Drawmer DS201

[Rich]

Hi Folks.

 

Just got back from a gig where I've used a Drawmer DS201 noise gate which I bought secondhand on EBay.

 

I Popped a kick drum on one side, and a snare on the other. Works fine, but it makes a click when it opens. The click is on both gates, but only evident on the kick drum, I presume the snare hid the click. Higher pitched than beater noise, and distorted.

 

Is this normal? I ask because I've never used Drawmer gates before, only Behringer, and my Multigate doesn't produce any click when it opens.

 

Many thanks. Richard

[dbuckley]

... Works fine, but it makes a click when it opens.

Dont wish to be seen to be teaching my GrandMa to suck eggs here, but you have tried reducing the rate of attack?

 

Edited to fix the spelling and gramatical errors. Yes, errors plural, not bad for a short one sentence comment.

[Bobbsy]

I think dbuckley may have it...I used a Drawmer 201 for a couple of years with no problems..but too fast an attack could cause clicking.

 

Bob

[Rich]

I feel a bit of a t*t now.

 

Since reading your posts I've been on the Drawmer website and looked at the manual for the 201, and yes it would seem that I was at fault because I didn't reduce the attack at all.

 

I've never actually used the attack on a gate before, only the threshold and, hold and release. The Multigate I've used doesn't have an attack pot.

 

I'm sure everything will be fine once I've adjusted the attack.

 

Thanks Guys. Rich

[dbuckley]

... Multigate I've used doesn't have an attack pot.

Yeah, as the knob count goes up the possibilities of getting it wrong increase. On most gates the attack is normally either at a single preset rate, or a couple of switch selectable rates, or auto-adjusts, using some technology or other, and is designed to be "safe". Some gates leave it under your control (like the one you now have), and some of those tools give you enough rope on the attack knob to hang yourself, by offering unsafe but occasionally useful rates. It is, of course, a tradeoff - when you're gating drums you usually want as fast an attack as possible, so as not to trim the front of the wave off, but do it too fast and you can hear the electronics of the gate working, but which if used creatively can add impact and click to an otherwise dull drum... But sometimes you'll want to slow the attack to add swell. The other useful variable is how much you allow the gate to reduce the level when closed, and the right answer is not always "crank the knob all the way".

 

It will take you a while to work through the permutations now available to you, have patience, enjoy, you'll still be using these techniques in decades time.

 

 

I feel a bit of a t*t now.

Nah, life goes on :D

[Rich]

Nice one, cheers David. I'll have a play the next time I've got a drummer in soundcheck.

 

All the best. Rich

[Rich]

Tried the gate again last night, had no problems when I adjusted the attack. So nothing wrong with the gate, just me!