Need a Killer Gate Plugin!

[wonder6oy]

Hello all,

I hope this is in the right section.
I'm searching for a gate plugin that features USER ADJUSTABLE look-ahead (up to at least 10ms) an adjustable envelope (AHR), and frequency specific triggering. I'm trying to replace my cherished Sonitus gate with something similar on the Mac platform and am having difficulty finding anything that fits the bill.

I've never cared much for "auto advanced lookahead" features as they never seem to look quite far enough.

The closest thing I've found so far is the Serato/Rane, but I'm not sure about it yet. How about that Wave Arts Trackplug? TDM, RTAS, VST all welcome, as long as they're Mac compatable.

[nucelar]

Hi!
Two ideas:
*Wavearts Multidynamics (Multiband, compressor, expander gate)
*Sonalksis SV-719 (Sidechain filter, No look-ahead though)
Could you tell us why you need lookahead on a gate?
Carles

[wonder6oy]

Hi!
Two ideas:
*Wavearts Multidynamics (Multiband, compressor, expander gate)
*Sonalksis SV-719 (Sidechain filter, No look-ahead though)
Could you tell us why you need lookahead on a gate?
Carles

Sure! I like to mangle my snares without mangling the bleed. Inadequate lookahead makes for some glaring transient loss - or worse, artificial transients that are unwanted in the first place. Plus, on kick drums, the transient often follows the low frequency by a small amount (depending on the recording), especially on softer hits. Dealing with the usual "auto-lookahead" gates for me has always led to that unpleasant "baloon-pop" sound. Lots of tweaking can often solve the problem, but why tweak? I prefer setting the value quickly myself and being done with it.

[Mixchump]

The best look-ahead gate on the planet will never rival a nice clean snare or kick sample that has been shifted earlier by 20 or 30 ms. A lot of times, I will use soundreplacer to re-trigger a snare (any old sample will do), just so that I can use it to key open a gate. These days, I'm almost always using the digi-rack gate with a shifted sample. Always does exactly what it should. No randomness....

Cheers, eh?

[25ghosts]

IMO - second to none is the Channel Strip from Metric Halo...

For the time being you'll need to use the rtas version if gating mono tracks... as the tdm is broke...

but it is an AMAZING gate

[wonder6oy]

Yah - Drumagog does a fine job for me for replacement or enhancement, but I prefer the real deal when possible. Thanks though!

That Metric Halo plug: On the website it says "User adjustable 255 sample delay". That's about 6ms right? So does that mean I can open that gate 6ms before the trigger signal goes through?

[wonder6oy]

The best look-ahead gate on the planet will never rival a nice clean snare or kick sample that has been shifted earlier by 20 or 30 ms. A lot of times, I will use soundreplacer to re-trigger a snare (any old sample will do), just so that I can use it to key open a gate. These days, I'm almost always using the digi-rack gate with a shifted sample. Always does exactly what it should. No randomness....

Cheers, eh?

I'm sorry - I just realized your point was more of a technique rather than a specific tool. If I understand correctly, you're describing a somewhat modified sidechaining technique, and that's CERTAINLY a great workaround. But what I'm looking for is a feature that would actually eliminate that step alltogether.

[Lee Blaske]

Sure! I like to mangle my snares without mangling the bleed. Inadequate lookahead makes for some glaring transient loss - or worse, artificial transients that are unwanted in the first place. Plus, on kick drums, the transient often follows the low frequency by a small amount (depending on the recording), especially on softer hits. Dealing with the usual "auto-lookahead" gates for me has always led to that unpleasant "baloon-pop" sound. Lots of tweaking can often solve the problem, but why tweak? I prefer setting the value quickly myself and being done with it.

Wouldn't some sort of strip-silence function work even better? From what I've seen, the people who are really into the utmost in transients will use strip-silence, and then go back and physically edit each attack editing a ways into the rising edge of each hit to get things to really pop. That would obviously give you the most consistent results. It's a PITA though, and life is short.

Lee Blaske

[wonder6oy]

Yes,

...life IS short. Too short for all that anyway.

[Steve MacMillan]

My favorite gate is the Sony Oxford Dynamics. It has a short auto lookahead, but it works very well. It does not shave transients and thats one of the reasons I like it so much.

STeve