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6. A1TriggerGate by Alex Hilton

1 Gates have long been used as creative effects, particularly for controlling one signal using the amplitude of another. Alex Hilton’s A1TriggerGate is a humdinger of a gate plugin. Find it at alexhilton.net. Let’s explore it using a drum loop. We’re using a conga and tambourine sample, but you can use anything you like. 2 Insert A1TriggerGate onto the track. Its effect is immediate – and kind of cool. Nonetheless, we want to start with a blank slate, so call up the Init preset. Take a look at the grid-style sequencer section. Each button represents a step, with volume above it. Four Step Lengths are available. Currently they’re all set to ‘ShortStep’. Click some of them repeatedly to set them to ‘NoStep’. 3 Set a few steps to LongStep, too. The lengths of both ShortStep and LongStep are adjusted using the knobs in the lower-right section of the interface. Over on the left side is a five-stage envelope, used to shape the gate. Reduce the Hold time and Sustain Level, and tweak the Decay and Release times until you get a choppier sound. 4 Reduce the Pattern Length to 2 – half of the sequence vanishes! Click the Triplet button just below to transform the rhythm into a familiar galloping beat. Turn Triplet off again and set the Pattern length back to 4. Nice of the plugin to remember our previous settings! 5 There’s plenty more fun to be had, but to access it, we need to activate the Expert Mode, using the so-named button at the upper-left of the GUI. It’s almost impossible to resist that Echo/

Delay, so we won’t even try! Turn it on and have a play with the delay time – 1/4 sounds fantastic! 6 Take a look at the section just to the left of the pattern sequencer. Note the various options for altering the Step Volume and Lengths rows. Shift either or both by selecting Shift and clicking an arrow. You can Copy or Randomise the rows, too, or if you get stuck, Initialise them. Be careful with that one!