what are some good gates (plug ins)

[beatzz]

What are some good gates (plug ins please) that you guys use and would recommend for cleaning up noisy tracks.

[djui5]

They all suck for the most part..

I've had a little success with the waves gate...and sometimes digi's gate...but other than that..forget it.

It's almost worth it to send out to a Drawmer or something...

[beatzz]

hey man im looking for ITB solutions!

[thermos]

I like floorfish, from digitalfishphones.com Its free, part of the fish fillets bundle. Vst or au. Buggy (works ok for free) but it sounds good to me compared to the rest.

[johnjm22]

What do you want a gate for?

Just edit out the noise. It's much more accurate.

[jdunn]

Sonalksis is supposed to be working on a "good" sounding gate plugin. I hope it's soon.

[toolskid]

sorry randy, I have to disagree wid ya here!! The gate on the Metric Halo Channel strip is really not bad and can cope with really extreme settings pretty well (+automating parameters generally ITB is pretty handy with gates), the C1 and even the DIGI expander gate can be really useful. Gating is one area ITB I have few issues with plugins!! For 'cleaning stuff up'... I'm more likely to automate volume or plug-in gain, strip silence + possibly automate filters or notch eqs. The waves trans-x wide can be helpful in rescuing troublesome material. The r-compressor in expansion mode can also work very effectively!

Flame on!!!

[matt thomas]

this is an honest question, I don't use gates much, so I was wondering what you mean by a GOOD software gate. I mean, why isn't a gate a gate?

narco

[jasonare]

Hey Beatzz,

As the other guy asked as well, what exactly do you need to use a gate for. Over an entire channel, or just some parts or over the whole mix?

[echotp]

I am testing a new plug-in gate made by Serato. The algorithm is a RANE product. The gate is really nice. They also have a Para EQ, Graphic EQ and compressor. I really think the gate is one of the best I have used.
A related by important thought- duplicate your track, nudge it 100 samples early, key input your original track from the nudged track. This helps a poor gate dramatically.

[Alexi]

do you want to use it for tom mics?

[echotp]

I NEVER gate toms, I always hand edit, sometimes replacing with a solid hit. I call them one hits, record them of each drum during a smoke break while cutting drums.

[beatzz]

Originally Posted by jasonare

Hey Beatzz,

As the other guy asked as well, what exactly do you need to use a gate for. Over an entire channel, or just some parts or over the whole mix?

Mainly for cleaning up noisy vocal tracks.

[djui5]

Originally Posted by toolskid

sorry randy, I have to disagree wid ya here!! The gate on the Metric Halo Channel strip is really not bad and can cope with really extreme settings pretty well (+automating parameters generally ITB is pretty handy with gates), the C1 and even the DIGI expander gate can be really useful. Gating is one area ITB I have few issues with plugins!! For 'cleaning stuff up'... I'm more likely to automate volume or plug-in gain, strip silence + possibly automate filters or notch eqs. The waves trans-x wide can be helpful in rescuing troublesome material. The r-compressor in expansion mode can also work very effectively!

Flame on!!!

Hmm....never used the Metric Halo. I'll have to check it out The C1 I've used a bit with success, but it's pretty tricky to get it to work properly IMO. The ren expander is awesome, I agree.

Gates to me ITB just don't work as well as say a Drawmer. You make a couple small adjustments to those things and they work...they work well. ITB gates have a tendency to work during some parts of the track and not others. They're "too sensitive" I guess. Maybe I'm just using them wrong....which is probably the case. I haven't found the "magic ITB gate sweet spot" yet. Or maybe they just don't work as well as some of the outboard one's I've used

[blackcom]

Ultrafunk Sonitus R3 gate works very well, and so does GoldenGate (www.sinusweb.de)...

Ultrafunk has lookahead and SC-EQ.
Goldengate has SC-EQ and Channel-SC

Most other gates sucks monkey ass.

[Sqye]

the waves are really not that bad, depending on your machine and set up, but they do chew cpu - especially if you're using on tons of tracks. If your machine is spiffy, the waves gates should be fine. Otherwise drawmer otb gets my vote, as well. I usually end up having to freeze all the gated tracks, at some point, sinces my sequences are always MMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAADDDDD dense.

[AdamJay]

I like the gate on Wave Arts' TrackPlug

they have a free 30 day trial (with no other limitations) of all their plugs, so you can see for yourself if its right for your uses.

I personally use it for tracking vocals as i don't have a proper booth and occasionally have to kill some background noise. And for that situation, its perfect.

[jasonare]

Originally Posted by beatzz

Mainly for cleaning up noisy vocal tracks.

Can you go into more detail about 'noisy vocal tracks'. Are you talking about spill from headphones, or outside or background noise? What are your recording/tracking conditions for vocals? ie sound proof room, bathroom etc

Firslty are you recordng your vocals nice and loud (without clipping) to reduce your signal to noise ratio?

[hociman]

Originally Posted by djui5

It's almost worth it to send out to a Drawmer or something...

Why not use the Drawmer Dynamics gate?

[Mario-C.]

I've had good luck with the drawmer plug in gate although it doesn't work for everything, I also agree the channelstrip gate can be very useful if you set it up correctly, the sidechain filters are super useful in the channel strip plug

[natpub]

I much prefer drawing fades on vox tracks, rather than editing cuts or trying to gate. Even on an automated board I will sooner ride numerous fades down than do mutes. I don't care for abrupt, clicky loss of the vox track noise floor. It is barely noticable to most, but I hear them on records and it bothers me.

[Volodia]

Hi,

The drawmer plug in gate is very good . It's the best I've used on Pro Tools .

I use gates to give somme attack to bass . It works great .

Volodia

[beatzz]

Originally Posted by natpub

I much prefer drawing fades on vox tracks, rather than editing cuts or trying to gate. Even on an automated board I will sooner ride numerous fades down than do mutes. I don't care for abrupt, clicky loss of the vox track noise floor. It is barely noticable to most, but I hear them on records and it bothers me.

which records?