Hey guys,
Have been trying to use the gate plugin on live vocal tracks to minimise feedback.
Am finding it very hard to find good settings that still allow a good range of vocals while cutting out as much feedback as possible.
And when the vocals to come in and out they tend to jar hlatingly come in and out.
Any tips? Or is this the nature of using gate?
Thanks!
Gate plugin - Useful settings for vocals/minimsing feedback?
Re: Gate plugin - Useful settings for vocals/minimsing feedback?
You mean reduce ambient noise bleeding through? A gate will not be very useful for minimizing feedback. Feedback is when you get that horrible screech when the microphone is too close to the speakers. If you're getting feedback then you need to work on other parts of your sound setup. Otherwise if you have a recording with feedback you need to manually cut those parts out (And there's no good excuse for this as artists should record with headphones, which would not cause feedback).
You can use the reverse gate setting to cut out when it goes over a threshold, but that's a poor fix for feedback. I haven't found a situation where the reverse gate setting is very useful.
I think what you want to do is cut out the ambient noise so the signal is silent when the vocalist isn't speaking. I don't like Ableton's built in Gate for this purpose. Reason being if you set the attack too slow, you don't hear the start of the vocalist coming in, and if you set it too short you get a pop in the signal. You want a gate that has a "Pre-Open" setting. It opens the gate a few milliseconds before the part comes in that you want to capture. You also want a good amount of release time. A few hundred milliseconds is a good starting place.
I use REA gate. It has a pre open setting. Here's a link to where you can download the VST for free: http://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/index.php
You can use the reverse gate setting to cut out when it goes over a threshold, but that's a poor fix for feedback. I haven't found a situation where the reverse gate setting is very useful.
I think what you want to do is cut out the ambient noise so the signal is silent when the vocalist isn't speaking. I don't like Ableton's built in Gate for this purpose. Reason being if you set the attack too slow, you don't hear the start of the vocalist coming in, and if you set it too short you get a pop in the signal. You want a gate that has a "Pre-Open" setting. It opens the gate a few milliseconds before the part comes in that you want to capture. You also want a good amount of release time. A few hundred milliseconds is a good starting place.
I use REA gate. It has a pre open setting. Here's a link to where you can download the VST for free: http://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/index.php
Re: Gate plugin - Useful settings for vocals/minimsing feedback?
Thanks but i do mean for mostly live performance, cutting out ambient noise coming thru the mix when we're not doing any playing/live looping recording....Which can sometimes become feedback when delays etc are on. Thought the gate could be useful.