Liquid Gate

Name: Liquid Gate
Price: 79 USD
Author: Nomad Factory

by Nomad Factory · Gate · Noise gate and expander

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Liquid Gate is a noise gate and expander with threshold, attack, hold and release controls and a sidechain filter for precise triggering.

It has vintage-inspired metering and a resizable interface, and lists at $79.

Best for: Drums, Vocals, Guitars, Bass. Genres: all genres.

Keywords: downward expansion, drums, metering, sidechain input, vocals, electric guitar, resizable UI, snare, vintage, repair, bass, classic, clean, corrective, dialogue, gentle, mixing, podcast, single-band, warm.

What it does

Liquid Gate is Nomad Factory's noise gate and expander, rebuilt in late 2025 as part of Liquid Bundle III. The developer's aim is to keep recordings clean "while retaining the warmth and character of classic analog gates," with settings that run from gentle noise reduction to tight gating on drums.

Gate mode: hard gating that cuts the signal fully below the threshold, for drum spill and noisy amp tracks.
Expander mode: a softer form of noise reduction that turns quiet passages down rather than muting them, so breaths and room tone fade more naturally.
Envelope controls: Threshold, Attack, Hold and Release set when the gate opens, how fast, how long it stays open and how it closes.
Sidechain filter: filters the detection signal so the gate triggers on the right part of the sound in a busy mix, for example the snare rather than the hi-hat bleeding into its mic.
Metering: vintage-style meters to show what the gate is doing.
Interface: a resizable vector interface with dark and light themes, on Plugivery's newer plugin framework.

The current version, Liquid Gate III, was released on 27 October 2025. The developer's page doesn't mention a demo. It was on promotion when checked, and it is also part of the Liquid Bundle and the Integral Studio Pack.

Source: Nomad Factory product page

When to use it

Liquid Gate is a basic, low-cost gate for routine cleanup: you set a threshold and envelope, filter the detector, and choose between a hard gate and a gentler expander. Compared with FabFilter Pro-G, it has no lookahead, no range control listed and no external sidechain input, and its display is far less detailed. Unlike sonible smart:gate, it has no AI-assisted detection, so you tune the sidechain filter and threshold by ear. Against Sonnox Oxford Drum Gate 2, it lacks the drum-specific triggering features, but it is fine for guitars, vocals and simple drum spill.

Best for: removing spill from tom and snare mics, cutting hum and hiss between phrases on guitars, and taming noise on vocal and voice-over tracks with the expander.
Genres: any; it is a utility tool.
Look elsewhere if: you need lookahead, external keying or detailed visual feedback (Pro-G), automatic detection (smart:gate) or serious drum gating (Oxford Drum Gate 2).

Where to buy

Nomad Factory: $79

Tutorials and reviews

Nomad Factory Liquid Bundle

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