Re: 'Plex noise gate

[dmgraph@bway.net (David Myers)]

Kim (Flint):  Sorry for the culinary mix-up.

>I didn't get your original post, sorry. In general though, the deal is 
>this:
>
>I stopped working for Gibson about 10 months ago, and don't pretend to
>speak for them or their divisions. (like Oberheim)  The help I give on
>echoplex questions is totally voluntary, and not out of any obligation. 
>I'm
>proud of the thing and the work I did on it, and I just want to see people
>enjoy it and use it well. My real life is very demanding, and I actually
>have very little time for these sorts of questions. And I do get a lot of
>them. I'm more than happy to help, and I try my best to give people good
>answers, but sometimes it takes me a while to get to it. So please try to
>be patient.
>
>I don't mean to jump on you, and normally don't feel it's necessary to 
>make
>silly statements like this. It's just that I've received email recently
>with a lot more "angry customer attitude" than seemed necessary. Sort of
>like the author thought I was a Gibson representative or something. If
>Gibson/oberheim/whoever has wronged you somehow, please direct your anger
>at them and not me! They have customer service people available for you to
>abuse. Mostly, those folks will be able to take care of your problems and
>as far as I know are reasonably good at that. I will be more than happy to
>help you if I can, but my motivation will be remarkably lower in the face
>of overtly misdirected hostility......
>
>Thanks for listening to me vent. Now, your question:
>
>>approach.  In brief, the noise gate is ruining everything I've tried to 
>do
>>lately.  Hit a big distortion chord and let it die out gradually-within a
>>few seconds the gate starts chopping it up.  Most of my sounds are being
>>pumped like this, and I'm hoping there is a way to get around the gate.
>>Please?!  I don't care so much about improved "undo" performance-with 
>this
>>gate, I'll have to look elsewhere for my main looper.
>>
>>Thanks-David
>
>This was discussed to death a few months ago and I currently don't have 
>the
>time or energy to do it again, so for the full version you ought to check
>the archives. A synopsis:
>
>- There is a noisegate on the echoplex that makes the Undo function
>  much more usable.
>
>- A few people find it annoying, and probably don't realize how equally
>  annoyed they would be if it wasn't there.
>
>- There is currently no way to adjust it or turn it off.
>
>- One imperfect work-around is to increase the input levels a bit to
>  make sure you are further above the gate threshold.
>
>- Another suggestion is to use a compressor.
>
>- The designers of the echoplex are very sorry if you are affected
>  by this problem.
>
>- Said designers (Matthias, Eric, and myself), at the expense of
>  personal lives and relationships, will be developing and releasing
>  echoplex software upgrades this year. The second of those will offer
>  an adjustable gate threshold. We do not yet have a release date for
>  that. Please avoid asking questions about upgrades for now, because
>  spending our very limited free time on your question means less
>  limited-free-time for working on the software! Appropriate
>  announcements will be made at the appropriate time.
>
>- We do hope you can be patient and wait for us to finish this work,
>  and hope that the wide variety of other echoplex features and
>  applications can bring you some solace and pleasure in the mean
>  time.
>
>
>hope this helps,
>
>kim


I apologize for getting your dander up, though I didn't *think* I was
expressing hostility and have never believed you to have represented
yourself as an Oberheim spokesperson or official troubleshooter.  Just
taking you up on your goodhearted openness and enthusiasm for the
'Plex--and cripes, if anyone can answer such questions, I figure you must
be the guy!  Maybe too many folks figure that and are running you ragged,
sorry.  I won't be dogging you about the planned upgrades, it's just a
relief to hear that at some point this great unit will be of more practical
use to me.

At the risk of sounding like a dolt, exactly how does one check the
archives, anyway?

Thanks again for your help, Kim.

-David