Gated reverb

Audio processing technique

Gated reverb or gated ambience is an audio processing technique that combines strong reverb and a noise gate that cuts the tail of the reverb. The effect is typically applied to recordings of drums (or live sound reinforcement of drums in a PA system) to make the hits sound powerful and "punchy" while keeping the overall mix clean and transparent sounding. As one of the more prominent effects in many British pop and rock songs of the 1980s, it was brought to mainstream attention in 1979 by producer Steve Lillywhite and engineer Hugh Padgham while working on Peter Gabriel's self titled third solo album, after Phil Collins played drums without using cymbals at London's Townhouse Studios. The effect is most quintessentially demonstrated in Collins' hit song "In the Air Tonight". Unlike many reverberation or delay effects, the gated reverb effect does not try to emulate any kind of reverb that occurs in nature. In addition to drums, the effect has occasionally been applied to vocals.

Producer Steve Lillywhite claimed he first experimented the "ambience thing" on drums during the recording of Siouxsie and the Banshees' album The Scream (1978), when drummer Kenny Morris played without using cymbals on several songs. Lillywhite explained to journalist John Robb: "When you listen, you can hear elements of this gated room sound, big compressed room sound that I did on the Banshees." At Townhouse Studios in Shepherd's Bush, west London, Lillywhite and Padgham famously applied gated reverb to Phil Collins's drum timbre when Collins played without using cymbals on Peter Gabriel's song "Intruder" at Gabriel's request, on Gabriel's eponymous third solo album. Padgham claimed he discovered the sound accidentally when he opened an overhead mic, intended to be used as a talkback channel, above Collins's drum set when the pair were working on the track. The microphone was heavily compressed as well as using a gate. Collins then used gated reverb extensively, both in his solo work as well as working with other artists. He used it notably on his hit song "In the Air Tonight", produced by Collins and Padgham. Other examples from Collins' own music also include "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)", "I Don't Care Anymore", "I Wish It Would Rain Down", and "You'll Be in My Heart" and the Genesis songs "Mama" and "No Son of Mine". One of the first electronic reverb units to be powered by a microprocessor was the AMS RMX16, which was introduced in 1982, and could replicate otherwise expensive and physically large methods of generating reverb effects. Gated reverb was used on countless drum tracks during the 1980s, to the point that the sound became a defining characteristic of that decade's popular music. The English band Duran Duran made repeated use of the recording technique, heard prominently on the drums on the hit single "The Wild Boys", as well as the James Bond theme song "A View to a Kill". Bruce Springsteen used the effect on his 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 Tony Thompson drum solo that features the effect prominently. The song "Hounds of Love", produced and released by Kate Bush, makes heavy usage of this method. In the 1990s, many bands went back to more natural sounding drums. American rock band Haim used gated reverb on Danielle Haim's drumming for their debut studio album Days Are Gone (2013). By 2018, several contemporary artists began incorporating the effect in some of their rhythm tracks including Lorde and Beyoncé.

The oldest, most "natural" technique can be executed with minimal electronic processing. The steps for processing are as follows:

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 the quieter details of the 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 through 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.