Sixgate
TM
Owner's Manual v 6.0 CE ©2010 ARX®
Sixgate
TM
Owner's Manual v 6.0 CE ©2010 ARX®
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from cymbals, other drums, guitars and everything else. By gating the Kick drum you can
eliminate all this unwanted sound, since the gate opens the instant the beater hits the drum,
and closes a few milliseconds later.
This also lets you remove any ‘boing’from the drum sound without excessive EQ cut.
Using the Sixgate
Your ARX Sixgate is an extremely straightforward gate to set up and operate. To get it going,
just follow these steps:
• Plug the unit into the main AC power, after checking that the voltage marked on the unit is
the same. All the RED LEDs should light up. Switch Channel 1 IN.
• From the mixing console Insert points, feed a percussive signal, perhaps a Kick or Snare
drum into the Input of Channel 1. Set the RELEASE and DEPTH controls at the 12 o’clock
position, and the THRESHOLD at -40dB (hard Left).
• Plug a lead from the Ouput of Channel 1 back into themixer insert, and listen to the sound of
the drum coming through unchanged.
• Slowly turn the THRESHOLD control to the Right until the sound of the drum becomes
progressively ‘drier’ as the gate starts to OPEN on the beats of the drum, and CLOSE in
between. Go too far and the gate will shut off completely - adjust the THRESHOLD until you
have as much of the drum signal as you want.
That’s all there is to it.
If you still have too much ‘boing’ coming in from the drum, shorten the RELEASE time by
moving the control towards FAST; if there is too much background sound coming through, turn
the DEPTH control towards MAX.
From here you can go on to the other drums if you want - your one Sixgate can individually
gate a whole drum kit if necessary:
1/ Kick 2/ Snare 3/ HiHats 4/ Tom 1 5/ Tom 2 6/ Floor Tom
When gating vocals you will need less of the DEPTH control than with drums, so there is not
so much of a jump from CLOSED to OPEN. Use just enough DEPTH to lose the background
noise, or the sound can be unnatural and ‘choppy’. Set the RELEASE time longer too, so the
ends of the words can fade away naturally. As with most new things, a little time spent in
experimenting will prove invaluable in getting to know your Sixgate.
Front Panel Controls
• Red and Green LED Gate status indicators.
• Hardwire bypass Gate IN/OUT switch
• Release control; varies how fast the gate closes after the signal has dropped back below
the threshold. 100ms to 2 seconds.
• Depth control; determines how much signal and/or unwanted noise is held back when the
gate is closed.
• Threshold control; varies the level that the signal has to reach to open the gate, from -40dB
to +12dB.
• Numbered marker panel for labelling gate assigns. Use a Chinagraph or grease pencil only.
Please don’t use a felt tip marker as these may cause permanent staining of the panel.
Rear Panel Connectors
• Balanced TRS Input socket. Tip HOT, Ring COLD, Sleeve GROUND
• Key Input and Sidechain Insert TRS socket. Tip IN, Ring OUT, Sleeve GROUND
• Output jack socket. Same wiring as Input
• IEC 3 pin AC connector and integral fuseholder. Replace fuse with correct value only: 100 -
110 V AC 1 amp, 220-240 V AC 0.5 amp. Please also refer to voltage details on Page 2
