How to get Phil Collins’s gated reverb.

Gated reverb master

I see many people wander into this site from Google searching for gated reverb. I wrote a post about the difference between gate reverb and gated reverb some time ago but I never really delved into the details of the how-to.

Gated reverb is a staple 80′s snare sound popularized by artists such as Phil Collins. Many other artists and producers have used it over the years although it is always relacioned to Phil Collins, as seen by the google search “gated reverb collins”.

In any DAW, this technique is pretty simple and easy to do and doesn’t involve a lot of steps.

Ingredients are:

• Snare track
• Aux send
• Effects return track
• Gate with a side-chain
• Judicious amount of reverb, preferably a hall.

Now, when you have all the ingredients together you mix the snare track as you like it, eq’ing and compressing as needed. When you have the snare track as you want it it’s time to send it via an aux to a stereo reverb.

I use Logic and use Logic’s Space Designer to dial up a big hall setting. Remember to have the reverb on 100% wet so the channel only has the reverb sound.

Now insert a gate after the the reverb. Put the threshold as far up as you can, essentially killing the reverb. Now via your side-chain on the gate patch the gate to the snare-drum track.

Now go gate it!

When your gated reverb is side-chained to the snare track you can start fiddling with the parameters of the gate. Reduce the threshold so it starts letting the reverb through. The reverb should breathe in time with the snare drum creating a thick snare drum sound without an excessive reverb trail.

Experimenting with the attack and release you can get different results. A fairly fast attack and medium release in time with the snare creates a sound that sounds like the reverb is being sucked into the snare again.

I like having the attack a little slower. That way you hear the snare sound first and it sounds like the snare is breathing out the reverb before promptly sucking it in again.

Experiment with the parameters until you get something you are satisfied with. Gated reverb can not only be used on a snare, you can experiment with other instruments as well.

How to get more punch out of your drums

Drums huh?

Often said to be the most difficult instrument to record. Mostly it’s because they are a combination of multiple instruments and the amount of microphones used(today) to record them can often prove to be problematic. Not enough microphones, bad room sound, phasing problem etc.

But say you have recorded a decent drumkit. A drum-kit that sounds pretty good on it’s own but seems to lack a little bit of punch. You want that punch you hear on the records. Maybe using the New York buss compression trick will add more oomph to your drum-mix.

The classic trick of New York compression is sending the drum tracks via an aux track to a stereo buss, inserting a compressor that crunches the dynamics right out and then positioning the buss right under the normal drums. That way you get a bigger and tighter drum sound, without losing the dynamics.

You can experiment with the parameters and how many tracks you want to send to the buss.

Crushing the room-mics down can give an interesting feel.

Maybe putting different parts of the drum-kit, like only toms to a buss and only overheads seperately. Mixed together, they can give an interesting feel.

There are a lot of ways to use buss compression, and this trick is only meant to spark the idea to experiment. At www.audiotuts.com there is a whole article on buss compression by Mo Volans which you may find interesting. Have a look at it also, it’s a very interesting read.

So next time you’re in a mixing rut, with lifeless drums, try using this tip and see if it helps.