Do you gate drums?

[Humphreysbogort]

I have always gated out spill on my kick, tom, and snare microphones with a very fast attack and moderate release time, so only the sound of the drum is heard and the spill is gated out. I assumed this is what most folks did.

However i was watching a waves tips video on mixing drums yesterday and at no point did he gate up any of the drums. Compression and eq yes, but left the spill intact.

Have i been doing it wrong all these years?

Alex

[Richie Royale]

There is no right or wrong answer. If you gate and prefer the sound, then it is right for you.

I don't record live drums, but I do gate my TR 808 as it sharpens the attack on the kick and gives the snare more snap.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

In my experience, it's possible to mic it so that you don't need to gate for spill, except for toms. I think most of the time, with a good drummer, the spill doesn't change the sound, and gating makes it sound worse.

Mic positioning is important. You have to position the snare mic while giving due regard to the hi hat. So you're getting the balance during tracking, not mixing.

But some drummers don't hit the snare hard enough, so it's impossible to get a decent snare to spill ratio. In that case, you try gating, but it has to be with a sidechain filter because of the low ratio, and it's a PITA, because the hats come through the snare mic etc.

In a DAW, it's better to edit out the toms spill than to gate it. It's doable because the toms aren't in constant use. I once had to deal with a quiet snare by manually editing every hit. EEk!! Never again. Make them hit it right!!

But if you want a heavily compressed snare, or you want to reshape the sound of it, then a gate before compressor ensures that it's just the snare that gets compressed, not the spill.

[Doublehelix]

I never personally gate any of my drums, but as mentioned, there is no right or wrong answer.

I do edit my tom tracks to remove any information between the tom hits in most songs, which is a form of gating, I guess.

[The Elf]

I like to leave mics open, but I often end up gating kick, snare and (auto and/or manually) toms to allow me to find the punch I'm after without so many side-effects.

A lot depends on how good the kit sounds and how well-chosen/placed the mics are - sometimes I leave myself far too much work in the mix!

[Mike L]

I gate electronic drums. Tend not to gate acoustic ones. But it all depends on track...

[Richard Graham]

I gate everythning but the cymbal/top-kit mics, because I'm recording in the same room as a Marshall stack and a bass amp.