Use Gate to react to a send and "chop up" a pad sound. Works with Sonitus Gate but not others?

[Salvatore Sorice]

Those more knowledgeable may find this to be an old trick, but it's new to me and sounds cool.

Only problem is that I can't replicate the effect with other Gates - only the built-in Sonitus Gate does it. Anyone know why?

Setup:
> Insert a drum loop, groove, etc. (but could be anything - bass, etc.)
> Insert a pad sound (ie, longer, sustained chords work well).
> Insert Sonitus Gate on the Pad track
> Insert a Send from the Drums to the Sonitus Gate
> Play around with the Gate settings so that the sidechain input from the drum track "chops up" the pad. Creates some interesting rhythmic effects.
    Also works well if you duplicate the drum Track, use it for the Send source, but set its output to None, so it only acts as a trigger on the Pad Track.

Have a listen to this example (Note: The Pad is just 4 sustained chords - I am NOT playing anything rhythmically on the keyboard).

Comments welcomed!

 

 

Edited February 19 by Salvatore Sorice
Added graphic

[OutrageProductions]

Not all EFX have side chain inputs.

You may want to try a "trance gate"... Kilohearts has a freebie that is minimal but functional. 

Edited February 20 by OutrageProductions

[Salvatore Sorice]

Thanks @OutrageProductions! Kilohearts Trance Gate produces a similar result!

Just wish I understood what's going on under the hood and why I can't get other Gates (like Neutron 4 Gate) to produce similar results. 

[Amberwolf]

The other gates have to have a sidechain input.  If htey don't, you can't send another input to them (just wha'ts on the track or bus they're already on).  

not all gates have sidechain inputs.

 

If the ones you are using have a sidechain input, but it doesn't show up in the send list, maybe it has to be enabled in the plugin first?  Google's "AI" summary thingy (which we know is never wrong :lol: ) says:

How to use the sidechain
Select the Advanced panel by clicking the arrow on the right side of the band HUD 
Use the Sidechain controls to choose an internal or external input signal 
Select the type of sidechain input signal from the dropdown menu 
Set the sidechain source in Neutron 

Does that help? (or is it bogus?)

 

Of all the stuff I've got installed, I know the sonitus compressor and gate have sc inputs that show up as sends.    VC-64 does, as well. 

[Amberwolf]

Or is the issue not that it doesn't show up as a send, but that it just doesn't do the chopping? 

 

If the latter, I'd guess that whatever settings the sc input has for those not working as desired are not set (or don't allow) to a complete modulation of the gate, full on / off, or the attack is too fast or slow, or the release is too long or short (depending on what exactly isn't happening)

[Salvatore Sorice]

Thanks @Amberwolf  I’ll be at my PC later and will test again. It seems to be a setting issue, as the other gates I experimented with showed as side chain inputs. 

[Salvatore Sorice]

Thanks all for the comments. It seems to be a settings issue. For the rhythmic "chopped" effect the Sonitus Gate works well (for me). I also had luck and got some cool effects with the Kilohearts Trance Gate. Not so much luck with others (like Neutron 4).

Guess it's just a matter of experimenting!

[mettelus]

Once the side chain input is set up, fiddle with the controls (specifically the attack and release parameters) for how quickly the gate opens/closes. Not all gates have the "hold" parameter exposed like Sonitus does though, which yields a more consistent stutter effect.

Side note, a more extreme example of such is iZotope's Stutter Edit, which lets you manipulate samples (that your gate example would pass) in multiple ways. While that has interesting effects to fiddle with, it often is difficult to apply musically to a piece (depending on genre). That has essentially "scenes" that can be driven by MIDI input so you can shift each FXs setup/scene on the fly. Caution since I mentioned that... Stutter Edit 2 is one of those that goes on sale for $10 from time to time (full price is like $199), which is typical for iZotope products.

[Salvatore Sorice]

Thanks @mettelus!

[Starship Krupa]

13 hours ago, mettelus said:

Stutter Edit 2 is one of those that goes on sale for $10 from time to time (full price is like $199), which is typical for iZotope products.

I snagged a Stutter Edit 2 license during one of iZotope's discounts. It's incredibly deep and capable, so much so that I've so far not used it as much as I thought I would. Even after working my way through a Producertech course, I still don't feel like I have a handle on it.

Anyway, yeah, just about any gate with a sidechain input can do what you did in your audio example. It's just a matter of getting the settings right. The level coming from the send is important, as are the various attack, release, hold, and so on settings in the gate itself. It looks like the Sonitus gate works pretty well with minimum twiddling, which I guess isn't surprising for a stock plug-in.

My number one favorite powerful gate is Unfiltered Audio G8 (don't let the price tag fool you, it's the most capable gate I've ever seen), which is also available for free in the Computer Music Magazine plug-in suite. There's some feature or other that the G8CM version lacks, but it's one that I never use. I bought a license for the "full" version mostly because I wanted the developers to be compensated for making such a great processor.

[Salvatore Sorice]

Thanks @Starship Krupa  I’ll keep experimenting and check out the plugins you mentioned. 

[mettelus]

On 2/19/2025 at 8:09 PM, Salvatore Sorice said:

Just wish I understood what's going on under the hood and why I can't get other Gates (like Neutron 4 Gate) to produce similar results. 

I just remembered you asked about this, so opened the Neutron 4 gate. I used a droning cello as the main track and then used a drum loop as the side chain. I did notice that you must expand the arrow at the right of the controls to specifically (probably what hung you up) enable that side chain input in Neutron 4 (see pic below). I set it to extreme gating so the drum loop was inserting steps into the audio at the bottom. I chose a wonkier drum loop than intended, so fiddling with the Open/Close thresholds was trickier than I anticipated.

To summarize:

• The open/close thresholds are are the gate's operating points.
• The Attack/Release are how quickly it operates (in/out slopes).
• The Ratio is a compressor... anything over 10:1 is basically a limiter (nothing passes), under that is how much the gate attenuates the sound (simple compression).
• The Hold is simply a minimum time to stay open, regardless of the side chain.
• I chose the most aggressive settings just to show the "square wave," but definitely fiddle with the above to find things more suitable.

 

[Starship Krupa]

4 hours ago, Salvatore Sorice said:

Thanks @Starship Krupa  I’ll keep experimenting and check out the plugins you mentioned. 

Keep in mind what others have said about enabling external sidechain in whatever gate you're using. For whatever reasons, most gates I've seen don't do so by default.

[Salvatore Sorice]

Thanks @mettelus and @Starship Krupa!  Great info. I will be testing out your suggestions today. 

[Salvatore Sorice]

As suggested above by @mettelus and confirmed by @Starship Krupa the Neutron 4 sidechain was not enabled. Haven't used it much so I had to find the (kind of hidden) sidechain menu!