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Author Topic: Noise gate for close quarters  (Read 11451 times)

Dan Crocker

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Noise gate for close quarters
« on: January 23, 2014, 12:57:30 AM »

Our church band is crammed into a relatively small space. We have an assortment of dynamic vocal mics, mic'ed guitar amps, an electronic drum kit with a speaker for a monitor, bass monitor, and the occasional choir mic. I was thinking it might be helpful to enable a noise gate for all of the mic inputs to help isolate things. Is this a common practice? I'm assuming that I should be able to find a threshold that lets me eliminate other sources while keeping the main one for each mic.
Is this a bad idea? If not, any suggestions how how to set it up (other than just tuning the threshold by watching levels and listening)?
In case it matters, we will be using a Roland M200i console.
Thanks,
Dan
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Steve M Smith

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Re: Noise gate for close quarters
« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2014, 01:53:01 AM »

Is there an actual problem with what you have now which you are trying to eliminate?


Steve.
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Tommy Peel

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Re: Noise gate for close quarters
« Reply #2 on: January 23, 2014, 03:08:11 AM »

Dan, I don't think the gates will help your situation very much. I mix a fairly loud band with mic'd amps, mic'd acoustic drums, vocal mics, and other instruments occasionally all in a very small church(150 peeps max, maybe less). We get a decent, if loud, mix for the most part. We're on an analog board and don't have gates on every channel(I have 6chs of comps/gates) but even then the only gates I use are for the noisy(hissing) bass amp and kick drum. I use the expanders on a couple of vocal mics because it helps keep them from feedbacking when the comps release though it doesn't help with the stage noise. In the end the loudest sound at the mic wins...

To sum it up you might find gates useful on noisy amps(only to eliminate hissing or other bad noises that amps can make sometimes) and acoustic drums but they make other things(vocals) sound weird if their set where they do any good.

Here's our setup(keys, 3 Vox, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, violin, and acoustic drums) from this week btw:


Sent from my Nexus 4 running OmniROM 4.4 KitKat using Tapatalk Pro
« Last Edit: January 23, 2014, 03:10:24 AM by Tommy Peel »
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Ivan Beaver

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Re: Noise gate for close quarters
« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2014, 07:31:19 AM »

Our church band is crammed into a relatively small space. We have an assortment of dynamic vocal mics, mic'ed guitar amps, an electronic drum kit with a speaker for a monitor, bass monitor, and the occasional choir mic. I was thinking it might be helpful to enable a noise gate for all of the mic inputs to help isolate things. Is this a common practice? I'm assuming that I should be able to find a threshold that lets me eliminate other sources while keeping the main one for each mic.
Is this a bad idea? If not, any suggestions how how to set it up (other than just tuning the threshold by watching levels and listening)?
In case it matters, we will be using a Roland M200i console.
Thanks,
Dan
One of the problems with noise gates that they can kill dynamic range.  Once you set them "tight enough" to eliminate other sources-then if the source drops down in level-the gate cut in and kills the source.

yes on some things they can be helpful-but for isolation-rarely is this the case-including drums.

Unless the musicians only have one level-then you can use them for isolation.
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g'bye, Dick Rees

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Re: Noise gate for close quarters
« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2014, 09:11:46 AM »

Our church band is crammed into a relatively small space. We have an assortment of dynamic vocal mics, mic'ed guitar amps, an electronic drum kit with a speaker for a monitor, bass monitor, and the occasional choir mic. I was thinking it might be helpful to enable a noise gate for all of the mic inputs to help isolate things. Is this a common practice? I'm assuming that I should be able to find a threshold that lets me eliminate other sources while keeping the main one for each mic.
Is this a bad idea? If not, any suggestions how how to set it up (other than just tuning the threshold by watching levels and listening)?
In case it matters, we will be using a Roland M200i console.
Thanks,
Dan

Dan...

The ON/OFF nature of gates will be very audible on vocal mics.  Remember, your vocal mics are picking up a bunch of other stuff, so when the voice opens the gate, the STUFF jumps up as well.

If your desk has downward expanders, that's what you want.  Very smooth, not hard ON/OFF, gentle and workable reduction of bleed from the mics into the mix.  This is one of the features I miss in not using my StudioLive so much anymore.

Otherwise...placement, pattern and mic technique.  Not to mention getting your band amps down to a dull roar and not pointed at the mics or the crowd.
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Jordan Wolf

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Re: Noise gate for close quarters
« Reply #5 on: January 23, 2014, 10:21:38 AM »

Dan,

I don't recommend using gates for that purpose.

Any musician worth their salt will be able to play just as well softly as they will when going all-out.  That is a huge factor that contributes to a good show, and gives me confidence that they truly know what they're doing.

If your noise gate has a "depth" knob, you can choose the level of attenuation after dropping below threshold.
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Dan Crocker

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Re: Noise gate for close quarters
« Reply #6 on: January 23, 2014, 11:10:49 AM »

Thanks all :)...
The main thing I've noticed is that the choir mics tend to pick up the drum monitor. It's not like I've identified a big issue at this point though. I just thought there might be a recommended baseline use of gates for isolation. Clearly, there isn't :).
The Roland does have expanders so I could play with that.
Thanks,
Dan
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Re: Noise gate for close quarters
« Reply #7 on: January 23, 2014, 01:06:28 PM »

Thanks all :)...
The main thing I've noticed is that the choir mics tend to pick up the drum monitor. It's not like I've identified a big issue at this point though. I just thought there might be a recommended baseline use of gates for isolation. Clearly, there isn't :).
The Roland does have expanders so I could play with that.
Thanks,
Dan

Move the drum monitor.
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Tim McCulloch

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Re: Noise gate for close quarters
« Reply #8 on: January 23, 2014, 01:27:01 PM »

Move the drum monitor.

Thank you.  An acoustic solution to an acoustic problem.
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Dan Crocker

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Re: Noise gate for close quarters
« Reply #9 on: January 23, 2014, 01:34:48 PM »

Easier said than done. We have very little flexibility given the amount of space... :(
Dan
Move the drum monitor.
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Re: Noise gate for close quarters
« Reply #9 on: January 23, 2014, 01:34:48 PM »


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