus

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 12:39 pm

ARe you asking about noise reduction like Dolby, DBX and the like or are you asking about noise gates? These are two very differnt things with very different functions.

Once we determine that I think you will find a lot of good answers.

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 1:03 pm

The Behringer Denoiser is great. It has an expander on it, and also a filter that gets rid of a lot of hum and hiss without sacrificing much in the fullness of your sound.

philbo · Post by **philbo** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 3:31 pm

drumsound wrote:ARe you asking about noise reduction like Dolby, DBX and the like or are you asking about noise gates? These are two very differnt things with very different functions.

Once we determine that I think you will find a lot of good answers.

Or possibly noise reduction processors/plug-ins?
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Babe Stripping

jcooke · Post by **jcooke** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 6:27 pm

Thanks for the tip about my post. I guess I don't know much about any noise processing. I did just buy an Aphex 612 though on ebay after reading good things about it on this board. I know that is a gate, so I guess I'm interested in gate info.

Thanks and sorry for my misuse of terminology.

Jcooke

P.S. I did find a good noise gate article in TapeOp #33, Jan/Feb 2003.

Judas Jetski · Post by **Judas Jetski** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 8:14 pm

I'm using DBX 150 on my 1/4" 8-track, and it sounds fine to me. I know it has its limitations & drawbacks, but considering how noisy my environment is (both electrical & equipment noise--not to mention outside sound leakage) I have to say I'm happy with it. And it's cheap, too! (A little too cheap. I'm wondering if I'm shooting myself in the foot by using it.)

Speaking of DBX, I have a 208 rackmount (8 modules of DBX 411) that I'd love to put into service in replacement of the 150--if only I knew a) that it was an improvement over the 150, and b) whether or not it was compatible with the 150s. I've brought this up on the TOMB a couple of times, only to meet with dead silence. Don't know why. This stuff was expensive a few years back... maybe it's still a sore subject?

As far as noise gates go, I've had great success with my Rocktron Hush IIB, in a fairly wide variety of applications. All of this stuff is the kind of rackmount gear that was super-expensive a few years ago, but that now goes for pennies on the dollar at yr local flea market...

But then I'm running a pretty lo-tech show here. That may color my perceptions.

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 7:43 am

I believe the Aphex 600 stuff are the one's Chris Garges really likes. He told me he usually doesn't do a full cut off with them but will have the sound drump by 10 db or so. He said they're great for bringing the toms down so their rumble from the BD, SD and whatever isn't interfearing, but the when the toms are played they open up and a nice and big.

Mix413 · Post by **Mix413** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 10:34 am

We use the Drawmer and Gatex units to do it exactly as described above. Just attenuate about 30% or just enough so that the sympathetic rumble is eminated.

philbo · Post by **philbo** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 7:37 pm

I almost never use gates in recording. If I need it, I can always apply a gate plug-in to the track afterwards. If I don't need it, using one in the record path just adds to the risk of screwing up the take.

They can have their uses in live work, but I haven't done FOH mixing for many years now, and am probably way out of date on current practices there.
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Teen movies

philbo · Post by **philbo** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 7:48 pm

Andy Smash wrote:I'm using DBX 150 on my 1/4" 8-track, and it sounds fine to me. I know it has its limitations & drawbacks, but considering how noisy my environment is (both electrical & equipment noise--not to mention outside sound leakage) I have to say I'm happy with it. And it's cheap, too! (A little too cheap. I'm wondering if I'm shooting myself in the foot by using it.)

Speaking of DBX, I have a 208 rackmount (8 modules of DBX 411) that I'd love to put into service in replacement of the 150--if only I knew a) that it was an improvement over the 150, and b) whether or not it was compatible with the 150s. I've brought this up on the TOMB a couple of times, only to meet with dead silence. Don't know why. This stuff was expensive a few years back... maybe it's still a sore subject?

As far as noise gates go, I've had great success with my Rocktron Hush IIB, in a fairly wide variety of applications. All of this stuff is the kind of rackmount gear that was super-expensive a few years ago, but that now goes for pennies on the dollar at yr local flea market...

But then I'm running a pretty lo-tech show here. That may color my perceptions.

I have a dbx 154, which is uses identical EQ and compression as the 150. I don't use it on my old 4-track Teac anymore because I only use the Teac to get that 'tape sound' which you definitely don't get with the dbx in-line. I have no idea how, or whether, it relates to the 411. You might try an email to THAT Corp., which was founded by a number of ex-dbx guys. (They make some awesome pro-grade analog chips & components for audio.)

Link:
thatcorp.com
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Squirting Movie

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 12:24 am

drumsound wrote:I believe the Aphex 600 stuff are the one's Chris Garges really likes. He told me he usually doesn't do a full cut off with them but will have the sound drump by 10 db or so. He said they're great for bringing the toms down so their rumble from the BD, SD and whatever isn't interfearing, but the when the toms are played they open up and a nice and big.

Yeah, what he said...

It's usually closer to 5dB of reduction for toms, but, you know, whatever works. The expander on those is really where it's at. It's AMAZING what you can do with drums by carefully setting the expansion ratio. The filters also sound great on their own.

I used mine today to reduce some noise on a reverb return. I was mixing some nu-metal kind of stuff with some of those sudden stops and I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't any extraneous noise in the breaks.

Congratulations on the score.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

Kyle Motor · Post by **Kyle Motor** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 7:11 am

Andy Smash wrote:Speaking of DBX, I have a 208 rackmount (8 modules of DBX 411) that I'd love to put into service in replacement of the 150--if only I knew a) that it was an improvement over the 150, and b) whether or not it was compatible with the 150s. I've brought this up on the TOMB a couple of times, only to meet with dead silence. Don't know why. This stuff was expensive a few years back... maybe it's still a sore subject?

I've got the same 208/411 thing, and I've used the 150x, although not side-by-side. They sound really similar to me, and I assumed that they're compatible since they're both dbx Type 1. But that is only an assumption, I could be totally wrong there.

Judas Jetski · Post by **Judas Jetski** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 4:42 pm

Kyle Motor wrote

I've got the same 208/411 thing, and I've used the 150x, although not side-by-side. They sound really similar to me, and I assumed that they're compatible since they're both dbx Type 1. But that is only an assumption, I could be totally wrong there.

That's a good thought--they both are type I. I don't anticipate having to switch back and forth too much. This may be what I need to know. This and where I can get more rack space on the cheap...

philbo wrote

You might try an email to THAT Corp., which was founded by a number of ex-dbx guys.

I will, without question, contact these guys immediately. I tried contacting dbx. I don't remember what happened, but whatever happened it didn't help.

Thanks--I'll let you all know if I find anything out.

Judas Jetski · Post by **Judas Jetski** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 7:42 pm

OK, here's the skinny on DBX, for those of you who are still interested:

I got in touch with That Corp., and apparently all dbx type I noise reduction is compatible. So if you had, say, dbx 208 and you wanted to play back recordings made using say 150x, it would work fine.

In fact, there isn't much difference between the 208 (mine consists of 8 units of 411) and the 150, except that the 208/411 will accept a balanced input.

Sooo, I am leaving my 150s where they are until I rewire the studio (again) at which point I will probably have a decent rack and it will be worth my while to set the thing up. I have 4 150s wired up to my 8-track. It's a plumber's nightmare. I really need to get some patchbay action workin'...

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Noise gates: The good, the bad, and/or the ugly?

Noise gates: The good, the bad, and/or the ugly?

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