Wicket
Gate and expander, inspired by the gates and expanders on every drum kit.
Wicket closes when the music goes quiet: spill between drum hits, hum between phrases, a noisy amp between notes. Gate mode shuts the door by the Range; Expander turns quiet parts down gently, which sounds more natural on vocals. Hold keeps it open through short gaps, and a little hysteresis stops it chattering.
The controls
- Threshold
- Below this level it closes. Set it just above the spill or noise and below the notes you want.
- Range
- How far it turns down when closed: 10 to 20 dB sounds natural, 40 dB and more is silence.
- Mode
- Gate opens and closes; Expander turns down smoothly by a ratio below the threshold.
- Ratio
- Expander only: how quickly the level falls away below the threshold.
- Attack
- How fast it opens. Very fast keeps the front of a drum hit; slower softens clicks.
- Hold
- How long it stays open after the signal drops, so it doesn't flutter on decays.
- Release
- How fast it closes. Long enough to keep the natural ring of the drum.
Best for
- Toms and snare: cut the spill between hits
- Guitar amps: silence the hiss and hum between riffs
- Vocals (Expander): turn down breaths and room noise
- Sound design: chopped, gated pads with the sidechain
Starting points
Load Wicket, set these, then adjust by ear. In the plugin, Level match helps you judge the sound, not the loudness.
Tight toms
Threshold -30, Range 30, Gate, Attack 0.2 ms, Hold 40 ms, Release 150 ms
Natural vocal
Threshold -45, Range 12, Expander, Ratio 2, Attack 2 ms, Release 200 ms
Quiet amp
Threshold -50, Range 24, Gate, Hold 80 ms, Release 300 ms
Hints and tips
- Set Threshold with the Range at maximum, so you clearly hear it open and close, then bring the Range back.
- If a decay gets chopped, raise Hold before you raise Release.
- An expander rarely sounds wrong. Try it before a gate on anything exposed.
Chains it works best in
Every Original works in a chain with the others and with members' hardware. These are good places to start.
- Wicket then Clasp: gate first so the compressor doesn't bring the spill back up
- Wicket then Punchcard: clean, punchy drums
- Wicket (sidechain) on a pad: the trance gate: the pad opens with a hi-hat pattern on the key
Sidechain
With a key, Wicket opens to the key instead of the track: gate a pad with a hi-hat pattern, or open a bass only when the kick plays.
Watch out for
- A Threshold so high it cuts the quiet notes of the performance.
- Gating reverb tails you want to keep: gate before the reverb, not after.
Wicket is free
Like every DigMusiK plugin, Wicket is free for registered members: it's part of the platform, so the chains you hand on and send for approval play the same for everyone. Try it in your studio, on your own mix.