Clearly I don't understand how gates work. I think of a gate, as a novice, as something that opens and closes. In an opened state, audio proceeds to output. In a closed state, nothing proceeds to output. I bought this 286S in hopes of mitigate things like breathing etc from proceeding to output by using the Expander/Gate function. However, nearly everything goes to output regardless of how I set the gate. I can test this easily enough by speaking very softly into the mic and increasing my volume until the gate opens. However, the meters on my recorder will pick up everything. Probably a dumb question but why is this and what is a gate for if not to stop and start flow to output?
Dumb question: DBX 286S
- Thread starter mtbcast
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bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
Most gates reduce the volume less than all the way, and expanders reduce the volume by a ratio of the level below the threshold. If what you're recording is going to be in a mix with other stuff it should effectively disappear when the gate closes.
I don't use gates for studio work. Editing is far more effective. For live sound I sometimes use them on problematic sources, like a kick drum that starts to feed back with every bass note.
I don't use gates for studio work. Editing is far more effective. For live sound I sometimes use them on problematic sources, like a kick drum that starts to feed back with every bass note.
Thanks! Okay then maybe that makes more sense then. I get a lot of what I thought was mouth noise (funny, didn't get it this pronounced before the addition of this unit) but I understand you can get clicks from this device from the gate opening and closing. I've tried to quantify that and recreate it and I can't get them to coincide with the gate. It seems that other than providing some punch I'm not getting much from this unit. I may try shutting down the gate completely and just cleaning up in post. I'm having to do that anyway with the gate so it's not buying me much.
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
Well, it's still a decent mic pre, comp and eq. I might have bought one of those if the process order had been correct (eq -> comp instead of comp -> eq).
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
Nothing if you're doing minimal eq, but if you need to cut a fair bit of lower frequency stuff then the compressor is reacting to signal that isn't going to be heard. If I'm stuck with one eq then I want it ahead of the compressor. Just my preference.
[Edit] I guess the word "correct" was not the best choice on my part.
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
Having a high pass filter makes it less of a problem. I often like to put a wide low shelf cut on close miced vocals which works better before the compressor. But there are cases where the order doesn't matter and some where it's better with eq after compression. I think the insert is before the compressor. You could put an outboard eq on it and have it both ways.