Purpose

Gate quiets a signal when it drops below a threshold and opens when wanted sound returns. It weighs voice-like content in its detection, so it is well suited to cleaning up dialogue and vocals between phrases. An optional sidechain can drive the gate from a second source.

Use

Insert it inline on a voice or noisy source. Wire audio into in and out onward. Set Threshold just above the noise floor, then tune Attack, Hold, and Release so the gate opens cleanly and does not chatter. To gate one source from another, wire a control source into sidechain and turn Usesidechain on.

Inputs and outputs

• Input 0: in is the signal to gate. It accepts mono or stereo PCM and is required.
• Input 1: sidechain is an optional detection source. It accepts mono or stereo PCM.
• Output 0: out emits the same shape as the main input.

Controls

• Threshold: level the signal must cross for the gate to open.
• Voiceratio: how strongly voice-like content is favored when deciding to open.
• Reduction: how much the closed gate attenuates rather than fully silences. Lower values leave a little signal through.
• Attack: how fast the gate opens, in milliseconds.
• Release: how fast it closes, in milliseconds.
• Hold: how long it stays open after the signal falls, in milliseconds.
• Voicelow and Voicehigh: frequency range that detection focuses on.
• Smoothing: smooths the detection so the gate does not flicker.
• Usesidechain: when on, the sidechain input drives detection instead of the main input.

Notes

• Set Threshold above the noise floor but below the quietest wanted sound.
• If the gate chatters, raise Hold and Smoothing. If it cuts word tails, lengthen Release.
• Use a small Reduction instead of a full close when you want the gate to be less obvious.

Ports

Inputs

• in row required
  audio_pcm_f32_mono_v1audio_pcm_f32_stereo_v1
• sidechain row
  audio_pcm_f32_mono_v1audio_pcm_f32_stereo_v1

Outputs

• out row
  mirror_input

Parameters

Threshold (Threshold) Float op('gate').par.Threshold

Default:

0.02

Range:

0 to 1

Voiceratio (Voiceratio) Float op('gate').par.Voiceratio

Default:

0.35

Range:

0 to 1

Reduction (Reduction) Float op('gate').par.Reduction

Default:

0

Range:

0 to 1

Attack (Attack) Float op('gate').par.Attack

Default:

3

Range:

0.1 to 100

Release (Release) Float op('gate').par.Release

Default:

180

Range:

1 to 2000

Hold (Hold) Float op('gate').par.Hold

Default:

50

Range:

0 to 1000

Voicelow (Voicelow) Float op('gate').par.Voicelow

Default:

200

Range:

50 to 2000

Voicehigh (Voicehigh) Float op('gate').par.Voicehigh

Default:

3500

Range:

500 to 8000

Smoothing (Smoothing) Float op('gate').par.Smoothing

Default:

0.4

Range:

0 to 0.99

Usesidechain (Usesidechain) Toggle op('gate').par.Usesidechain

Default:

Off

Options:

Off, On