Newbie inquiry: Dynamic Audio Gating?

Plugins & Modules
1

hello!

being new puppy in the Realm Modular, but an old hound from the Studio Underworld, i’m fast coming to appreciate that the way we use the term “Gate” in the synthesis context is a bit different than what it often means in the typical audio interpretation.

i use audio gates a LOT… usually to shorten or truncate audio content as an effect, but sometimes also to screen out an unwanted noise floor.

in the modular synth world, the word “gate” usually means something a bit different: a (square, or -ish) voltage that acts as a kind of hard on-off type of control. and it seems that many “Gate” rack modules either produce or alter or randomize this type of gate voltage.

i’m finding it less common to find modules that behave the way an old-school “noise gate” signal processor might when employed as a dynamics controller. the gate modules i have looked at aren’t really dedicated to that sort of operation.

and the ones that do appear to be dynamics controllers often lack the triggering level threshold, hold and floor settings i’m used to. so clearly, things are different here – and that’s of course totally ok.

the Realm Modular is far more extensive than my baby steps have taken me, so i’m sure there are solutions aplenty out there – i was just surprised that they didn’t come leaping off the page, even after using more specific search terms.

so i then thought that perhaps one is meant to build that kind of dynamics gate by combining modules, rather than simply grabbing one fully-formed from the forehead of zeus.

i supposed that an envelope generator could be one part of that chain.

but i’m not sure how you turn something that seems to me to be a member of the “time machine” family (which is how my ignorance interprets the class of devices that includes envelopes) into a device that responds to changes in signal amplitude, and is only then (and only possibly) modified by raw voltages as a modulation source.

on the envelopes i have used up until now, attack is a time setting – without a “loudness amount” to trigger it, and the modulations that can be applied to attack change attack time rather than attack operational sensitivity.

i have only just this week dipped into the world of attenuverters, and thought maybe that that was the way to somehow get control over the range of sensitivity settings – but i can’t quite connect the dots with how to make an envelope ignore audio input below a certain amplitude, and then start responding as configured once the audio gets louder than that.

all this, of course, while i still just can’t shake the feeling that there’s, like, a model of an old Kepex II somewhere out there already, and that really, one needn’t re-invent that wheel.

but at the same time i’m also fast appreciating that, in the Realm Modular, signal strength can quickly become very jumpy indeed, and any threshold setting you might try to apply to an audio dynamics processor-type gate would be almost pointless – considering how crazy the sonic fluctuations can easily become.

so perhaps the conventional audio (“kepex-type) device is almost…. pointless?

2

Maybe have a look at this :

3

looks like just the thing!

thank you very, very much.

4

If you want to explore further or build your own gate from more primitive modules, here are some suggestions. You’re right, there aren’t a lot of audio gates in Rack, but you will see what exists under the Dynamics tag when sorting modules.

And very useful for building your own dynamics processing:

Entrian Pitch & Envelope Follower or Bogaudio FOLLOW to detect audio level

And then with an attenuverter, subtract that voltage from 10v, and use the result to control a VCA.

That’s the simplest dynamics gate, then you add slew limiters, envelope followers, logic, etc.

It can be a bit pointless to build your own dynamics from scratch, but I seem to end up doing it frequently. One reason is that if you delay the audio signal (but not the audio-level-detect path), you can a comp or gate with Lookahead.

5

thank you, waldo!

I’m already familiar with Manic Compression (and it is fun… more features than a 20-plex cinema!) but these others are interesting as well.

given my question about the rapid fluctuations in level that are more common in the modular domain, i will be very interested to discover how practical gating actually is in the long run. but there have been times i wish i had one, and now i have several to think about!

6

thank you, yeager!

SHAPE fills the requirement splendidly.

vast appreciations to all!

7

Gating is a great way to shape audio. I remember doing fun things to compressed drum tracks with the old dbx gates rack mount. But most things you create in the rack will not need noise gating to improve noise floor. And many textures will already be gated by envelopes controlling vcas, it’s often part of the sound design to shape the attack, sustain and release of the core tone, possible updating some of those parameters per step. Definitely using envelopes to get sounds kinda short is an electronic music thing, we really like leaving space for delay reverb and other sounds, it feels like gating cuz it is, you will find talk of envelope generators and their various behaviors quickening pulses around here.

8

in this world, the definition of what “noise” even means is delightfully elastic and simultaneously free from the kind of pejorative insinuation that it carries in other contexts.

which, of course, is one reason we love it here….

i’ve been enjoying a bunch of that in the course of my (clearly, quite lumpy) modular self-tutorials.

understood. i think my original question (which had a few aspects) was mostly prompted by curiosity around the issue of signal strength threshold activation – the “shortening” effect has been easier for me to grasp just from lots of hands-on head scratching with ADSR EG. but, i think i might be starting to get around the pitch… on some things, at least.