The problem with mixing music is sometimes you get too much sound coming through your system. I’m not talking about sound volume, I’m talking about unwanted sound, sound that’s not beneficial to your mix. But how can you eliminate unwanted sound? This is where gating comes into play. Audio gating enables you to control when sound enters your system and when it leaves.
Two Primary Benefits of Gating
Benefits in your mix can be gained using gating in two areas;
- Removing secondary sounds from a microphone. You might think of this as spill or leakage. Breakout the hazmat suits, we have a spill on the stage! I’m talking about a microphone that picks up the sounds of another instrument other than the one which is intended. For example, when the drum toms aren’t being played, they will likely pick up the sounds of other drum kit pieces. Of course, it wouldn’t be as loud of a sound that’s broadcast but it is an additional sound source adding in an unnecessary sound, a sound that can even negatively affect your mix because of the added volume and frequencies.
- Reshaping the sounds coming from the microphone. Gating allows you to control the volume level in which sound passes out of the mixing channel. Gating also allows you to control the point in which the volume stops coming out of the channel. Imagine controlling the sound of a snare drum. You could use gating to give it a quick attack (a hard and fast start) but then allow it to decay naturally. Or, you could do the opposite. With the right amount of gating changes, you could even produce a completely unnatural sound from the snare drum…and it just might be right for the song.
A Problem with Gating
Musicians could play their instrument quieter as part of the arrangement. For example, a soft hit of the toms could be part of the first verse. If your gating is set with a low threshold, then your system might be gating out those toms and not broadcasting them. It’s times like this where digital mixers with scenes are a great way for setting different gating structures per song.
Gating Controls
The controls (parameters) for controlling gating are very similar to those used in compression.
Threshold
The audio gate is closed (no sound coming through) when the audio volume is below the threshold. The gate is open when the sound exceeds the threshold. Don’t think that you can easily set the threshold. Much like mentioned in the problem with gating, musicians play instruments at different volumes, especially instruments where gating is helpful, like drums. Therefore, the threshold you set for an instrument, like a snare, might need to allow the drummer a bit of room for natural volume differences in their playing.
Range
Did I mention the gates don’t complete mute the sound. Consider these as picket-fence gates. The gates actually attenuate the sound by the degree specified in the range setting. The range defines how much the sound is reduced below the threshold. For example, you can set the range to -20 dB for a gate.
WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SO COMPLICATED!?!
I’m glad you asked. The problem with completely muting certain sounds is they then lose their natural sound. For example, if you had such muting, it’s possible your mix would sound like a group of instruments and singers abruptly starting and stopping. Unnatural.
Attack
Attack controls how quickly the gate opens, how quickly it lets the sound through. You use attack to control how quickly the sound enters into your mix after the gate is open. The attack greatly affects how the instrument or vocal sounds entering into the mix.
Release
Release controls how quickly the gate closes. Consider this the rate of controllable decay.
Hold
The last of the parameters is called Hold. And this is where the art and science of mixing really come into play. The hold time controls how long the gate stays closed, once it’s closed. For example, you can set the hold so that even if the threshold is reached again, the gate stays closed until a certain amount of time passes. The benefit of the hold parameters is allowing a natural decay to occur before the sound is allowed to come back in again. I’m not saying you always want to use a high hold time, but it is yet another control you have over shaping the sounds going out of your system.
You can see all of these in this chart of how gating would affect incoming audio;
Image by Iainf
The Take Away
Gating is another way of shaping and controlling the sounds in your mix, just like reverb, delay, and compression. It’s a great way to get a better sound from your drums and even your vocalists. Try it out and see what it can do for you.
Looking for a COMPLETE GUIDE TO GATING?
Check out my free Ten-Minute Guide to Audio Gating.
*photo provided by bcpaterson.
Mike says
August 26, 2017 at 5:14 amIf I Google “should I gate vocal mic” it’s seems like the overwhelming response is a loud “NO”. Why does gate seem to be taboo for vocals?
Chris Huff says
August 27, 2017 at 2:52 pmI think because it’s something that’s rarely done well and therefore not suggested. If a speaker or singer fluctuates their volume a lot then a gate could cut off words, a word, or part of a word. It’s something that has to be used in the right situation such as if you have a lot of stage sound bleeding into the vocal.
Mike says
August 28, 2017 at 8:53 amWell I do have a lot of Sound Bleed … as evidenced by listening to the 32 track recording coming off my New Presonus Studiolive 32 Series 3 mixer’s SC recording feature (and thanks for your recent post about the SL 32 … it was one of things that swayed my final decision between the SL 32 and the X32).
But I mute all tracks except a vocal mic and there is a lot of “band” in that one live mic.
I did try gating all 4 singing vocal mics yesterday. Have not listed to the recorded live mics to see if my bleed improved … but the over all full mix was really good, for us … so far … it worked out pretty good. But I did not use much of a gate thresh hold. Did not want to run into the “problems” I had read about. May try to increase the thresh hold in small increments as we go in the weeks ahead.
Thank you for the reply.
Gerald says
September 19, 2019 at 11:28 amGating vocal mics with a normal gate is never a good idea. I recommend using Optogates.
They do a very good job!
Mia says
August 21, 2017 at 8:02 pmThank you very much, I cannot get the concept of gating but this description has helped me majorly! I’m now feeling confident to pass my assessment for sound mixing at school :)
Allan says
May 13, 2017 at 6:05 pmHi! Can you name any plugin that has hold as a control for closed time? All the Gates I have used has it as control for gate fully open time.
Best,
Allan
Smathbeatz says
January 7, 2017 at 1:17 amGood tutorial… But at times it kills the natural audio if not properly handled & depending on the input of the said audio. Thanks
S S SANDHU says
June 10, 2016 at 12:04 amHello
I read your article
‘ Ten minute guide to audio gating ‘
It is written extremely well.
I had confusion regarding the term ‘threshold’ and was searching the net seeking clarification.
Your article made the comprehension so so easy and lucid.
Complements for great article
Thanks a million
Chris Huff says
June 10, 2016 at 9:35 amThanks, glad I could help.
Robert says
September 30, 2013 at 12:35 amI have mixed monitors on a pro level ( national acts ) for over 30 years. i have seen the new digital technology come into play. Consoles with total processing on every single channel. It’s really quite amazing. the most amazing thing to me is I have just about done a full circle. As of lately the musicians I have been working with have nice sounding gear. In small to mid size rooms i have been using a beta 52 for kick..standard sm 57 for snare and two good quality condensers for overheads picking up the entire kit with absolutely no processing at all aside of maybe a little verb on the snare. I think mixing has been overmixed..lol. Especially after the in ear monitor decade. here i am using all of these gates and limiters on a rock and roll monitor rig and the drummer has in ears finally. I’m thiniking life is going to get better and it did!!!.. he wants a full mix in his ears naturally..it’s a high volume stage just with the guitar amps..minus the wedges which at this point have not been totally eliminated. we are going through drum channels..and he is like..what is that noise?? I hear it in my ears..it’s a clicking sound. after listening a bit more with my ear buds in ahaaa..it’s the gate clicking open and shut. I explained to him what the clicking was that he never heard before. guess what..no more gates in the monitors. nobody wants to hear the clicking in their ear monitors. Life is good again. just mix it
herschel says
July 13, 2013 at 1:51 pmHow do I gate an instrument?
Robert says
September 30, 2013 at 12:49 amyou don’t..i have never had the need to gate an instrument. i have used a compressor at times on a hard hitting bass guitar or maybe a sax but never a gate. Gates have basically been applied to the drums. Many say because of other noise but truly it’s because of bad sounding drums most of time. A for instance would be a guy hits his rak tom..it sounds like crap..not tunes well and has an ridiculous high mid tubby over ring. there is a good way to get rid of that over ring. it’s a noise gate properly set to open when he hits the drum and close a second later so that nasty over ring doesn’t come through the microphone. If your in a small room and not recording your going to hear it any way so don’t even bother using the noise gate.
Randy Sawyers says
June 17, 2013 at 2:34 pmYes, first, thanks for the email newsletter. I look forward to reading the information provided. We currently have the drum kit in a cage and I am having a problem with the cymbals and crash coming through the toms and snare mics and being cut off with the hating on those mics. I have adjusted the gates to prevent that but then I lose the desired effect of the gates on the drums. We have OH mics that I’ve tried to overcompensate the signal coming through the drum mics but then the volume becomes too much for the mix. Just curious if you’ve seen this problem before. Thanks!
Chris says
June 17, 2013 at 3:24 pmRandy, consider muting all of the drum kit mics. Then work through the kit’s mic gain settings. Un-mute the kick drum mic and turn up the gain so when the drummer plays it, the volume is right for the room. Next, focus on the floor and rack tom’s. Set the gain so you get the desired volume in the room. Then, it’s time for the snare. Turn up the gain until the snare volume is where it needs to be in the room. At this point, you might get some cymbals sound, but the signal shouldn’t be that great. As long as your tom / snare mic’s area about an inch from the head, you should be ok.
Now you add in the mic’s which are specific to the cymbals and the crash. Add in the volume you need. Finally, turn to the overheads and ad them in only if you need them. The overheads should capture the full drum kit sound.
A final note on this, check out this article on the crash ride and controlling volume.