ReaGate : adding a gating level display bargraph ?

[binbinhfr]

Hi,

on ReaComp, we have a visual display of the compression level (red vertical bar in dB), which is very handy.

It could be usefull to have the same display on the ReaGate plugin, showing the gating/ducking value in realtime, to see how it pumps (especially when you're using the hysteresis slider, or the filter settings).

[Svein]

+1

[binbinhfr]

Originally Posted by Svein

+1

yes I really miss this visual display, like on Reacomp. I wonder why nobody else react to this. It should be easy to add (as it already exists on Reacomp), and very useful.

[ashcat_lt]

I think it makes a whole lot less sense in ReaGate than it does in ReaComp. It’ll be infinite when it’s closed and 0 when it’s open and you’ll maybe be able to catch it going between if your attack and/or release is high enough, but why?

If it was a proper expander (ahem when do we get ReaExpand?!?) it might make some sense, but for a gate it seems weird. Are there other gates (not expander/gates) that do this?

[binbinhfr]

Originally Posted by ashcat_lt

I think it makes a whole lot less sense in ReaGate than it does in ReaComp. It’ll be infinite when it’s closed and 0 when it’s open and you’ll maybe be able to catch it going between if your attack and/or release is high enough, but why?

If it was a proper expander (ahem when do we get ReaExpand?!?) it might make some sense, but for a gate it seems weird. Are there other gates (not expander/gates) that do this?

At least we could have a red light that shows when it triggers. I just wanna see if it pumps, and how I can tweak the values in order to achieve what I want.

Having a graph bar, also helps "seing" the attack and release effect (and also the effect of hold and hysteresis).

For example, in the Waves or Nomad Factory gates, you can see the gate working and it's handy. The graph in dB is often called "attenuation"

When the signal is clean, like in a studio recording, with no noise during the silent phases, it's easy to tweak a gate, but if your signal is noisy (for example a singer's microphone recorded in a live condition that also catches the overall scene's sound), it's not so easy to tweak the gate just enough to lower the noise, without eating the voice...

I'll continue to use another "visual" gate in these cases, but I would prefer to use reaper's stock plugins ;-)

[binbinhfr]

I just added a poll, if it could influence the devs ;-)

[ashcat_lt]

See now you’ve changed the whole question, and that sort of changes my answer. I still question the wisdom of even trying to do this by eye, but I can see where a graph (more like ReaLimit than ReaComp, really) could maybe be of some use.

Also, you know, even just a line on the threshold denoting the hysteresis level could go a long way toward getting your head around what that part’s doing.

[binbinhfr]

Originally Posted by ashcat_lt

See now you’ve changed the whole question, and that sort of changes my answer. I still question the wisdom of even trying to do this by eye, but I can see where a graph (more like ReaLimit than ReaComp, really) could maybe be of some use.

Also, you know, even just a line on the threshold denoting the hysteresis level could go a long way toward getting your head around what that part’s doing.

Sorry, I did not mean to change the question , but as I'm not a native english speaker, I maybe made a mistake...
With an attenuation level, we could see the rapidity of the attack, and release and duration of hold, like on reacomp... Realimit is more a time historical display.

[druulian]

I agree, that looks like a feature I'd be happy to have in ReaGate. Unfortunately, it seems that use cases are quite rare, so it probably won't be a priority for the devs.

Meanwhile, there's a workaround:
Create a copy of ReaGate on the same track. Rewire it's output to track channels 3/4 (or whichever you aren't using). In the Output mix set Wet to -inf and add some noise.
Now you can use 3/4 peak meters as an indicator of the gate operations.
More so, put an Oscilloscope Meter on 3/4, now you can see it ducking in time domain, quite similar to ReaLimit's graph representation

[juan_r]

Originally Posted by ashcat_lt

I think it makes a whole lot less sense in ReaGate than it does in ReaComp. It’ll be infinite when it’s closed and 0 when it’s open and you’ll maybe be able to catch it going between if your attack and/or release is high enough, but why?

If it was a proper expander (ahem when do we get ReaExpand?!?) it might make some sense, but for a gate it seems weird. Are there other gates (not expander/gates) that do this?

I agree on hysteresis being difficult to wrap my head around. Positive values in particular are difficult for me to make sense of. I also have to add that I rarely need to use hysteresis, and I never needed a positive value as far as I can remember.

I second the request for a more flexible ReaExpand, but I guess that would be a different thread