dbx 463X - Noise Gating Applications; Noise Reduction; Sound Quality Enhancement; Specific Use Cases

When
you don't
have
enough
mikes
(or
463Xes'.)
to
cover
each
drum,
then
group
them: snare and
center
toms, side toms,
bass,
cymbals.
The
idea
is
to
get
as
ciose
as
possibie
to
only
one
mike
on at a
time,
so
only
one
sound
is
picked
up,
instead
of
several.
Another common use
for
a gate
is in
vocal
recording.
Especially after
compression,
the noises picked up
by
a mike
an inch away
from
a
singer's
mouth
can be very
obtrusive.
Try
the 463X in its
middle
slider
settings
to gate out
these
noises.
Other
applications
include
keeping
live drum
tracks
from
"contaminating"
an
acoustic-piano
track, and
general solving
of other sorts of leakage
problems.
Changing
sound
quality
There's
more
to
gating than just
keeping
out
unwanted
background
noises:
you can
use
the 463X
gate
to change
sonic
character.
This
is
because
gates
can
be used
to
reduce
or
otherwise
alter the
quality of
instrumental
ambience
and
reverb.
As
the sound
decays
after
an
instrument
stops,
its
reverberation
level
will fall
through
the 463X
Threshold
setting,
below which
it can be made to die
out
more
or
less
quickly
—
in any
case
faster
than the
natural
sound.
Experiment with
changing
the
"tail"
of the sound; the
correct setting
will
nearly eliminate
reverb.
In other
situations,
a
463X
can be
used
to
prevent
or
reduce
leakage
among
mikes
in
sound
reinforcement
or during panel
discussions. Simply
set the
Threshold
control
below
the level
of
the music or
speech.
Similarly,
in
broadcasting,
a
463X
can
be used to
clean
up noisy
feeds
(land
lines, ENG
audio)
if it's
placed
at the output.
Wind
or air-
conditioning
noise
during
a remote
interview
can be
controlled
as well:
proper attenua-
tion
can
keep
noise
during
pauses
from
being
either loud
(obtrusive-sounding)
or too soft
(peculiar
-sounding)
—
or
modulated.
Hum
Instruments
with
magnetic
pickups
(like
a bass guitar)
often exhibit
some
buzz or
hum
between
notes, which
may
be
aggravated
by
compression
(which
will
pull
it
all
up
into
annoying
audibility).
Gating
will
knock
it back down
again.
MIDI
(musical
instrument
digital
interface)
keyboard stacks
When
all
of
the outputs
of a
complex
synthesizer
setup
are summed, the
resultant
noise
can
be substantial
when
no
notes
are
being
played. Hum,
rolling
buzz,
that
strange
digital
grunge
—
ail of
this
can
accumulate.
Set
the
Threshold
knob so
the gate
begins
attenuating
(the
light
goes out)
just
as
the
last note
decays
into the sea of
background
noise,
and
then
move the
slider
until
the
noise
is no
longer
audible. You
should get
a
smoother
transition
as the notes now
fade
into
silence.
Multiple
keyboard
stacks
(especially
during
a
performance)
call for
a
compressor
and
a gate
used
together.
The
compressor
will keep the
lid
on during
wild
crescendos,
avoiding
speaker distortion,
while
the
gate
will
keep the
ensemble
tight
and
clean
—
silent when
it should
be.
Keyed
gating
Controlling
the gating
of one
signal
by
another
permits
perfectly
in-synch
playing
and
overdubbing
among individual
instruments.
Another
use
of
this
function
is
adding
sounds
in
synch with
an
existing
track,
"fattening"
it. An
example of
the
former
would
be
synchronizing a bass guitar
and a
kick
drum;
an
example
of
the
latter
would
be
using
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