Do you ever use gates?

[Artie_Fufkin]

Do you use gates in your songs? On what specific elements? I've only used a gate to clean up a noisy sample.

[jrisreal]

What kind of gate? Noise gate? Trance gate?
Assuming it's noise gate, i have used on my vocals in my raps to get rid of background sounds

[societyloser1]

If you use analog gear, a gate is quit usefull... Let's say it's a must!
But if you only work digital, I don't see a reason to use a gate, except as effect (sidechain gating in ableton is pretty nice) or if you have a pretty dirty sample!

[FuzionDubstep]

I use gates to stop people getting in to my garden, especially dogs.. who wants dogshit on there grass

[Nicco]

Gates are pretty usefull to create garage drums...

[samkablaam]

use them in most electronic stuff and in EVERY recording.

i use them to shape my samples how i want them. so if a kicks too long, ill stick a gate on it and twiddle and voila.

recording stuff - just toms really.

i dont agree you should use a gate for cleaning up background noise... you can do that much more accurately with your daw. but each to their own.

[Lectric]

gates are really useful for keepin the solicitors and vandals out. also he invented the internet.



no but on a more serious note i play around with them on atmosphere samples to see if i can make different dynamics. thats really the only reason ive found for gates.

[erratech]

As well as background noise i will sometimes use them on delays to stop things getting too messy, need to be really careful about the threshold tho.

[fragments]

Use them on drums and other percussion quite often myself.

[Heartless]

Always when recording vocals and guitar.

[kikaruu]

I use em on snares; snare sample + light foldback + reverb + gate + reverb. So the gate gets all the space of the first reverb w/o the tail, then the second reverb smooths the ending + adds more space. It's similar to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gated_reverb It's VERY useful.

Also, if I'm using a synth with LFO'd volume set to a sine, I can gate the lowest points, then automate the gate. That way, I can increase or decreased the (mental) space between notes in a very rudimentary/trashy PWM setup. So, for example, the note always starts on the beat, but the decay changes over time. That's always fun.

Oh, and breakbeats. I love gated breakbeats almost as much as I love dirty/non-gated ones.

[Artie_Fufkin]

Interesting uses. Jr, I mean noise gates.
I've been experimenting with gates and I agree they are neat with breakbeats and reverb.
Before reverb, I would think to shape the drum sounds by fading out the ends to get rid of a drum sample thats too long before using a gate.

[kikaruu]

Interesting uses. Jr, I mean noise gates.
I've been experimenting with gates and I agree they are neat with breakbeats and reverb.
Before reverb, I would think to shape the drum sounds by fading out the ends to get rid of a drum sample thats too long before using a gate.

Like applying the reverb to the sample, then shortening it? Or shortening the sample before the reverb so as to not require a gate?

[Atac]

I like using Image Line's Gross Beat as the second to last effect (right before EQ) on a mixer channel to create a side chain compression feel. I gate it rhythmically to give pads or any other element that awesome pumping sound you hear in trance. It's very subtle but it adds some flow to a tune. (It's also a lot easier than sending it to a bus that is side chain compressed to a silent channel that hits on every quarter note.)

[Artie_Fufkin]

Interesting uses. Jr, I mean noise gates.
I've been experimenting with gates and I agree they are neat with breakbeats and reverb.
Before reverb, I would think to shape the drum sounds by fading out the ends to get rid of a drum sample thats too long before using a gate.

Like applying the reverb to the sample, then shortening it? Or shortening the sample before the reverb so as to not require a gate?

Shortening the sample before any effects. If you're just shaping it for the whole song. Although you could have a gate and reverb(and then maybe another gate lol) and automate them and have a number of sounds from one sample. Or you could bounce a few affected snares and then just skip the automations(to simplify things) and have your original snare, the gated snare as a ghost note, and a juicy reverb snare as like a rimshot.

[kikaruu]

@Artie Fufkin: Completely correct; I use the setup I use for the sake of versatility, so my workflow is as this: I'd rather not apply effects to samples (barring decay/transient work) if I can help it, since it takes less space to modulate effects (and turn them on/off) than to have a lot of tweaks of the same snare. So for a song like Hypercolour Smog (in sig) I can use the snare's gate during the verses to keep the mix from getting muddied, then turn it off during the quieter sections so that the snare gets both reverbs and sounds more impactful. Meanwhile, on the same channel as the hats, I can use the same snare sample, unaffected by reverb for ghost notes/rolls/fills. And then the sample is paired with a cowbell for incidentals. Do you happen to use/have a copy of Renoise so we can share ideas?

TL:DR; Whoo! We're on the same page! lol

[GothamHero]

I use gates to stop people getting in to my garden, especially dogs.. who wants dogshit on there grass

[sixth sense]

I use gates to stop people getting in to my garden, especially dogs.. who wants dogshit on there grass

[Artie_Fufkin]

kikaruu, I do use renoise. I'll pm you.

[ToxicBass]

Not really. If it's a noisy sample I just replace it with a better quality one.