How To Gate Snares Without Losing Ghost Notes With Oxford Drum Gate 2
Conventional noise gates fall short when you try to keep both the main hits and ghost notes. They react to the level of the signal, regardless of the drum being played.
This means that snare drum recordings with spill from other parts of the kit like kick or hi-hat are very difficult to clean up and isolate.
Oxford Drum Gate 2 seperates each drum by type, meaning that even if your snare recording is filled with hi-hat bleed, you'll be able to gate out the kick far more effectively than with a conventional gate.
Check out the audio example below to hear the results of Oxford Drum Gate 2 removing hi-hat bleed from a snare track, ghost notes completely remaining clear and defined.
Let's go through the process of using Drum Gate 2 to gate your snare tracks to perfection. Your snare recording will be intact, with main hits, ghost notes and cross sticks unharmed.
Gate Snares Without Losing Ghost Notes With Drum Gate 2: Step by Step
Estimated Process Time: 1 Minute
1) Start by setting the Drum Type to Snare.
In most cases, it will already be auto-detected from the track name.
2) Bring the Confidence Threshold down until you can see ghost notes sitting above the threshold line.
You’re now letting the model recognise them as intentional hits.
3) If hi-hat spill starts creeping back in, raise the threshold slightly.
Because hi-hats and snares have distinct tonal profiles, the classifier can separate them even when the kick is louder.
4) For any ghost notes still slipping through the cracks, use Learn directly on those hits.
This reinforces their identity without affecting the rest of the track.
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