Using a gate? – Effects Forum

It’s been years since I’ve tinkered with that particular utility effect, and when I consider it, I’m loathe to experiment with it because it seems like it would be a waste of time with respect to what I want to get out of it.

My main noise issue is when recording my acoustic guitar. I have a $0 budget, so everything I use is old stuff I have from the 90s, and free stuff. So, hardware-wise, I’m recording my acoustic with an SM58 into an old Roland VS-880EX that has no-so-stellar (I’m being polite) preamps built in. I then bring the tracks recorded on the VS over to my PC to edit in Tracktion Waveform.

Why? Because I can’t afford a worthwhile audio interface to record direct into my PC, and even if I could, the PC is noisy, and I can’t imagine it would help in that regard.

So… (sorry for all the details, but…)

My fear of using a gate during the recording process is that it will merely keep out any noise during silence, but (as the effect’s name indicates) will bring that noise in when the gate opens for the intended signal. Right now, I’m using the Bertom noise reduction tool when editing. I’m just wondering if it would help at all to utilize a gate during the recording process, or simply make it more difficult to suss out the noise during the editing process?