How to Get Gated Reverb Drums

The sound is a one-of-a-kind combination of powerful reverb and a noise gate that abruptly cuts off the reverb tail, creating a unique, chopped drum hit with a distinct tail.

What Is Gated Reverb?

Gated reverb is an audio processing technique for percussion and drum sounds. It works by sending the sound of a drum or percussion hit to a signal chain containing a long reverb, then applying a noise gate to the reverberated signal.

This creates the unique gated reverb effect: the reverb is long but loud, then suddenly ends with a gate, so it has the brassy, punchy, sustaining tail an ambient snare drum would have but cutting out hard - more of a pure tonal slam.

The Origin Story with Phil Collins

Padgham accidentally pressed the reverse-talk-back drum while Phil Collins was playing and “the most almighty sound came out of the speaker.” What came out of the speaker was the prototype for what would become a 1980’s rock standard.

So first uses of gated reverb are on Gabriel’s third solo album, Peter Gabriel, not Collins' 1981 record.

Recreating the Effect on Your Drum Tracks

Modern digital recording makes it easier than ever to add the effect to your tracks.

To set up this effect: set up an EQ, a compressor, and your reverb in your drum processor track, with the reverb final in the chain. Set the compressor to have a high attack and fairly fast release. This will cause the sound to slam on the onset, then ride down in volume. The louder the drum, the more the compressor starts cutting, so hits have snappier transients.

Then set up the gate: the gate is the key, timed on the compressor and set a threshold to “trip” the reverb returning from your drum returns track. So every time the hi-hat or snare hits, the sound will have that big, old resonant reverb. This provides a wash of ambient sound on thinner, snappier drums with the reverb tail ending. The tail lends a sheen to the mix, opening up the space around the drums.

Finally, tweak the reverb's pre-delay until it bursts.

• Compressors: On fast attack, short release.
• Gates: Fast release. Example parameters such as release set to 30ms, hold to 100ms, and attack at 2.5ms may be used, though the application will affect these. Adjust the tail timing and dynamics, fine-tuning the subtleties of the effect.
• EQ: Boost sub and low mids in the drum chain at the source, this increases the presence of your drum hits amidst the waves. Subtly boost mid and high-end in your main stereo bus, for clarity and presence in the mix.

And then just tweak the heck out of them.

Avoiding Mistakes

One mistake is treating it as a snare preset.

The snare sound with the gate effect works best with an acoustic record.

Conversely, it is best used only a little, not too much. It sounds "80s pop" but not tight or especially heavy, and the sound of "less is more" applies.