Ableton Gate Effect Tutorial – Understanding and Using Ableton’s Gate Effect

Ableton Gate Effect Tutorial

Hey Ableton Fans,

Here’s a great Ableton gate effect tutorial on understanding and using Ableton’s gate effect creatively.

First, the basics.

So what does a gate actually do? Well, the name hints at the answer: any sound below a specified threshold volume is not allowed to pass through the gate – kind of like a gate that only opens when enough volume is pushing on it. This image sums up the idea pretty well:

Ableton Gate Effect Tutorial

The Main Parameters – Threshold, Reduction, and Flip

Looking at the above image, you should be able to see that ‘threshold’ controls the volume audio must be greater than to pass through. Unlike the above image though, if something is below the threshold level, Ableton’s gate effect won’t cut it off completely. Instead, you get to adjust the reduction amount (see underneath the threshold control in the below image). This is a useful feature – if you only want a slight gate effect then adjust the reduction amount to something a bit smaller (eg -3dB or so).

Ableton Gate Effect Tutorial
‘Flip’, as you probably guessed, flips the whole effect around – audio will only pass through if it is below the threshold volume.

Attack, Hold and Release

These functions control how quickly the gate effect reacts to volume changes. Pictures can say a lot more than words can – so for this part I’m just going to let the image speak for itself!

Ableton Gate Effect Tutorial

Sidechains

When it comes to a gate effect, sidechains can be an incredibly useful tool. A sidechain is a different piece of audio to base the gate effect on – so, if the sidechained piece of audio drops below the threshold volume, then the audio on the original track will cut out (or whatever else the gate effect is set up to do).

Ableton Gate Effect Tutorial
To see the sidechain menu on Ableton’s gate effect, make sure the little arrow just at the top of the device is pressed. Here’s what all of the sidechain controls do:

Pressing the big sidechain button enables/disables the sidechain effect‘.  Audio From’ selects what audio track you want to base the gate’s sidechain on.

Once you’ve selected an ‘Audio From’ source, you’ll be able to choose when the sidechain audio is sent to the gate (either pre/post FX or post mixer).  Gain adjusts the volume of the sidechained audio.  Dry/Wet – this is a really useful and important part of the sidechain process. At 100%, the gate effect will be completely based upon the sidechain audio volume. Anything less than that will be a balance somewhere in between – the gate effect will be based on both the sidechain and the actual track’s audio.

How and When To Use A Gate Effect

Ok that’s great – hopefully now you’ve got the basics down on what a gate does. But when should you use this effect, and what can you actually use it for? Here’s a few situations in which a gate effect can be really helpful:

Cleaning up audio

Here’s an example: you recorded a guitar in a room with background noise. When the guitar is playing, you don’t notice it, but during silent parts it’s quite noticeable. This is a situation where you could use a gate – apply a gate effect so that anything quieter than the guitar gets cut out. You could achieve the same effect by manually chopping out any audio where the guitar isn’t playing – but gating is probably the faster and better option.

Gated reverb

This is a popular 80′s style effect, commonly used on a snare drum. To create this effect in Live, create a send + return track, and put reverb followed by a gate effect on the return track. That way, the reverb will suddenly cut out after a while.

Gated synth

You might have heard of this type of synth before. It’s a synth pad that has a rhythmic sound, and is created by using a sidechained gate effect: place a gate effect on a track with some sort of synth pad on it, and set the sidechain track as something with a lot of rhythm. Try something like a hihat track, this way the pad will only be heard when there’s a hit on a hihat and hence the result will be a very rhythmic sounding pad or synth.

Tightening up loose audio

Let’s say you’ve got a bass recording that’s slightly out of time with everything else. You could spend hours using Live’s warping feature to fix it… or you could use a gate. Place a gate on the bass channel, and add a kick drum track as a sidechain. This way, the bass will only be heard at the same time as the kick drum – sure, it might not be as good as using warping, but it’s quick and easy to do, and will sound in time.

Enjoy using Ableton’s gate effect and get creative with it people!

Original source: http://www.everythingableton.com/2011/02/understanding-abletons-gate-effect/

Ableton Gate Effect Tutorial

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