highlandermak
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Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
So I've been looking around to see what vst gate /expander ppl use to isolate there drum tracks stems. I kept running into old articles which didn't seem relevant. I saw one that was exclusive to pro tools which seemed awesome but haven't found an affordable alternative. What gate have you found that works for you. Thank you
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Kuusniemi
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/25 00:02:56
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highlandermak
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/25 00:14:17
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I was looking at the fab gate, does it ever go on sale? Thanks
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scook
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/25 00:28:39
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If you have never purchased a FabFilter product, any existing FabFilter customer (including me) can provide you a discount code.
FabFilter does have sales which spotlight individual plug-ins and bundles. Recent Black Friday sale was an additional 25% off individual plug-ins for existing customers and discounts for all their bundles. FabFilter started using resellers a year or so ago. They occasionally have better pricing often times better than the first buyer discount.
They also occasionally show up on the kvr marketplace.
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Kamikaze
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/25 01:05:35
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Yeah Fabfilter Sales are rare, and typically on one thing at a time. I waited over a year to pick up Saturn, the same with Twin. But They do seem to becoming more frequent as I picked up ProR in December from a third party, and it's only about a year old. Another cool thing to fabfilter, when you buy one, all the other items direct from them receive a discount. This is particularly cool when they them selves run a special as it applies on top of the discount. Otherwise Boz Gatey Watey has a trial option and good gate with some additional functionality. https://www.bozdigitallab.com/product/gatey-watey/
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mikedocy
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/25 02:58:34
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If you are recording a real acoustic drum set with microphones, and want to isolate the toms, then the Sonitus gate included in Sonar is very good. It has separate high-pass and low-pass filters connected to the sidechain so you can "tune" it to the drum you want gated. This helps prevent false triggers. If you want a gate that is a little bit better than the Sonitus, then get the "Unfiltered Audio G8" from Plugin Alliance. Wait for it to go on sale for 19 dollars.  EDIT: The Sonitus is not a VST. It is Direct X. It will only work in Sonar and other DX hosts. I still recommend the "Unfiltered Audio G8" for a good, low cost gate. It is VST.
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TheMaartian
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/25 14:26:27
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Kamikaze
...
Otherwise Boz Gatey Watey has a trial option and good gate with some additional functionality.
https://www.bozdigitallab.com/product/gatey-watey/
Thanks for the reminder about Gatey Watey. I snagged it for free when Boz were doing the "name this new VST" promotion, installed it...and promptly forgot about it.
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Jeff Evans
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/25 18:27:46
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In your OP you mention Stems. Stems implies there may be multiple tracks being sent to a stem. Any gate or expander is always going to have a more difficult time dealing with multiple sources on a stem. Treat the individual tracks before they are sent to a stem.
Also I see if you are running Studio One, the built in Expander does a fine job. You just have to spend a little time setting it up correctly.
If I see only a few tom hits on a given track I actually cut out all the time in between them and apply a short fade to the in and out on the event that is left. No gate or expander is as clean as this. This is actually pretty quick in Studio One and easy to do.
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JohnKenn
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/25 23:37:42
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Can also get the excellent Reaper gate for free (ReaGate). Highly recommended. Comes included with a suite of other top end vst utilities. Don't got to love Reaper to love this offering. https://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/ John
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highlandermak
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/26 02:55:21
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Jeff Evans
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/26 03:03:21
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I like expanders over gates a lot of the time. Gates are good for signals that jump quickly from a low level sound to a much higher level. Under these conditions they can open and close cleanly. But when things are happening around the threshold such as ghost tom hits etc, they can chatter.
Expanders are smoother and often more sensible. They have the ability to still really quieten things down between the important stuff but also open when they need to and let even modest things through which sometimes you need.
DMG's Expurgate looks impressive in that sense. It is over $200 AU which is a lot for an expander/gate.
Specs i5-2500K 3.5 Ghz - 8 Gb RAM - Win 7 64 bit - ATI Radeon HD6900 Series - RME PCI HDSP9632 - Steinberg Midex 8 Midi interface - Faderport 8- Studio One V4 - iMac 2.5Ghz Core i5 - Sierra 10.12.6 - Focusrite Clarett thunderbolt interface Poor minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas -Eleanor Roosevelt
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gswitz
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/26 03:06:10
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You can just do it manually for toms. Cymbals snare and kick get hit too much to bother, but the toms can be done by hand.
StudioCat > I use Windows 10 and Sonar Platinum. I have a touch screen. I make some videos. This one shows how to do a physical loopback on the RME UCX to get many more equalizer nodes.
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gswitz
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/26 03:08:20
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For me a gate is something i can use if i can hear it while performing. I never have used a gate after the fact.
StudioCat > I use Windows 10 and Sonar Platinum. I have a touch screen. I make some videos. This one shows how to do a physical loopback on the RME UCX to get many more equalizer nodes.
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JohnKenn
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/26 03:18:27
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Jeff,
For a dumb fork like me, can you explain anything more about expander vs gate.
Only know how to work gates. The noise gate is the last audio effect that is still in a primitive and unacceptable state of the art. 10 years from now this will not be an issue, but a pain in the chalumbas in the here and now.
Advise something better if we got it on the horizon?
John
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Kuusniemi
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/26 08:58:03
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Composer & Sound Designer at Really Slow Motion, Man Makes Noise, Epic North, YleX and Yle Puhe.
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gswitz
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/26 23:27:39
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The difference between an expander an a gate is the same as a limiter vs compressor only backwards. In other words, with a gate you get no sound (more or less) until you cross the threshold. With an expander, the sound comes up at a fraction of the normal rate until it hits the threshold. So if the threshold is at 40, the level at -50 would be reduced according to your ratio. At a 2:1 ration when level is at -50 the sound would be at -60. The sound would decrease at twice the actual below the threshold. A gate is like an inf:1 ratio where once you are below the threshold there is an abrupt cut off. On the off side, this can be tempered with a release, but on the starting side, it's abrupt. It's often used on a hard attack rhythm guitar. This video shows some gates. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWij_S5kf1g
StudioCat > I use Windows 10 and Sonar Platinum. I have a touch screen. I make some videos. This one shows how to do a physical loopback on the RME UCX to get many more equalizer nodes.
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Jim Roseberry
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/27 15:16:30
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Gates are used a lot for live sound (especially kick). Played many gigs where I just wish the drummer would damp the kick a little better. Mixing wise, I'm not a big fan of gates. If not set "just so"... you can get nasty "chattering" which sounds artificial. Kick is usually more consistent... and isn't too hard to get the Gate dialed-in. Snare may be a bit more tricky (depending on the dynamics of the player). For Toms, as was mentioned, you can edit the tracks manually (toms are usually sparse). Overheads I wouldn't use a Gate. Way too much nuance and changes in dynamics...
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Karyn
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/27 19:49:19
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To simplify the difference between gates and expanders further..
A gate starts to open at the threshold.
An expander is fully open by the threshold.
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bitflipper
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/28 01:19:03
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All I know is that nearly every software gate performs better than nearly every hardware gate I ever used.
That said, every software gate is still frustratingly fiddly. Up to and including the best one on the market (which would be Pro-G, IMO).
 All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. My Stuff
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highlandermak
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/28 03:22:35
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I'm demoing the expurgate and pro-g and so far the expurgate is edging out the pro-g. The frequency adjustments in expurgate allows me to really hone in on the kick better. More tests to come
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jackson white
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/28 16:37:53
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Not a vst, but the gate in the Drawmer MX-30 is surprisingly good. One of the main reasons I still use it.
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fresh101
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/02/28 21:15:11
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Thought this was relevant to this thread. There is also a nice walk through video on the features. https://harrisonconsoles.lpages.co/whats-in-the-box-xt-eg/Harrison XT-EG FREE! Regular Price $109free for limited time. 
The XT-EG Expander / Gate is Harrison's versatile tool for gating noise, or gently increasing the dynamic range of tracks.Features include Hysteresis, Lookahead, and Sidechain Filter.
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highlandermak
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/03/01 01:04:09
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Is the Harrison gate usable with other Daws?
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cclarry
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/03/01 14:06:45
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highlandermak
Is the Harrison gate usable with other Daws?
No...they use the LV2 format
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highlandermak
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/03/01 23:33:38
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gswitz
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Re: Best vst noise gate/expander for drums
2018/03/01 23:57:55
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I own that Harrison gate. ☺
StudioCat > I use Windows 10 and Sonar Platinum. I have a touch screen. I make some videos. This one shows how to do a physical loopback on the RME UCX to get many more equalizer nodes.
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