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Oxford Drum Gate 2
The noise gate that actually understands drums
Intelligent detection. Phase-locked alignment. Adaptive decay. Get clean, mix-ready drums from the first hit, without fighting your gate or losing the feel.
The Noise Gate Built For Drums
Inconsistent hits, phase issues, and uncontrolled spill can make or break a drum mix before the rest of the production has even begun.
Not a threshold-based noise gate. Not source separation. A purpose-built drum detection engine.
Whether you're mixing live-tracked drums across close mics, overheads and rooms, or shaping kit sounds from stems, Drum Gate 2 gives you total command so these elements work for your mix rather than against it.
Not a threshold-based noise gate. Not source separation. A purpose-built drum detection engine.
Whether you're mixing live-tracked drums across close mics, overheads and rooms, or shaping kit sounds from stems, Drum Gate 2 gives you total command so these elements work for your mix rather than against it.
What's New In Drum Gate 2?
| Drum Gate 1 | Drum Gate 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Detect every intended drum hit (with zero false triggers) without babysitting multiple controls. | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Align time, polarity, and phase across any set of drum tracks to give a clean, punchy starting point for downstream mixing decisions. | ✔︎ | |
| Decay drum resonances naturally while attenuating spill (no fiddly filter-tweaking or whumpy source-separation artefacts). | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Level out dynamic inconsistencies without losing expressive playing dynamics. | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Clip each hit consistently so that drums cut through dense mixes evenly. | ✔︎ | |
| Enhance pre-beat-detected drums with Drum Gate 2's Decay and Leveller (no re-detection needed). | ✔︎ | |
| Export MIDI for detected hits for sample triggering. | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
Key Features
Isolate hits from bleed instantly
Intelligent Drum Hit Detection
Drum close mics are full of bleed, and traditional threshold gates can't tell the difference between real hits and unwanted spill. Ghost notes disappear, cross stick gets lost, and you end up fighting the gate instead of mixing.
Drum Gate 2 uses intelligent detection to identify kicks, snares, hi-hats and toms with precision, even in complex playing. Choose which drums to process and let the detection engine do the work.
The result? Clean, controlled tracks where every intentional hit stays intact and bleed is removed reliably.
Drum Gate 2 uses intelligent detection to identify kicks, snares, hi-hats and toms with precision, even in complex playing. Choose which drums to process and let the detection engine do the work.
The result? Clean, controlled tracks where every intentional hit stays intact and bleed is removed reliably.
Keep the ring, lose the noise
Adaptive Decay
Noise gates often cut too aggressively, choking a drum's natural ring and leaving hits sounding flat and lifeless. Fixed decay settings can't adapt to real performances. Soft hits get truncated, harder hits ring unnaturally, and spill still finds its way through when you loosen the gate.
Adaptive Decay adjusts the decay time based on each hit's velocity, so the gate responds musically rather than mechanically.
Drums keep their natural resonance. Unwanted noise is clamped down automatically, even in complex performances.
Adaptive Decay adjusts the decay time based on each hit's velocity, so the gate responds musically rather than mechanically.
Drums keep their natural resonance. Unwanted noise is clamped down automatically, even in complex performances.
Tighter dynamics, less automation
Leveller
Inconsistent drum hits can make balancing a mix harder than it needs to be. Accents jump out, ghost notes disappear, and you end up relying on automation just to keep things under control.
Drum Gate's Level tab smooths out performance variations while preserving the contrast between louder hits and subtle ghost notes.
Tighter, more consistent drums that sit naturally in the mix, with less automation and more musical control.
Drum Gate's Level tab smooths out performance variations while preserving the contrast between louder hits and subtle ghost notes.
Tighter, more consistent drums that sit naturally in the mix, with less automation and more musical control.
Fix phase issues in one click
Time, Polarity & Phase Alignment
Kick drums losing low-end weight. Snares thinning out. Transients smearing before the mix has even begun.
When drum tracks aren’t aligned in time and phase, you’re fighting the kit from the very first hit.
Drum Gate 2 precisely aligns your entire drum setup in both time and phase, locking the kit together so the foundation of your mix is solid from the start.
When drum tracks aren’t aligned in time and phase, you’re fighting the kit from the very first hit.
Drum Gate 2 precisely aligns your entire drum setup in both time and phase, locking the kit together so the foundation of your mix is solid from the start.
Clipping built in. No extra plugins needed.
Hit Clipper
Traditional clippers react unevenly to changing drum dynamics. Loud hits get crushed while quieter hits slip through untouched.
Drum Gate 2’s Intelligent Leveller feeds the clipper the peak information, so each transient is clipped on its own terms.
Uniform power, density, and clarity, even in dense mixes.
Drum Gate 2’s Intelligent Leveller feeds the clipper the peak information, so each transient is clipped on its own terms.
Uniform power, density, and clarity, even in dense mixes.
Licencing
Each Oxford plugin license includes two simultaneous activations.
With an iLok account, you can authorise each activation on one of the following devices:
- Local MachineInstall directly on your computer.
- iLok DeviceRequires an iLok2 or iLok3 USB dongle (latest drivers required).
- iLok CloudRequires an active internet connection. Only one activation can be assigned to iLok Cloud; the other must be on a Local Machine or iLok Device.
All versions: Free iLok account and the iLok License Manager, plus an appropriate Sonnox product licence.
Supported Platforms
Compatible plugin formats for common DAWs:
- AAX NativeAvid® Pro Tools® 11 or higher.
- VST3Supported VST3 hosts.
- AudioUnit (AU)Supported AU hosts on macOS.
System Requirements
Minimum and recommended specifications for reliable performance.
Minimum System Requirements
- macOS®macOS® 11.0 • Intel i5 6600 CPU • 8GB RAM
- Windows®Microsoft® Windows® 10 22h1 (64-bit only) • Intel i5 6600 CPU or equivalent • 8GB RAM
Recommended System Requirements
- macOS®macOS® 12.0 or higher • Apple® M1 CPU or higher • More than 8GB RAM
- Windows®Microsoft® Windows® 11 (64-bit only) • Intel i7 9700 CPU or higher/equivalent • More than 8GB RAM
Disclaimer: Our products may work on older OS or host DAW versions, but they are untested.
Sample Rates & Latency
Oxford Drum Gate 2 introduces latency due to its lookahead detection, ML classification, and spectral processing. This makes it primarily intended for mixing rather than live tracking.
Your DAW’s automatic delay compensation will handle this latency across all tracks, so it won’t cause timing issues in your mix.
For live monitoring or tracking sessions, bypass Oxford Drum Gate 2 during recording and enable it afterwards for mixing.
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