ODG’s Leveller isn’t a compressor, though, but rather an automatic volume control that operates on the gated signal, and that works in conjunction with the plug-in’s intelligent transient and drum detection algorithms. ODG’s third and final tab, Leveller, evens-out the dynamics of the gated signal, which is normally a job given over to a separate compressor. There is also a master decay time adjuster, as well as a setting that reduces the decay time in response to quieter hits. The envelope defines the rate of decay at different frequencies, so you can – for example – let a tom’s resonance ring-out whilst simultaneously closing out lower frequency spill from the kick drum, and the spectrograph provides visual feedback that makes this a doddle to set up. Switching to the plugin’s Decay tab opens a live spectrographic view of the sound being processed, with a simple frequency envelope overlay. ODG is similarly discerning when it comes to working out when, and how rapidly, to close its gate.
#SONNOX OXFORD PLUGINS REVIEW MANUAL#
Whilst this manual mode is rather fiddly to set up, you rarely need to resort to it because ODG’s own decision making is generally spot-on, and even when it needs help that help is generally only needed on a handful of transients. You can adjust the overall sensitivity of the detector as well as apply a high-pass filter to the side chain, and even if this doesn’t suffice, you can manually teach ODG which specific transients to open for and which to ignore. This can be particularly useful when you have a snare track that includes a lot of quiet incidental ghost notes in amongst the louder strikes, and where those ghost notes are at times quieter than the spill from other drums. Overlaying these meters is another moveable threshold marker that is used to define the meter level that has to be exceeded in order for ODG to consider the transient to be of a given drum type.įor example, a snare hit may create a blip on the snare meter and a smaller blip on the tom meter setting the Match Transient threshold so that only the snare’s blip exceeds it ensures ODG will see that transient as a snare and not a tom. Here a row of three buttons allow you to tell ODG which types of drum to detect (or ignore), and above each button is a corresponding level meter that indicates how likely it is that the currently sounding transient is of a particular type. The intelligent drum detection can be tweaked in a few different ways, primarily via the Match Transients controls positioned to the right of the waveform readout. All detected transients are marked on the waveform, whilst those areas of the waveform that trigger the gate to open are shaded blue. The plug-in window’s Detection view, where most time is spent, is dominated by a realtime rectified waveform readout overlaid by a line indicating the current gate threshold. This not only makes ODG particularly sensitive to the transients created by drum hits, but allows it to tell the difference between kick, snare and tom hits as well. Typically, a gate processor decides whether or not to open based entirely upon the measured signal level, but Oxford Drum Gate (or ODG as I’ll call it) is all about drums, and so adds to this basic recipe some rather clever detection capabilities. Aiming to make this laborious task easier, then, is Sonnox’s new Oxford Drum Gate, a plug-in dynamics processor for VST2, VST3, AU and AAX Native hosts. This sort of gating can be agonisingly fiddly to set up, and often involves all sorts of additional audio editing and/or automation in order to get an accurate result. This generally involves using gates on the individual drum tracks so that only the intended drum is heard via a track’s channel, and so that any EQ and other effects applied to the channel only impact the intended drum. However, no matter how careful you are with your close mic positioning, there will always be significant spill between the individual drum mics, which is where the next challenge comes in, namely mixing all of those mic signals.