
562E
15
mance levels, while providing the engineer with the kind of control that is necessary for a good,
tight track.
In a live sound reinforcement situation, gating drums can tighten up the drum sound. Equally
important, gates allow the sound engineer to turn up the drums louder than would normally be
possible without feedback. This is because a correctly set gate can suppress feedback while the
feedback is at a lower level than the setting of the gate’s threshold (before the feedback has a
chance to take off).
Careful adjustment of the A
TTACK
and R
ELEASE
controls allow the relative balance between the
drum’s impact and decay to be changed. Short A
TTACK
, H
OLD
and R
ELEASE
times emphasize the
impact portion of the sound, but may sound artificial in some situations. Longer A
TTACK
, H
OLD
and
R
ELEASE
times generally sound more natural, but allow more ringing and feedback. The W
INDOW
A
DVANCE
feature can be used to ensure that the gate opens in time to catch all of the impact portion
of the sound. The G
ATE
R
ANGE
/E
XPANDER
R
ATIO
will affect the A
TTACK
and R
ELEASE
times, so use as
much attenuation as needed, but no more than necessary. Be prepared for some serious fine
tuning of these controls.
Note
Be sure to select microphones with good off-axis rejection (including high frequencies)
and use the directional patterns of your microphones to isolate the desired signal as much
as possible at the source. The sounds picked up by the microphones must be primarily the
desired sounds, or the gate won’t be able to discriminate between the desired sound and
an unwanted sound.
Preventing False Triggering by Hi-hat and Kick While Gating a Snare Drum
A common problem that engineers run into when they try to gate a snare drum is false triggering.
This is most often caused by audio leakage into the snare mic from the hi-hat and/or kick drum.
The 562E’s L
OW
C
UT
and H
IGH
C
UT
filters are designed to eliminate just such a problem.
First, and foremost, employ good mic technique to reject as much of the sound that is causing the
false triggering as possible. Start with the 562E’s L
OW
C
UT
knob in the full counterclockwise
position, the H
IGH
C
UT
knob in the full clockwise position, the T
HRESHOLD
knob in the counter-
clockwise position and the G
ATE
R
ANGE
knob in the full counterclockwise position. While the
drummer plays just the snare and hi-hat, adjust the T
HRESHOLD
control clockwise until gating
occurs (even though the hi-hat may trigger the gate at this point).
Next, set the O
UTPUT
A
SSIGN
switch to the K
EY
L
ISTEN
W/F
ILTER
(center) position. Rotate the H
IGH
C
UT
control to its full counterclockwise position. The hi-hat should now be much less audible, and
the snare should be a muffled “thud”.
Set the O
UTPUT
A
SSIGN
switch to the G
ATE
/E
XP
. position. You may need to readjust the T
HRESHOLD
control slightly to make the gate trigger properly. The snare should now be gated without any
CHANNEL 1
TIME
GATE RANGE
EXPANDER RATIO
500ms
0
HOLD
TIME
ATTACK
TIME
60ms
1 Sec
RELEASE
1:3
2.5 Sec
80dB
4 Sec
300ms
50ms
30ms
(dB)
THRESHOLD
ABOVE
BELOW
0
HIGH CUT
WINDOW
30
MAX
12
20K
4K
ADVANCE
3
REDUCTI0N
GAIN (dB)
-40
+20
60
OFF
40K
400Hz
MIN
AUTO
LOW CUT
OUTPUT
200Hz
15Hz
ASSIGN
20Hz
50Hz
EXT.KEY
KEY LISTEN
1K
10Hz
IN
GATE/EXP.
BYPASS
W/FILTER
CH1 SIDECHAIN PROCESSING
1K
CHANNEL 1
TIME
GATE RANGE
EXPANDER RATIO
500ms
0
HOLD
TIME
ATTACK
TIME
60ms
1 Sec
RELEASE
1:3
2.5 Sec
80dB
4 Sec
300ms
50ms
30ms
(dB)
THRESHOLD
ABOVE
BELOW
0
HIGH CUT
WINDOW
30
MAX
12
20K
4K
ADVANCE
3
REDUCTI0N
GAIN (dB)
-40
+20
60
OFF
40K
400Hz
MIN
AUTO
LOW CUT
OUTPUT
200Hz
15Hz
ASSIGN
20Hz
50Hz
EXT.KEY
KEY LISTEN
1K
10Hz
IN
GATE/EXP.
BYPASS
W/FILTER
CH1 SIDECHAIN PROCESSING
1K