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2. A modern take on the classic gated snare effect

1 A gate is a device that cuts off the audio when it falls below a certain level. A classic trick from the 80s (and now in synthwave) is to use a gate after a large reverb to sharply cut off the reverb tail. Load sw-snare.wav into a sampler. Place a note on steps 5 and 13 of a pattern, then send the channel to a mixer insert.

2 The first thing to do is load in a reverb as a channel insert. Here we’re using FL Studio’s Fruity Reeverb 2, but any reverb will do. The Wet slider will increase the level of the reverb, so start off by moving it up to 80%. The default decay time is a little short, trailing off too quickly. Move the Dec control to 5.0 sec to increase the decay time.

3 G8 CM is a dynamics tool included with this edition of the mag (see p108). Load it after the reverb in an effect slot. We want to work with the peak level rather than RMS average level. In the dropdown box, change the mode from RMS to Peak. To put the gate into action, move the Threshold slider up to -13.33dB and listen to how it cuts off the reverb tail.