How to use Gate: Use 10ms lookahead time to prevent clicks and timing artifacts on fast material?

Use 10ms lookahead time to prevent clicks and timing artifacts on fast material

How to use Gate: Enable Flip for inverse gating to pass only quiet sections of a held pad or ambient track?

Enable Flip for inverse gating to pass only quiet sections of a held pad or ambient track

How to use Gate: Set Floor to -inf dB for complete muting when gate is closed, or a partial value like -12 dB for subtle attenuation?

Set Floor to -inf dB for complete muting when gate is closed, or a partial value like -12 dB for subtle attenuation

How to use Gate: Sidechain a drum track to a pad using external sidechain and Dry/Wet at 100% to impose drum rhythm onto the pad's sustain?

Sidechain a drum track to a pad using external sidechain and Dry/Wet at 100% to impose drum rhythm onto the pad's sustain

Gate by Ableton

Name: Gate
Author: Ableton

Plugin interface — screenshot pending

Gate

Ableton

Where to get itIncluded with Ableton Live. It is part of that DAW, not a separate download.ableton.com

Gate is a noise gate effect that passes only signals exceeding a user-specified threshold, allowing it to eliminate low-level noise between sounds or shape tone by cutting off reverb/delay tails and truncating decay. It features visual feedback showing input and output levels, intuitive threshold and hysteresis controls, and advanced sidechain capabilities for triggering gating from external sources or frequency-specific bands.

Written from the manual and checked against it. How we check

Key Features

01Three lookahead time options (0ms, 1ms, 10ms) for timing compensation

02Flip button for inverse gating (passes signals below threshold)

03Threshold and Return (hysteresis) controls with visual representation

04Attack, Hold, and Release envelope controls

05Floor attenuation setting from -inf dB to 0.00 dB

06External sidechain with Gain and Dry/Wet mixing

07Sidechain EQ for frequency-specific triggering

08Sidechain monitor headphones button for auditioning trigger source

Things to Try

01Use 10ms lookahead time to prevent clicks and timing artifacts on fast material
02Enable Flip for inverse gating to pass only quiet sections of a held pad or ambient track
03Set Floor to -inf dB for complete muting when gate is closed, or a partial value like -12 dB for subtle attenuation
04Sidechain a drum track to a pad using external sidechain and Dry/Wet at 100% to impose drum rhythm onto the pad's sustain

User Manual↗

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Gate by Ableton | Plugin Library