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Gated reverb is an audio processing technique that is applied to recordings of drums (or live sound reinforcement of drums in a PA system) to make the drums sound powerful and "punchy," while keeping the overall mix clean and transparent-sounding. The gated reverb effect, which was most popular in the 1980s, is made using a combination of strong reverb and a noise gate. A live sound reproduction system has two main forms: A sound reinforcement system enhances the volume of the initial sound and will be designed so that as much as possible the listener will not realise that an artificial system is being used to make it easier for them to hear...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
This article is about audio effect. ...
A noise gate is an electronic device or software logic that is used to control the volume of an audio signal. ...
Unlike most reverberation or delay effects, the gated reverb effect does not try to emulate any kind of reverb that occurs in nature. This article is about audio effect. ...
Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time[1]. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating...
History
The first known use of this technique was by recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder on the 1976 album Velvet Darkness by jazz/rock guitarist Allan Holdsworth. The drummer on this recording was Narada Michael Walden. Rudy Van Gelder (born November 2, 1924 in Jersey City, New Jersey) is a recording engineer specialising in jazz. ...
Allan Holdsworth (born August 6, 1946 in Bradford, West Yorkshire) is a British jazz guitarist and composer. ...
Michael Walden (born April 23, 1952, in Kalamazoo, Michigan USA) is an American producer, drummer, singer, and songwriter. ...
The gated reverb effect began being used in popular music during the 1980s. Producer Mutt Lange was a pioneer at drenching the recorded drum sound in gated reverb. An early and prominent use of gated reverb was in Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and Hugh Padgham's production of the third Peter Gabriel solo album.[1] Robert John Mutt Lange, born November 16, 1948 in Mufilira, in southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), is an extremely successful record producer of popular music. ...
Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950, in Chobham, Surrey, England) is an English musician. ...
Philip David Charles Collins (born January 30, 1951 in Chiswick, London) is an English singer, songwriter, drummer and actor. ...
Hugh Padgham is a British record producer and audio engineer. ...
Peter Gabriel, released in 1980, is Peter Gabriels third eponymous album and his first for Geffen Records. ...
Methods of creation "Classic" analogue method The oldest, most "natural" technique can be done with minimal electronic processing. The steps for processing are as following: - At least 2 microphones are set up: close mic(s) (usually dynamic, to pick up the hit itself) and ambience mic(s) (usually condenser, to pick up ambient sound). Usually, there are 2 ambience mics in stereo pair to capture overhead stereo image.
- The whole drumset and all mics are placed in a very live room (i.e., one with huge amounts of reverberation and particularly early reflections from its walls, ceiling and floor).
- High-gain compression is applied to ambience mic(s) to capture rich reverb sound.
- Ambience mic(s) are fed through a noise gate with separate external key input.
- Close mic(s) are used as an external key for the noise gate.
- Hold time of noise gate is set to half a second or so (this would be a real duration of hit sound), followed by a fast release time. This causes the gate to allow only the first half second of reverb to pass though after each drum hit, before closing again.
- Optionally, close mic sound can be mixed in final result in some proportion to make a hit sound more "solid".
This results in a very live sounding drum that is rapidly cut off with none of the overpowering secondary reflections associated with reverb. Note that this process is generally used in studio recording environment only: it's hard to reproduce such effect when playing live. A microphone, sometimes referred to as a mike or mic (both IPA pronunciation: ), is an acoustic to electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. ...
A microphone, sometimes referred to as a mike or mic (both IPA pronunciation: ), is an acoustic to electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. ...
Audio level compression, also called dynamic range compression, volume compression, compression, limiting, or DRC (often seen in DVD player settings) is a process that manipulates the dynamic range of an audio signal. ...
A noise gate is an electronic device or software logic that is used to control the volume of an audio signal. ...
| Modern digital method When using digital reverb unit, it is possible to replicate classic scheme in much simpler steps: - Only 1 microphone is set up: close mic. No real room for ambience is needed, all reverberation is done at effects unit processor.
- Close mic sound is fed to reverberation unit, then to compressor, then to noise gate signal input.
- Same sound of close mic is fed to noise gate key input.
- Optionally, just as in above method, original ("dry") sound can be mixed in some proportion to gated ouptut ("wet") sound.
Each channel needs its own "reverb+noise gate" unit. Applying the effect on already mixed drums won't work properly. Most modern digital reverb units contain several "Gated reverb" presets, thus removing the need for a separate noise gate, compessor and commutation, effectively making it possible to get gated reverb sound from just single normal close mic or drum trigger. Also note that such setup does not require "live room" with huge reverberation ambience for the drumset and can be reproduced without major difficulties at live gigs. It has been suggested that Effects pedal be merged into this article or section. ...
A classical music concert in the Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne 2005 Kasia Kowalska concert in Warsaw A concert is a live performance, usually of music, before an audience. ...
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Usage patterns Most common usage of gated reverb is empowering drum sounds, particularly snare drum and bass drum. The technique became so popular and "gated reverb" sound is so recognizable, that many drum machines and samplers include some sort of "gated drums". These sounds are usually referred to as "gated snare" and "gated kick", thus omitting the "reverb" word from original naming. The snare drum or side drum is a tubular drum made of wood or metal with skins, or heads, stretched over the top and bottom openings, and with a set of snares (cords) stretched across the bottom head. ...
A bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. ...
A Boss DR-202 Drum Machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums and/or other percussion instruments. ...
An AKAI MPC2000 sampler Playing a Yamaha SU10 Sampler A sampler is an electronic music instrument closely related to a synthesizer. ...
While General MIDI hasn't specified particular sound characteristics for its drum kits, however, it already included 2 distinct snare sounds, sometimes referred to as acoustic snare (38) and electric snare (40), later usually sounding as "gated snare". Later MIDI standards, such as GS and XG include drum kits that specify gated drum sounds: most usually, that is patch #16 (GS #17, with shifted numbering) named "Power drumkit", "Rock drumkit" or patch #24 (GS #25) named "Electronic drumkit". Thus, for example, for snare drum, distinct sounds may be referred to as power snare or rock snare. General MIDI or GM is a specification for synthesizers which imposes several requirements beyond the more abstract MIDI standard. ...
Roland GS, or just GS, sometimes vaguely transcribed as General Standard, is an extension of General MIDI specification. ...
A PCI Yamaha XG sound card with a YMF724E-V chipset. ...
Notable records Gated reverb as an effect was used on countless drum tracks during the 1980s, to the point that such a sound became a defining characteristic of that decade's popular music. A good example is the Phil Collins single In The Air Tonight (specifically at the point when the live drums enter into the arrangement). However, Phil Collins continued to utilise this technique on several of his hits released after the recording of Peter Gabriel's song "Intruder" (from Peter Gabriel 3). This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Philip David Charles Collins (born January 30, 1951 in Chiswick, London) is an English singer, songwriter, drummer and actor. ...
In the Air Tonight is a song by Phil Collins which first appeared on his 1981 album, Face Value. ...
Peter Gabriel, released in 1980, is Peter Gabriels third eponymous album and his first for Geffen Records. ...
Audio sample Image File history File links Intheairtonight. ...
Software development stages In computer programming, development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ...
References - ^ Robyn Flans (May 1, 2005). "Classic Tracks: Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight"". Mix.
- White, Paul (June 1996). "Canyons of The Mind: Psycoacoustics of Reverb". Sound On Sound.
- Reverb article on Harmony Central includes information on gated reverb.
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