Overview
Gate closes when the sound falls quiet, to cut noise and spill. It opens above Threshold and closes below Threshold minus Hysteresis, so it does not chatter. It can listen to the sound itself or to a sidechain input.
Getting started
- Lower Threshold until the hits open the gate and the noise between them does not.
- Set Release so the tails close naturally.
Controls
| Threshold, Hysteresis | Where it opens, and how far below that it closes. |
| Range | How far it closes: -80 dB is shut, -20 dB is a gentle duck. |
| Attack, Hold, Release | How fast it opens, how long it stays open, how fast it closes. |
| Key | Internal or External (sidechain); Listen plays the key; Low cut and High cut filter it. |
Settings
The gear in the header opens the settings panel; it covers the lower panel until the gear is clicked again.
| Lookahead | Holds the sound back 2 ms so the gate is open before the hit; the DAW is told. |
What the screen shows
The last four seconds: the key in grey, the gated sound in orange, the threshold line (drag it) and an Open/Closed lamp.
Tips
- A key high cut stops cymbal spill from opening a tom gate.
Technical notes
- Peak hold 10 ms in the detector; Listen is never saved with the project.
Common to every plugin
| The header | Every window opens with the same header. On the left a dot-matrix display shows the main reading large and the details under it; text that does not fit scrolls. Next to it a hint with a coloured dot says what the plugin is doing or what to do next. On the right: Undo and Redo arrows (up to 100 steps of everything done in the window), the Bypass button, and the gear, which opens the plugin's settings panel when it has one. |
| Bypass | With Bypass lit, the plugin lets the sound through untouched. It is the same switch as your DAW's own bypass for the plugin, so either can be used and automated. The input is held back by exactly the plugin's latency, so the timing stays right, and switching fades over 10 ms, so it never clicks. Bypass is not part of Undo. |
| Input and Output | Most plugins have a column on the right with a pair of VU meters for the input and the output, each with its own gain knob (plus or minus 24 dB). Analog shows the classic VU scale, dBFS the digital one. A click on a meter opens a large view of it. The CLIP lamp lights when a sample reaches 0 dBFS. |
| Knobs | Drag a knob up or down to turn it. Knobs that go both ways, or that have a natural middle, catch briefly at their centre. A double-click returns a knob to its default. |
| About and the demo | A click on the xsidfx logo in the footer opens About. In the demo version the plugin's name ends in (demo), its settings are not saved with your project, and About opens each time the window does. |
