Gated reverb

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.

Unlike many reverberation or delay effects, the gated reverb effect does not try to emulate any kind of reverb that occurs in nature.

History

The gated reverb effect became highly popular as part of the strongly syncopated sound of 1980s pop, rock and funk. Two early and prominent uses of the effect were associated with Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and Hugh Padgham: first in the production of the third Peter Gabriel solo album (with drumming on a few tracks by Collins and engineering by Padgham), notably the opening track "Intruder", and half a year later on Collins' hit single "In the Air Tonight", produced by Collins and Padgham.

Methods of creation

Live Room method The oldest, most "natural" technique can be done with minimal electronic processing. The steps for processing are as follow: At least two microphones are set up: close mic(s), to pick up the hit itself) and ambience mic(s), to pick up ambient sound). Usually, there is also a stereo pair involved that captures the overhead stereo image or cymbals. 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. (optional) 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. close mic and ambience sounds are mixed to taste. 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, though both Phil Collins and Genesis were able to incorporate it into most of their live performances.

Effects processor method When using a hardware reverb unit, echo chamber or digital emulation of either, it is possible to replicate classic scheme in much simpler steps: Whichever piece of the drum kit is getting the effect will need at least one microphone set up close to it. Ambient microphones are unnecessary but can be used if desired. The sound can be achieved in acoustically "live" or "dead" rooms, since all reverberation will be done inside the effects unit processor. The close mic sound is fed to reverberation unit, then to the compressor (optional), and then to the noise gate's signal input. The same sound of close mic is fed to the noise gate's key input. The "wet" and "dry" sounds (which is to say the unprocessed and processed sounds, respectively) can be mixed to taste. Such a setup does not require a "live room" with huge reverberation ambience for the drum set and can be reproduced without major difficulties at live gigs.

Usage patterns

Gated reverb is most commonly used for empowering drum sounds, particularly snare drum and bass drum. The technique became so popular and the "gated reverb" sound is so recognizable that many drum machines and samplers include some sort of "gated drums" setting. These sounds are usually referred to as gated snare and gated kick, omitting the word "reverb" from the original name.

While General MIDI does not specify particular sound characteristics for its drum kits, it does include two distinct snare sounds, sometimes referred to as acoustic snare (38) and electric snare (40), the latter usually implemented with a "gated snare" sound. Later MIDI standards such as GS and XG include drum kits that specify gated drum sounds, most usually patch #16 (GS #17, with shifted numbering) named "Power drumkit" or "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.

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.

Phil Collins used gated reverb extensively, both in his solo work as well as working with other artists. Producer Steve Lillywhite and engineer Hugh Padgham famously applied gated reverb to Collins' drum timbre on Peter Gabriel's song "Intruder", Collins' first use of the technique. Examples from Collins' own music include "In the Air Tonight", "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)", "I Don't Care Anymore" and "I Wish It Would Rain Down", and the Genesis tracks "Mama" and "No Son of Mine". Lillywhite and Padgham's work on Peter Gabriel III was bookended with their work on XTC's Drums and Wires and The Black Sea. In this period they perfected their gated reverb technique on Terry Chambers drums, which can be heard most distinctively on XTC's album, The Black Sea (particularly songs Respectable Street, Generals and Majors and Love At First Sight). The British band Duran Duran also made repeated use of the recording technique, heard prominently on the drums on the 1984 hit single "The Wild Boys" as well as the 1985 James Bond theme song "A View To A Kill". Bruce Springsteen used the effect on his 1984 hit "Born in the U.S.A.", the drums being played by Max Weinberg. The song "Some Like It Hot" by The Power Station opens with a drum solo that features the effect prominently.

External links

• Effects & Signal Processors article on Harmony Central includes information on gated reverb.