Drm gating

[madball24]

What are good settings on a gate unit to use for drums??

[Coaster]

good settings on a gate will allow the gate to be open and closed when the operator wants them to be. this is not always possible.

 

first you need to ask yourself; what is the result you are looking for in gating a drum?

[madball24]

I am looking to eliminate a lot of cybal ring outta the drum mics. I wanna use the gates on the toms. i want the mics to concentrate only on the toms and no other sounds

[RoadRanger]

What low pass filter setting are you using on the toms? Setting it at 10khz or even as low as 5khz gets rid of a lot of cymbal and doesn't sound unnatural like gating can .

[monkeyland]

no one can tell you what the setting needs to be. the correct answer is whatever works in the moment. it all depends on how much other noise there is around the source, what mic, gain provided by the mic preamp, the drum, how hard the drummer is hitting the drum etc etc etc

 

you just need to hook up your gate and experiment. and listen

 

also i prefer an expander over a gate

[Coaster]

i'll add a little. i often gate toms but i just as often do not. i find in some bands that the sound of gated toms is very cool and adds to the experience, but very few in the audience will be aware that i have gated the toms. the sound i am usually looking for is the attack of the gate, and the hold feature of the gate allowing the toms to resonate louder and longer than i can obtain without the gate. my favorite is when the drummer has tuned his/her toms to the point of where they change pitch (higher to lower) as they decay, and i set the hold of the gate to allow this pitch change to occur before the release envelope occurs. i often find if i try to achieve this prominent sound in a mix without a gate (in a typical small environment with way too much rig as is the norm here) the mains will want to rumble through the tom mics, esp the floor tom.

 

i really dislike some folks idea of gating toms, the "gate barely opens for a fraction of a second and i cover up the tail with 2.4 seconds of hall reverb" sound. tired of that. its so old and been done. i like the rounded tom sound with little to zero reverb on it.

 

i dont gate the toms in an effort to get rid of other stage sounds through the mics, i find that usually doesnt work well especially with cymbals. i do it as an effect on the toms, and not every band sounds good with it.

 

with a lot of bands i find the snare will open every tom gate as well as the cymbals do too, but since i am making no effort to block these sounds out it is not an issue - i am only attempting to add character to the toms with the gate. no amount of force will overcome 'the loudest sound at the mic wins' syndrome (or basic reality function).

 

i think trying to block out the cymbals with a gate on the toms is a losing battle and the issue lies elsewhere. i dont think you will be successful more than you will fail.

[monkeyland]

 

i'll add a little......etc etc.......i think trying to block out the cymbals with a gate on the toms is a losing battle and the issue lies elsewhere. i dont think you will be successful more than you will fail.

 

 

 

 

good post. i have to say that i agree with everything here. especially the part about not being able to completely block out everything other than the intended source or even wanting to.

 

thats exactly why i prefer an expander. it's much more gentle and sounds a lot more natural even when set to try to avoid having the snare open the expander. i'm using a Valley Audio GateX right now and it works really nicely in most situations so far.

[Coaster]

 

i'm using a Valley Audio GateX right now

 

 

that is exactly what is in my rack. i also like the expand function of it; i only wish it had a dedicated hold but the release does work nearly as well.

 

i also use an older dbx gate (274? not sure) in a different system.

 

i like the old valley stuff a lot.

[Crownman]

I noticed that once I switched to using the Audix D series on the drums I had a lot less of the snare opening the gates. I just set the gate kind of tight but set the open time long enough to let them ring a little. I will say though, I always want a gate on the kick. 99.9% of the time it'll just ring without one and to get the ring out I have to suck out the low end, which defeteats the whole purpose of the kick IMO.

[trevcda]

I would start with the mic and it's orientation to the drum. Even with a gate the loudest sound at the mic wins and if you've got a cymbal basher, most gates won't help. There are frequency dependant gates that will only open when the frequency of the drum it's gating is present that will do what you're looking for if mic placement doesn't fix it.

[agedhorse]

A gate can indeed b an excellent tool for managing cymbol bleed if used properly and with the proper type of gate.

 

1. Gate really needs a tuneable bandpass sidechain filter (like the DBX 1074) and variable gate attenuation, attack and release times

 

2. Choice of mics and mic placement is important

 

3. Choosing a key signal (comes from the sidechain signal path's filter) with the proper bandpass is really helpful in eliminating false opening and making things sound more natural. Tune to the lowest frequency range that allows reliable opening of the rack toms while avoiding opening with the snare.

 

4. Choose a relatively quick attack time but more inmportantly choose a release time that compliments the desired decay characteristics of the tom.

 

5. Choose a gate open attenuation level that blends with the overall sound of the system and lit from the stage. I tend to end up around -12dB so that there is some continuity and naturalness as the gate decays to open.

[Dogoth]

Not that I never use gates (in monitor world I gate the kick often - especialy if the drummer has a sub that wants to ring into the Kick mic). but try a bit more organic approach which includes proper placment and mic type. A tighter pattern mic will go a long way in reducing bleed (especialy all that HF stuff from cymbals). To me a gate is not one of the first things I'd try in this situation.

 

Just my .02

[mshifflett]

 

To me a gate is not one of the first things I'd try in this situation. Just my .02

 

 

I agree. I too think that microphone selection and placement go a long way. We always use the Sennheiser e604 on toms and rarely ever have the need for a gate, even if we wanted to try one.