Practical Mixing
How to use a gate on a vocal in REAPER without chopping words
Published November 5, 2026 · Updated November 5, 2026
A gate chops words when its threshold sits above the quietest parts of the voice, or when it closes too quickly at the ends of words. In REAPER, add ReaGate before your compressor and set the threshold on the quietest word in the take, not the loudest. Start with Attack 1–5 ms, Hold 100–300 ms and Release 150–400 ms, then raise the Dry slider so the gaps drop by 6–12 dB instead of going silent. A gate only quiets the gaps. It does nothing about noise underneath the singing.
Most vocal gate problems come from setting the threshold on a loud line, hearing clean silence between phrases, and moving on. Then a soft verse comes in, the last word of a line fades into nothing, and the gate starts eating it.
The fix is mostly the order you set things in. These steps use only ReaGate, which ships with REAPER.
Check whether you need a gate at all
Play the vocal with the full mix, not soloed. If you cannot hear the noise between phrases once the beat is in, a gate adds risk and solves nothing you can hear. Quiet intros, a cappella breaks and spoken parts are where gap noise usually shows up.
If only one or two gaps bother you, split the item and turn those sections down by hand. The method is in how to remove a one-off noise from a recording in REAPER. Reach for a gate when there are too many gaps to do by hand.
Measure the gap between the noise and the quietest word
A gate needs a real level difference between what you want to keep and what you want to lose. Compare the track meter on a noisy gap with the meter on the softest word in the take, including the soft ends of phrases. If those two levels overlap, no gate setting will work, and you will get either chopped words or noise left in.
How to set ReaGate on a vocal
Add it before the compressor
Open the track’s FX window and add ReaGate above ReaComp. A compressor raises quiet material relative to loud material, which shrinks the very difference the gate depends on.
Loop your hardest passage
Pick the softest line in the song, ideally one that ends on a fading word. A gate tuned on the easy chorus is what chops the quiet verse later.
Raise the threshold until the gaps close
Threshold is the unlabeled vertical fader on the left. REAPER’s guide says to set it just above the level the meter shows in the quiet passages. Stop as soon as the gaps close. Then back it off slightly so the quietest word still opens the gate cleanly.
Set Attack, Hold and Release
Use the starting values below. Hold is what stops the gate from closing between words inside a phrase.
Turn the closed gate down, not off
Raise the Dry slider so the gaps drop in level rather than vanish. The next section explains the numbers.
Bypass and compare on the whole take
Listen to the full vocal once with the mix in, watching for lost word endings. Toggle the plugin off and on at the softest lines.
Starting values for a sung vocal
Neither REAPER’s guide nor the ReaEffects guide gives values for vocals, so these are our own starting ranges rather than official numbers. Your voice, room and song speed will move them.
| Control | What it does | Starting range |
|---|---|---|
| Threshold | Level below which the gate engages | By ear, just under the quietest word |
| Attack | How fast the gate opens | 1–5 ms |
| Hold | How long it stays open after the level falls | 100–300 ms |
| Release | How fast it closes after Hold ends | 150–400 ms |
| Hysteresis | Margin that stops rapid open and close | -3 to -6 dB if it chatters |
| Pre-open | Lookahead, so it opens early | 1–5 ms if word starts sound soft |
| Dry | Ungated signal mixed back in | -12 to -6 dB |
Pre-open needs to see the audio ahead of time, so expect it to add a small delay. Treat the gate as a mixing tool and keep it off while you record and monitor through REAPER.
Use the Dry slider as your range control
Many gates have a Range control that sets how far the signal drops when the gate closes. ReaGate does not appear to have one, but Sound On Sound’s Mike Senior notes that you can get limited-range gating from its Wet and Dry sliders.
Wet is the gated signal and Dry is not gated, so Dry sets the floor. With Wet at 0 dB and Dry at -12 dB, the gaps sit about 12 dB down rather than dropping to silence. This is the setting that does the most to keep a gate natural, because the room drops a little instead of switching on and off behind the voice.
One side effect: when the gate is open you hear both signals together, so the vocal gets a little louder. By the arithmetic it is about 2 dB with Dry at -12 dB, so rebalance the track fader after you set this.
If the gate still sounds wrong
| What you hear | Likely cause | Try this |
|---|---|---|
| First letter of words is soft or missing | Opening late | Lower the threshold, shorten Attack, add a little Pre-open |
| Word endings vanish | Closing early | Lower the threshold, lengthen Hold and Release |
| Fluttering on fading notes | Level hovering at the threshold | Make Hysteresis more negative, or raise RMS size |
| Clicks when it opens | Attack too fast | Lengthen Attack a little |
| Noise pumping in and out | Too much reduction | Raise Dry, lengthen Release |
| Thumps or rumble open it | Detector hears lows | Raise the detector Highpass to around 100–150 Hz |
Leave the detector Lowpass wide open on a vocal. Word endings such as a soft “s” or “t” are quiet and high, and if the detector cannot hear them the gate is more likely to close on them.
What a gate will not fix
- Noise during the words. The gate is open while you sing, so the noise is still there. For steady hiss, use the ReaFIR method in how to reduce background noise in REAPER, and to find the cause, see why your recording hisses.
- A roomy sound. It can shorten the tail in the gaps, but the room stays on the words. The gentle version is in how to reduce reverb from a vocal.
- Very dynamic takes. If whispers and belts sit in the same take, one threshold may not suit both. Split the sections onto separate items or tracks, or edit by hand.
- Breaths you want gone. A gate treats a loud breath like a quiet word. Handle those by hand with the approach in how to edit out filler words and breaths.
Confirm you can hear the problem in the mix, then set the threshold on the quietest word, give it enough Hold and Release to reach the end of each word, and use Dry so the gaps drop rather than disappear. If the noise and the voice overlap, stop and use a different tool.
Gaps clean? Finish the vocal.
The free StudioRescue vocal chain gives you a starting sound using only REAPER’s stock plugins, so you are not setting up the rest of the track from nothing. Nothing to buy.
Get the free vocal chainSources
- Up and Running: A REAPER User Guide v7.84 (November 2026), official HTML edition - section 16.10 Volume Control with a Noise Gate (Threshold, Attack, Hold, Release, Hysteresis, setting the threshold from the meter in quiet passages). dlx.reaper.fm
- Geoffrey Francis, REAPER ReaEffects Guide, version 2.00 (March 2016) - section 7, ReaGate controls including Pre-open, Hysteresis, RMS Size, detector filters, Wet, Dry and clicks from too fast an Attack. reaper.fm
- Cockos, ReaPlugs - ReaGate feature list (sidechain filters, lookahead for pre-open, hold, hysteresis, variable RMS size). reaper.fm
- Mike Senior, “ReaGate Noise Reduction”, Sound On Sound (May 2011) - limited-range gating with Wet and Dry, Pre-open as lookahead, negative Hysteresis. soundonsound.com
- Paul White and others, “Using Your DAW’s Gates & Expanders”, Sound On Sound (April 2003) - gate and expander basics, hysteresis, hold, RMS sensing for vocals. soundonsound.com
- Paul White, “Advanced Gating Techniques: Part 1”, Sound On Sound (April 2001) - range, attack on slower sounds, and side-chain filtering. soundonsound.com