MH SuperGate
by Metric Halo · Gate · Gate and ducker
Not rated yet
MH SuperGate is a gate built on state-machine processing, to avoid the distortion and aliasing of fast gating.
It does gating and ducking with look-ahead, detector EQ and hysteresis, and sells for $99 (regular $179).
Best for: Drums, Drum Bus, Vocals, Guitars, Sound Design. Genres: all genres.
Keywords: look-ahead, drums, metering, built-in analyzer, bus processing, downward expansion, drum bus, mixing, resizable UI, single-band, sound design, visual feedback, vocals.
What it does
MH SuperGate is Metric Halo's gate and ducker: it isolates the sound you want and turns down the rest. Its state-machine attack and release are designed for distortion-free gating, without the clicks and aliasing a crude gate can add.
- State-machine envelope: attack and release driven by a state machine, with adjustable attack and release curves.
- Look-ahead: a delay-compensated look-ahead mode, so the gate can open before fast transients arrive.
- Gate or duck: works as a gate, or as a ducker that turns a signal down when the trigger is present.
- Detector EQ: an integrated detector EQ with a SpectraFoo analyser, so you can key the gate on the right part of the spectrum.
- Threshold and timing: Threshold with Hysteresis to stop chattering, Hold Time, and a Maximum Attenuation control for gentler, partial gating.
- Metering: detector and gain reduction history metering to see how the gate is behaving over time.
- Workflow: a preset library, the cross-platform MH Preset Manager, and a resizable UI with graphs you can fold away.
This is version 4. A free, fully working 30-day trial is available, and it is also part of the discounted MH Production Bundle.
Source: Metric Halo product page
When to use it
SuperGate is a clean, general-purpose gate and ducker with the core controls engineers expect. It is closest to Pro-G in scope, with look-ahead, detector EQ, hysteresis, hold and range, but it puts its focus on artefact-free gating rather than Pro-G's wider choice of styles. Compared with Oxford Drum Gate 2 or DeBleed:Drums it has no drum-specific detection or bleed removal, so it is better suited to cleaning up and ducking a range of sources than to complex drum kits. Its history metering makes it easy to see where the gate opens and closes when setting it up.
- Best for: gating drum close mics, cleaning up noisy tracks and ducking effects or music under a voice.
- Genres: any.
- Look elsewhere if: you want drum-specific triggering or AI-based bleed removal (Oxford Drum Gate 2 or DeBleed:Drums), or rhythmic, creative gating (Gatey Watey or Poltergate).
Where to buy
- Metric Halo: $99 (regular $179)
Similar plugins
- X-Gate by Solid State Logic · Gate / expander / ducker · $49
- Pro-G by FabFilter · Gate / expander · $169
- StandardGATE by SIR Audio Tools · Gate / expander / ducker · $49
- Gate by Kilohearts · Noise gate with sidechain and flip · Free
- TrackGate by DMG Audio · Gate / expander with circuit models · $50.82
- Big Beautiful Door 2 by Boz Digital Labs · Gate with EQ shaping · $29
- Liquid Gate by Nomad Factory · Noise gate and expander · $79
- DeeGate by Dotec-Audio · Simple noise gate · Free
- G8 by Unfiltered Audio · Gate · $35
- Valley People Dyna-mite by Universal Audio · Gate and dynamics · $99
More from Metric Halo
- ChannelStrip 3 by Metric Halo · Channel Strip · $179
- MH HaloVerb by Metric Halo · Reverb · $99
- MH Character by Metric Halo · Saturation · $99
- MH Dirty Delay by Metric Halo · Delay · $99
- MH TransientControl by Metric Halo · Transient Shaper · $99
- MH Precision DeEsser by Metric Halo · Vocal Tool · $99
- MH Multiband Dynamics by Metric Halo · Compressor · $99
- MH Multiband Expander by Metric Halo · Gate · $99