Multiband noise gate

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chewie
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Chewie

Chewie

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I've been seeing some stuff online about multiband noise gates but I haven't actually found one as a plugin, directX. Does one exist and do multiband noise gates really sense to use?
 
Over 20 years in audio. I have never heard of a multiband noise gate.

Not even sure if that concept makes any sense.
 
Well the way I came across it was when gating drums. If the gate opening too much because of bleed then a specific freq range could be used to trigger the gate. I think it's also refereed to as a frequency conscious noise gate, I think.
 
Rocktron Hush used to be something like that, but it was more of a sliding low pass filter that reacted to the amout of high end in the signal. Almost the opposite of a de-esser. But nope, never heard of a multiband noisegate.
 
That is a noise gate with a side chain, not a multiband gate. Cubase comes with one, waves C1 plugs have them, I'm sure there are a bunch.
 
Chewie said:
Oh. So what is a sidechain?
Click to expand...

Sidechains and frequency conscious gating are different things. You can use a sidechain to do frequency-conscious gating, but it's not necessary in a frequency-conscious gate.

How a gate works:

Gates use keys to open them. Really, that's what they are called. Gate, lock, key, cute, huh? The input signal, say your kick drum, goes into the key in the gate. You set the threshold so the gate opens when the key input hits a certain level. A frequency-conscious gate lets you choose which frequencies get into the key. The eq filters are before the key. In addition to cutting down false triggers from bleed, you can usually use less-aggressive gating, which can sound lots more natural.

A sidechain lets you replace the internal key input (from whatever is plugged into that channel) with an external key input. The gate triggers in response to another source, in other words. This is what the internal/external button you see on gates is for, selecting where the key input comes from.

Here's an example:

Sometimes a low frequency tone is used to enhance a kick drum sound. This can be a LF sine wave or oscillator tone from a synth, for instance. These tones are a constant signal, though. You need it to only come in when you hit the kick drum.

So you gate the synth tone. You feed a send from your kick track into the sidechain input on your synth gate channel. The gate on the synth track will now trigger with the kick drum hits.

If your gate isn't frequency-conscious, you can use the sidechain to make it that way. Set the gate to external key input. Split your input signal. Run one feed through an eq, with the desired response freqs boosted and the rest cut. That one goes to the sidechain. The normal signal goes to the gate. The gate will open in response to the eq'd signal in the sidechain.
 
Frequency conscious gates. Now we are talking. Bunch of those around.
 
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