Creative uses for hardware gates?

Anonstop · Post by **Anonstop** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 5:52 pm

Hello mighty tape op (board)! -- long time listener, first time caller.

I have recently acquired a couple hardware gates. A Drawmer DS201 (a former studio standard as I understand it) and an Electrospace Strate Gate. Both were affordable and somewhat impulse ebay pick ups. The latter unit purchased based a good percentage on the rad-ness of the name alone. In person it's a beast and looks fun. Both are now racked and wired to the bay.

From what I have read so far, gates are a bit of a relic these days with most people finding plugs more effective for this otherwise straight forward job. But I am thinking there are still some cool tricks using the key inputs, when tracking, in an effects chain, etc.

For some background - I am relatively new to OTB, especially for mixing, having been mostly ITB up until now. Though very familiar with hardware synths, effects, etc. I am now running a hybrid setup with a DDA console and patchbay.

So... specific examples of creative and possible outlandish studio uses for hardware gates?

Thanks!

JohnDavisNYC · Post by **JohnDavisNYC** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 4:55 am

sidechaining stuff is fun.

i prefer hardware gates. they sound better and seem to 'hear' better. setting a plugin gate is such a pain in the ass. they are always chattering, false openings, etc... hardware gates seem to be much better in that regard...

john

elbows · Post by **elbows** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 6:05 pm

JohnDavisNYC wrote:sidechaining stuff is fun.

Word.

Patch mults are your friends on this one.

Key your bottom snare off the top snare if the sizzling is killing you.
Key room mics with some kind of source.
Put a gate before a reverb on an aux and allow it to open only as big hits dictate.

Mess around with them. See what they sound like if you drive into them too hard. They might sound cool/good.

Randyman... · Post by **Randyman...** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 6:43 pm

Top Tip: You can also use the DS201's nice HP/LP filters for other sources if you flick the "Sidechain Listen" switch!

Tim A · Post by **Tim A** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 11:09 pm

setting a plugin gate is such a pain in the ass. they are always chattering, false openings, etc...

thats why I like them. utilise their crappyness to make effects and the like.

Anonstop · Post by **Anonstop** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 1:55 pm

Awesome, thanks for the insight and tips.

It sounds like hardware gates are still in active use by people and not relics at all.

So far being able to use the filters on both the Electrospace and the Drawmer has been worth the price of admission alone! (thanks Randyman for the key listen switch tip!)

Anonstop · Post by **Anonstop** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 2:11 pm

elbows wrote:
Put a gate before a reverb on an aux and allow it to open only as big hits dictate.

just tried this -- what a familiar and killer sound!

man I knew I'd come to the right place

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:32 pm

Creative uses for hardware gates?

Quantizing backing vocals, against a percussion.

Or hell, the Lead vocal. Why not?

jhharvest · Post by **jhharvest** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 11:20 pm

Nick Sevilla wrote:Quantizing backing vocals, against a percussion.

Or hell, the Lead vocal. Why not?

Oh hey, in the other thread about airy vocals there was talk of the background singers omitting the first and last consonants of phrases. What if you had a gate with slow attack on the background vocals sidechained to the lead vocal? I've never tried it but seems like an idea.

telepathy · Post by **telepathy** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:16 am

it'll totally work, as long as you're only aiming for a little reduction. too much can sound odd.

Aphex gates for life, over here. I use them every day.

speaking of vocal phrasing stuff, my best recent gate trick was this: I was mixing a track with a bunch of background singers who hadn't glued their parts together as tighly as I would've liked. the song's arrangement consisted entirely of acoustic guitar, lead vocals, and four-part backing vocals, so slight variations in phrase lengths were really apparent. I bussed them all to a stereo buss with an Aphex 622 strapped across it. I found the singer who had the most exact phrasing and used a mult of her vocal track as the sidechain for the whole buss, so everyone followed her phrasing. this post-gate buss also fed the reverb send, so the closing of the gate, while subtle (range set to -30db or so) was further masked by the verb. super effective.

that's another thing, don't always set the range to *stun*. not everything needs sixty decibels of movement every time the gate engages. lesser range settings (and lower ratios, for that matter) diminish pumping/breathing. if you have the parallel-compression drum bus going on, put a gate on it that only pulls things back a little, somewhere between 6 and 12db. then set the attack & release to move in time with the song.

then again, blending in a heavily gated parallel kick/snare buss with a fast attack time is sometimes absolutely huge. gets the beat to snap harder

lightandmind · Post by **lightandmind** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 9:22 am

I once sidechained a feedbacking guitar to a kick drum so that it would open and close only on the kick hits. It rawked!

BavonWW · Post by **BavonWW** » Fri Feb 08, 2013 3:23 pm

You can also use it to duck vocal or guitar delay sends (or returns if individual FX ) thus ensuring that the delay is kept about 5 dB down during send and returned to normal level just after. This gives a clearer, less cluttered, effect.
Set it to expand and KEY it with your vocal or instrument.

The advantage in using the send as opposed to return is for you to work out.

Like all hardware outboard gear it is easily set-up and tends to have better reaction times as well as superior sonic quality.

earth tones · Post by **earth tones** » Sat Feb 09, 2013 2:52 pm

Immediately I recall John Vanderslice's song: "Dear, Sarah Shu". I believe it's an acoustic guitar keyed by the hi-hat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXJDwCr-y_E

inasilentway · Post by **inasilentway** » Sun Feb 10, 2013 8:26 pm

if you have something that can generate a sine wave, key it off the kick, or white noise off the snare. Rad for beefing up drums sounds without having to get into samples, or for adding a slight "electronic" touch.

another neat one with the range knob: say you got a tambo or shaker track that's not grooving tightly with the drums. set the range to 6-10 do of reduction and key it off the snare.

Marc Alan Goodman · Post by **Marc Alan Goodman** » Mon Feb 11, 2013 8:05 am

inasilentway wrote:if you have something that can generate a sine wave, key it off the kick, or white noise off the snare. Rad for beefing up drums sounds without having to get into samples, or for adding a slight "electronic" touch.

It's the original drum replacer! Helloooooooo eighties!

It's less of a trick, but if you have the outputs copy a drum close mic to a second track and move it a few milliseconds early. Then use that one on the key input, set the release really short, and run the original mic through it. Bring it back in parallel for added thwack.

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Creative uses for hardware gates?

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