Setting up a gate to silence noisy effects returns

  • Thread starter Thread starter LemonTree
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LemonTree

LemonTree

Suck 'em and see!
I've noticed on my recent recordings that I get a lot of unwanted noise on my effects returns. Haven't worked out if it's the desk aux's or the outboard effects yet.

I have a quad gate (Valley Gatex) a lexicon MPX100 and an Alesis Microverb III. I use both mono in stereo out.

How would I set up my rig to gate the effects when they're not in use?

my thinking is.. Aux send 1 (lexicon) to Lexicon in mono, both outs to two channels of the gate (in), then two outs of the gate to Aux returns 1&2, Aux send 2 (Alesis) to Alesis in mono, both outs to other two gates (in) then two outs from gate back to aux returns 3&4 on the board.

Am I missing something? What about threshold range and release times on the gate?
 
That seems like good signal flow. As for threshhold and release, it will depend on the effect being used. Just tweak until you're happy!
 
LemonTree said:
I've noticed on my recent recordings that I get a lot of unwanted noise on my effects returns. Haven't worked out if it's the desk aux's or the outboard effects yet.
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I've found my Lex 80 & 90 (both 16 bit) end up being about the noisiest thing in a mix (especially the 80 which tends to have allot more toy-layers going on) if I get sloppy with the input levels. But keeping the inputs up makes a big difference. Never had to gate once things are dialed in.
Wayne
 
you really wanna gate your reverb?
i had some nice results with it but don't wanna use that all the time,

and if you say you got noize, then you'll also have the noize when audio is streaming through your gates, maybe you won't notice it hard because its a bit 'masked' (or how you say it) by the music

but i think that if you got noize, solve the problem, don't try to hide it,

are you using the reverb on Microphone signals,
or very clean audio that comes straight out of a keyboard or pc?
 
I think both those units use external power supplies. Check to make sure that the cables to and from the fx boxes aren't near the power supplies. The Alesis supply in particular can put *a lot* of noise into audio lines.

Check to make sure you are using the right cables for both fx boxes, too.

The other thing to play with would be the gain staging. It's possible that the levels aren't optimal, meaning you are having to turn up the fx returns too high, and are therefore getting a lot of noise. The outputs on the fx boxes should be at 100%, and the inputs should be as high as you can go comfortably without getting distortion and overloading the box. Likewise, try sending hotter levels from the mixer if possible, and turning down later in the audio chain. If you are sending low levels from the aux to the fx box, or sending low output out of the fx box, then you have to turn it up on the returns, and that's going to make it noisy.
 
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