The TM116 Noise Gate is an effective tool for any kind of envelope processing of audio signals. The huge control ranges and independent controls for all parameters make possible to use the noise gate not only for conventional applications like drum recording but also for noise reduction and extensive manipulations of the signal structure.
The TM116 is marked out by its extremely fast attack time of 10 µsec. The noise gate opens within the first halfwave of a 20 kHz signals. Critical, percussive signals can be processed without fade in and without the loss of transients. A crunchy kick drum remains as crunchy as it was.
There are controls for Threshold, Attack, Release,
and Hold Time and for the attenuation Range.
The Threshold control determines the level that triggers the gate to open. It
is adjustable in a range from - 40 dB to + 20 dB. The Attack time controls the
fade in speed in the range from 10 µs to 20 ms; the Release control determines
the fade out speed from 0.05 sec to 3 sec and the Hold control keeps the gate
open when the input level drops below threshold in the adjustable time range
from 0.02 sec to 2 sec. The release time starts at the end of the hold time,
if the gate is not retriggered during the hold time period. The Range control
sets the attenuation of the closed gate between 0 dB, which actually disables
the noise gate, and 70 dB. The law of the pot is logarithmic, small attenuations
can be adjusted precisely.
The TM116 noise gate operates without hysteris; however, the minimum
hold time and the special design of the circuitry prevents the gate from 'chattering'
with critical settings of the parameters. This design principle allows 'cutting
out' precisely, which is not possible with hysteresis. The off-on transition
range is less than 0.1 dB down to 100 Hz, which results in minimizing the click
noise.
The integrated Side Chain Filter combines
a wide range high-pass and low-pass filter. The control range of the corner frequency
from 40 Hz to 8 kHz for the high-pass filter and from 15 kHz to 50 Hz for the
low-pass filter allow the use as band-pass filters as well. The steepness is
12 dB/oct. 'SCL' (side chain listen) switches the filter output to the main output
for easy control of the filter setting.
An external audio signal can control the gate by the Key Input. Actually, the key input is a balanced insert point with input and output; both are available on the TRS jacks on the connector panel of the frame. The push pull switch of the range pot activates the key input.
A LED chain with 5 LED's displays the actual state of the gate. The green LED shows that the gate is open, the yellow LED lights up during the hold time. Three red LEDs display the attenuation when the gate is closed or the release time is running.
The TM116 Noise Gate is a 2U ToolMod module that fits into all available ToolMod Frames. Horizontal and vertical versions are available.
|