Hey producers

I Read Somewhere that Put Gates/Expander on Drums , I Want to know why we use gates on Drum...and i dont record drums i generally use Vengeance Library for drums..

Thanks ;)

 

Ask the drummer/engineer. Gate live drums. Should not need to gate good clean samples or electronics. You gate live drums so that the mics are not open or there is nothing coming out of that channel or track unless level goes above threshold. That mic is "off" until the threshold is crossed when the drum is hit. This way you are not dealing with any sound from that particular mic, track or fader unless that drum is played. Helps tighten up all the things that signal/track does to the other signal/tracks when it's not really needed. This helps clean up phase cancellation problems and bandwidth crowding.

 

Ohhh Thanks....That mean I Dont have to use gates on Drum because i dont record drum...

 

If you have never recorded real drums, you would not know that all mics will have "bleed" (sound from other drums coming into all the other drum mics). If you use a gate/expander you can eliminate mic bleed, and get a more focused drum sound.

Back in the 80's when the first digital reverbs came and took over (since they were relatively cheap and made everything sound lush and "great" compared to the 70's when everything was supposed to be dry and dampened) they used gates on reverb returns, especially on snare drum reverbs. Alot! That effect, not so common today, was/is called gated snare reverb.

Since you are all ITB (and probably don't even own a mic) - today there is a "new" effect called transient designer, which works kind of the same way, but controls the transients (by increasing or decreasing them). There are a few free transient designers out there. Try them out.

 

Exactly. The use or not of gates for drums will depend on music genre. In rock music, microphone bleed gives a drum performance character and it gives it a lot of attitude. A clean kit with no crosstalk may make it sound too sterile.

 

Agreed. Sometimes you want a natural/non-gated drumkit.

But if you are a live tech (FOH) and the shitty drummer has super-ringy toms (all 3 or 4 of them), a gate in the rack is heaven sent.

 

Thanx Baxter....and plz tell me what is the difference between Transient Shaper And Transient Designer ?

 

For all I know it should be the same thing.

 

Same thing.
I believe SPL's Transient Designer became so popular that it became like Kleenex and tissue, interchangeable.

 

for the most famous gated reverb drums sound that he is talking about---Phil Collins drums on "In the Air Tonight" or "Contact" by Peter Gabriel (also Phil). Drums in a live room, no mutes, and added reverb- all gated. The 1st time that sound came out of peoples speakers, they all pretty much said "holy shit"----everywhere.

 

Hmm, this article seems to suggest that gates are not just for live drums but can serve to enhance your drums/drum loop > http://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/5-simple-ways-to-add-punch-to-your-drum-parts--audio-9368

 

Why not just take the big plunge and get into M/S EQ'd parallel/N.Y compression while we are at it? ;)

I wanna listen to some Phil Collins now.

 

Me too, Baxter. "In The Air Tonight". Oh yes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkADj0TPrJA

 

still though... electronic music beats can benefit from gating as well... not to the degree of phil collins maybe, however, using a gate to "shave off" a bit of the tail in each element of your drums, can "tighten-up" the beat... it may not be much, but it definitely makes a difference.
Rick Snoman introduced me to the idea in one of his Dance Music Production videos... cant remember which one (most likley the drum video, but probably in some of the other 'genre' vids as well). : )

 

Gates are used on drums on techno tracks. So yes, they can be used on non live drums. ;)