KILOHEARTS GATE Free
kiloheart gate
Kilohearts Gate is a streamlined noise gate designed to do exactly what producers reach for a gate to do most often: remove noise floors cleanly, tighten dynamics, and stay out of the way.
Built with the same minimal, modular philosophy that defines the Kilohearts ecosystem, Gate focuses on speed, clarity, and musical control rather than overwhelming the user with edge-case parameters.
Whether you’re cleaning up low-level hum on recorded audio, tightening drum loops, or carving space between competing elements, Gate delivers predictable, transparent results.
It excels at everyday mix tasks but also opens the door to more rhythmic and creative applications thanks to its sidechain support and reverse gating mode.
System Requirements:
- 64-bit
- VST 3 / AU
- Windows
- MacOs
Clean control with musical flexibility
At its core, Kilohearts Gate is a classic level-based gate done right. Threshold and Range handle the fundamental behaviour, while Attack, Hold, and Release shape how the gate responds over time.
A dedicated Tolerance control introduces hysteresis, ensuring the gate doesn’t chatter or flutter around the threshold, which is especially useful on sustained material or noisy recordings.
A switchable 5 ms look-ahead allows fast transients to pass through unscathed, making Gate reliable on percussive material like kicks, snares, and plucks. This does introduce a small amount of latency, but in practice it’s a worthwhile trade-off when precision matters.
Visual feedback is handled via a clear VU meter that shows input level, threshold, tolerance, and gate state at a glance.
Sidechain-driven dynamics and creative gating
Beyond cleanup duties, Gate becomes a powerful dynamics tool when paired with an external sidechain. By keying the gate from another signal, you can duck pads under a kick, rhythmically carve space in basslines, or exaggerate groove in beats.
Flip mode inverts the gate’s behaviour entirely, turning it into a simple ducking processor that attenuates the signal when the gate opens rather than closes.
This makes Kilohearts Gate particularly useful in electronic and dance music contexts, where sidechain-style movement is a core part of the sound. It’s not trying to reinvent gating, but it integrates these techniques in a way that’s fast to set up and easy to repeat across projects.
Key Features:
A focused noise gate built for fast, musical results.
- Noise floor removal - Cleanly removes hum, hiss, and low-level background noise.
- Threshold and range control - Precisely define when and how much the signal is attenuated.
- Tolerance (hysteresis) - Prevents gate chatter by requiring a defined drop below threshold before closing.
- Attack, hold, and release shaping - Control transient response and decay behaviour.
- 5 ms look-ahead mode - Ensures fast transients pass through intact.
- External sidechain support - Drive gating behaviour from another signal for ducking and rhythmic effects.
- Flip mode - Reverse the gate to create classic ducking behaviour.
- Clear visual metering - Instant feedback on signal level and gate activity.
FAQ
Tolerance adds hysteresis, meaning the signal must fall a set number of decibels below the threshold before the gate closes. This avoids rapid opening and closing on fluctuating material.
Not always. It’s most useful on fast, transient-heavy sounds like drums. For sustained material, disabling look-ahead reduces latency without sacrificing quality.
Yes. With sidechain input and Flip mode enabled, Gate can act as a clean, hard-edged ducking tool instead of a compressor-based solution.
The combination of Tolerance, Hold, and Release makes it easy to dial in smooth, natural gating that avoids abrupt cut-offs.
Yes. Gate integrates seamlessly into the wider Kilohearts ecosystem, making it ideal for modular and multi-effect workflows.
