As another year rolls around, so another feature-packed edition of Computer Music magazine rolls off the presses and slithers unobtrusively onto the shelves of your local newsagent and the screen of your nearest iPad. My contribution to issue 187 is a five-page tutorial on how to use software noise gates in a more creative manner than simply removing unwanted noise.

The noise gate is often overlooked as a utilitarian remnant of the analogue age, but the software versions available today have many more uses as creative tools in their own right. Here you’ll find detailed walkthroughs that demonstrate how to gate off guitar amp noise, recreate the classic 80’s gated drum sound, use sidechain inputs and free third-party plug-ins to produce rhythmic gating effects and set up your own custom multiband rhythmic gating system. You can find the piece on page 63, and the accompanying video walkthroughs can be found on the cover-mounted DVD, along with a host of other cool stuff.

So, if you want to explore new ways to ‘gate creative’, pick up a copy today – your tracks will love you for it!