Use a Noise Gate to Trigger Guitar With Drums | Experimental Recording Techniques

In last week's installment of Experimental Recording Techniques, Noam Wallenberg of Chicago's Rax Trax Recording studio showed us how to get gorgeous, ambient textures while playing an acoustic piano by using a contact mic, a volume pedal, and heavy amounts of reverb and tremolo.

Today, Noam shows us how to trigger a guitar off of a drum track. By running the signal of a drum mic through a noise gate and using the gate's side-chain you can make the guitar signal follow the rhythm of the beat.

To make the guitar have a constant sound—that will then be chopped by the drum beat—Noam uses an EBow. He also runs the guitar through a maxed-out ZVEX Mastotron for some fiery fuzz.

Because Rax Trax is stacked with great gear, Noam also uses the studio's Neve 1073 preamp and SSL 4000 series recording console, but this technique can easily be done in any DAW.

Check out the video above, and check back for future installments of our Experimental Recording Techniques series.

Learn more about effects pedals on our Effects Pedals: What Do They Do? | The Basics homepage.

comments powered by Disqus

Reverb Gives

Your purchases help youth music programs get the gear they need to make music.

Carbon-Offset Shipping

Your purchases also help protect forests, including trees traditionally used to make instruments.

Oops, looks like you forgot something. Please check the fields highlighted in red.