DimensionalTips: Simple Gate

This tip is mostly for P5/Dimension beginners, and shows how to 'assemble' a very simple gate effect, as used in almost every trance/dance song.

Dimension doesn't feature a built-in trance gate editor, but that's just because it doesn't need one. Project 5 has the most powerful gate editor one might imagine, so we'll take advantage of it. The procedure is as follows:

1- Select the Dimension program you'd like the gate effect applied to.
2- Open the MIDI Matrix in Dimension
3- Add a single line with the following values:

SOURCE: CC25
DESTINATION: Volume All
DEPTH: -96
SMOOTH: 0

This instructs Dimension to control the volume of all elements using CC25, with a depth of 96dB. This means that when the value we send is maximum, the volume will be -96dB, so we won't hear it.

4- Open P5 editor.
5- Select the Automation Tool, select MIDI CC 25
6- Draw your gate effect as desired.

Presto. Now the pattern can be saved as 'Trance Gate 1', and we can apply it to other Dimension programs, after adding the MIDI Matrix line.

I've created a small test example to show it here. In that example, I created yet another MIDI Matrix line to automate cutoff with another pattern. Hope you find it useful!



-René

Hey Rene, the p5p file seems to be corrupt - I get an error when I try to load it. Can you please fix it?

Thanks!
Philip

Awesome. This thing never ends.

ORIGINAL: René

Try with the zipped version, some browsers can modify unknown file types:

http://www.rgcstuff.com/External/Tips_SimpleGate.zip



-René

Thanks, but for some reason that still didn't work...
I get "Error uncompressing program data" when opening it.

same here too. It will open as a project, it looks like there is some data in there, but, but....can you tell me was there supposed to be any synth presets selected? That for sure is missing....
thx

Looks like everyone had this problem.

What it looks like is getting lost in the translation is the patches. You just need to manually chose the Dimension programs for each track.

For the first one with the filter (DPad), just choose something for a synth line perhaps in the Leads or Pads group. You'll need to manually assign the MIDI CC in the matrix each time you change programs.

For the DKick track, just select "Electric Kicks & Snares" in the Drums group.

Other than a passing reference to John Waters, I have no idea of what "DPecker" is supposed to do.

For the DBass, just try something in the Synth Basses group.


It's a really neat sound that's easy to get with Dimension. Since I learned something from René's tutorial, I guess that makes me an absolute beginner. But I'm one step futher along....

Bradster

If anyone's still having problems opening the file, please try it after patching Project 5. That should do it.


-René