So what's a gate

[Duke Foog]

so i'm starting to get better at this cv stuff. i now know what the lfo out, carrier out, and envelope out can do to control stuff on my foogers. i've been noticing all of these gate things on other gear like that recent post with the modcan sequencer that's being released.

so what does gate do? is it an input or output, or both? i know that none of the current foogers have this but is it possible that some new type of fooger would have this?

[MC]

On the sequencer, it's an output. You use it to trigger EGs (Envelope Generators). You could use it on the Murf, I think that has a clock input that cycles through the filters. The Voyager has a gate input to trigger its EGs.

[godzilla]

a gate is voltage that has only two states: on and off. it;s not like an lfo or env which have a constantly changing voltage.

the sort of things that would have a gate output would be a keyboard or footswitch (not foot pedal) or sequencer. think of a keboard, you get a noise when you hit a key, when the key is pressed it send a voltage that means gate on, and when your not pressing a key it ends a voltage which means gate off. Moog uses the opposite meanings than brands such as roland, the two kinds are called s-trig and v-tirg.

now it's a bit boring if you just have either note on (you can hear a tone) and note off (you can't hear a tone) so you put an envelope between the gate input and the VCA. The gate triggers the env which will control the level of the sound in a more dynamic way giving you control over the type of sound you get out.

[monads]

More along the lines what godzilla said, on/off. But don't forget triggers. Once you hit a note the gate is open, at this point a trigger is sent to the envelopes to run their course. The gate remains open until the note is released. With triggers you can have them trigger the envelopes every time you hit a new note or not (legato style). Hope this helps.

[Duke Foog]

k, thanks guys. i'm trying to figure out if a sequencer like the frostwave, the doepfer or the new modcan would be useful to me. i'm using these pedals with guitar, not keyboard. so i'm guessing cause of all of these gate jacks these sequencers are more useful for trigering a keyboard. am i right? how exactly does a sequencer work? i know their are steps and you can create rhythmic steps sort of like on the murf. i'm guessing that each channel has a gate which triggers a sound on a synth and saves that setting in the "slider" or channel for easy recall then mixing with a bunch of other channels. or is it like a short sampler where each little "riff" is saved in that channel?

is it useful at all if i'm using guitar?

thanks guys

[monads]

Well I would use a sequencer mainly for triggering analog gear. You use the steps to creat rhythm pattterns. A sequencer can be CV based or Midi based. And some of these allow you to save the sequences.

As an example I can use a 16 step sequencer to send pitch note information to the voyager over midi but I can also program it to respond to certan continuous controllers. You could do this with any modern sequencer, but there's no substitute for tweaking actual hardware

I'm not sure though if a sequencer would benefit you though just for use with the pedals. It gets more interesting when you patch between other modules or modulars. Like my Voyager VX-351/CP-251, etc. But this is just my .02

[Dannymon]

Well, A sequencer would probably be more usable with an analog synth than the MF's. But you could buy Future Retro Revolution Analog synth ($699) which comes with a step Sequecer and has CV outs, so you would be able to control your MF's with this sequencer and you will also have a cool analog synth.