What Is A Gate?

I'm sure there is some fancy way of wording this, but I'll just go with my gut. A gate is device that let's audio that is louder than a given threshold pass through, but cuts off audio below a certain volume.

Controls On a Gate

Generally gates have attack and release times just like a compressor. They almost always have a threshold which is (by far) the most important setting. Some gates have more controls that others. For example, some gates will completely cut off a signal below a certain threshold. Others will allow you to reduce this level from may be less than a dB to infinity. Some gates will allow you to set the release at a level far below the attack.

What Are Gates Used For?

Noise Gates

I hear a lot of people talk about noise gates. I must say that I never used a single noise gate in my studio. I have gone in and trimmed noise out of nearly every track I have ever recorded using my DAW software. But I have never used a gate for this purpose. Gates, if set improperly, can wreak havoc on recorded tracks, so I only use them in special situations.

Drums

Drummers who sound like garbage often have problems with their hihats being too loud. If this occurs, you are already screwed. However, that doesn't mean that people won't blame you for the recording. I've put gates on every close mic (kick, snare, and toms) before to knock out some of that hihat and cymbal bleed. Again, this is band aid on a slashed throat, but it can help.

Snare Reverbs

Remember the infamous Phil Collins snare drum? That is done by placing a gate on the snare's reverb send. You have to play with the settings, but you could take a reverb with a 3 second decay time and cut it down to stop almost immediately with a gate. Don't get the wrong idea. Using a gated snare is not only for Phil Collins. I use it on lots of modern rock recordings I do. You just have to be a little more subtle about it.

Adding Crack To The Snare

Is your snare a little lifeless? Does it need more crack? Don't eq your main track. Make a duplicate of your snare track. Gate it, and then roll off all the low end. I'm just guessing but 1K is probably a good place to start. Blend that in to your mix and see what happens. Try sending that gated and super thin sound to a reverb. You should be able to make up for a dull snare pretty easily this way.

Things To Remember About Gates

Gates Don't Work Miracles

A lot of people seam to think that putting a gate on a tom track is going to make the toms sound mega loud and perfect and completely remove all bleed. Guess what! It's not going to happen. The more aggressive you set your gate, the more screwed up things are going to sound generally. This is especially the case when you are dealing with transients such as drums. If the drummer didn't give you nice loud toms that, when solo'd, completely overpower the cymbal bleed in the mic, your drummer screwed up. It's as simple as that.

Use Gates In Moderation

What I like to do is set the gate so that it will only reduce maybe 10dB. Then I can set the gate so that it doesn't totally ruin my toms, but removes the junk by 10dB. If you do this for 3 tom mics, you'd be amazed at how well it can improve a kit. Theoretically, you should be able to the crank the tom mics 10dB louder and have the same level of bleed. If that doesn't do the trick, the drummer doesn't know what he is doing.

Be Careful With Hardware Gates

If you've recorded for more than 3 seconds, you know that the no one plays the same level during soundcheck as they when actually tracking. 99% play much louder, but I have seen a few guys actually play software. Anyway, if you set your hardware gate improperly, more than likely your track will be ruined. It will cut off low volume stuff. Now if you have a a kick ass, soundproofed control room, you can probably get away with this. If you don't, DO NOT USE A GATE GOING IN unless you really know what you are doing.