Gated reverb is an audio processing technique that is applied to recordings of drums (or live sound reinforcement of drums in a PA system) to make the drums sound powerful and "punchy," while keeping the overall mix clean and transparent-sounding. The gated reverb effect, which was most popular in the 1980s, is made using a combination of strong reverb and a noise gate.
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Unlike many reverberation or delay effects, the gated reverb effect does not try to emulate any kind of reverb that occurs in nature.
History
The gated reverb effect became highly popular as part of the strongly syncopated sound of 1980s pop, rock and funk. Two early and prominent uses of the effect were associated with Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and Hugh Padgham: first in the production of the third Peter Gabriel solo album (with drumming on a few tracks by Collins and engineering by Padgham), notably the opening track "Intruder", and half a year later on Collins' hit single "In the Air Tonight", produced by Collins and Padgham.
Usage patterns
Gated reverb is most commonly used for empowering drum sounds, particularly snare drum and bass drum. The technique became so popular and the "gated reverb" sound is so recognizable that many drum machines and samplers include some sort of "gated drums" setting. These sounds are usually referred to as gated snare and gated kick, omitting the word "reverb" from the original name.
While General MIDI does not specify particular sound characteristics for its drum kits, it does include two distinct snare sounds, sometimes referred to as acoustic snare (38) and electric snare (40), the latter usually implemented with a "gated snare" sound. Later MIDI standards such as GS and XG include drum kits that specify gated drum sounds, most usually patch #16 (GS #17, with shifted numbering) named "Power drumkit" or "Rock drumkit", or patch #24 (GS #25) named "Electronic drumkit". Thus, for example, for snare drum, distinct sounds may be referred to as power snare or rock snare.
Notable records
Gated reverb was used on countless drum tracks during the 1980s, to the point that the sound became a defining characteristic of that decade's popular music.
Phil Collins used gated reverb extensively, both in his solo work as well as working with other artists. Producer Steve Lillywhite and engineer Hugh Padgham famously applied gated reverb to Collins' drum timbre on Peter Gabriel's song "Intruder", Collins' first use of the technique. Examples from Collins' own music include "In the Air Tonight", "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)", "I Don't Care Anymore" and "I Wish It Would Rain Down", and the Genesis tracks "Mama" and "No Son of Mine". Lillywhite and Padgham's work on Peter Gabriel 3 was bookended with their work on XTC's Drums and Wires and The Black Sea. In this period they perfected their gated reverb technique on Terry Chambers' drums, which can be heard most distinctively on XTC's album, The Black Sea (particularly songs Respectable Street, Generals and Majors and Love At First Sight). The British band Duran Duran also made repeated use of the recording technique, heard prominently on the drums on the 1984 hit single "The Wild Boys" as well as the 1985 James Bond theme song "A View To A Kill". Bruce Springsteen used the effect on his 1984 hit "Born in the U.S.A.", the drums being played by Max Weinberg. The song "Some Like It Hot" by The Power Station opens with a drum solo that features the effect prominently. The song "Running Up That Hill" produced and released by Kate Bush makes heavy usage of this method.