Introduction

The complete toolkit for tidying up acoustic drums.

• Detect & Classify every drum hit without needing excessive parameter changes or automation across tracks.
• Decay drum resonances naturally while attenuating spill. No intricate filter tweaking or source separation artefacts.
• Align time, polarity, and phase across drum tracks to produce a clean, punchy starting point for downstream mixing decisions.
• Level out dynamic inconsistencies without losing expressive playing dynamics.
• Clip each hit consistently to produce drums that cut evenly through dense mixes.
• Trigger the gate with external MIDI input or export MIDI output for easy drum replacement or reinforcement.

What’s Special About Oxford Drum Gate 2?

Oxford Drum Gate 2 uses an intelligent Machine Learning (ML) approach to tell the difference between kicks, snares, toms, and hi-hats, regardless of how loud they are relative to each other. This allows it to precisely remove spill, even when it is louder than the drum hits you want to keep.

Unlike a regular noise gate where threshold is a volume level in decibels (dB), Oxford Drum Gate 2’s Confidence Threshold represents how closely each drum hit matches your selected drum type. Instead of fighting against volume differences, you can focus on separating drum types regardless of their relative loudness.

Start Here (Bleed gone in 60 seconds)

Follow these steps to get clean, punchy drums quickly. Stop when it sounds right.

1. Insert Oxford Drum Gate 2 on close mics (kick, snare, toms) or on your overheads.

2. Press play and confirm white triangle hit markers appear in the Detect tab.

3. Confirm or set Drum Type (kick/snare/tom/hats).

   • In most DAWs this will be auto-set from track name, but it’s worth checking.
     • If aligning: set Cymbal, Overhead and Room tracks to Source: Alignment Only, then press Analyse from any instance.

4. Adjust the Confidence Threshold until spill mostly stops without losing any wanted hits.

   • Raise it to remove unwanted hits, lower it to keep more hits.

5. Switch to Decay tab and set the Decay fader so tails feel natural but free of spill.

6. If drums sound chopped: increase Resonant Decay and try Adaptive mode.

You’re done when: Wanted hits pass consistently, spill doesn’t, and tails don’t feel “gated.”

Common Workflows

This section covers the most common mixing scenarios and how to achieve them quickly. For detailed control explanations, see the Global Controls below.

Gate snare without losing ghost notes

The ML classifier distinguishes drum types by their tonal characteristics, not volume - this means you can keep quiet ghost notes while removing louder kick spill.

1. Set Drum Type to Snare (usually auto-detected from track name).
2. Lower the Confidence Threshold until ghost note confidence is visible above the threshold line.
3. If output has kick bleed, raise the threshold slightly until removed - kicks and snares have different tonal profiles.
4. Use Learn on any ghost notes that still get gated.

Done when: Ghost notes pass through cleanly, kick spill stays gated.

See Detect for detailed threshold and classification controls.

Tighten toms but keep the body ring

Resonant Decay lets toms breathe naturally in their fundamental range while killing cymbal spill in the highs.

1. Set Drum Type to Tom.
2. Switch to the Decay tab.
3. Enable Resonant Decay > Adaptive Mode.
4. Frame the tom’s fundamental frequency range (typically 80–400 Hz for floor toms, higher for rack toms) and adjust HF Damping to taste.

Done when: Tom resonance sounds natural and full-bodied, cymbal spill disappears quickly.

See Resonant Decay for mode comparisons and advanced controls.

Gate kick from an external trigger track

Perfect for sample-replaced drums or when you have existing trigger tracks and just want to gate the original microphone recording.

1. Route your trigger track to Oxford Drum Gate 2’s sidechain input in your DAW.
2. Set Source to External (side-chain).
3. Set Drum Type to All (no classification needed when triggering externally).
4. Adjust Decay to taste on the Decay tab.

Done when: Gate opens precisely with your trigger track hits.

See Detection Sources and Types for more triggering options.

Align the full kit quickly

Automatic time, polarity, and phase alignment across all drum tracks, no manual phase checking or sample nudging required.

1. Insert Oxford Drum Gate 2 on every drum track in your session.
2. For Cymbal, Overhead and Room tracks, set Source: Alignment Only (usually auto-detected).
3. Open the Align tab on any instance and press Analyse.

Done when: Kit sounds noticeably punchier and more coherent, with no flamming or phase cancellation.

See Align for grouping behaviour and stereo link options.

Even out hits without killing feel

The Oxford Drum Gate 2 Leveller brings consistency to your drum performance while preserving the human feel to your drums.

1. Switch to the Level tab.
2. Press Auto-Set Leveller and let it analyse your performance.
3. Check if the Split threshold correctly separates loud backbeats from soft ghost notes - adjust if needed.
4. Gradually raise the Loud and Soft Levelling percentages (start around 30-50%).
5. Use the Hit Clipping section if you want to add intensity and help drums cut through dense mixes.

Done when: Performance feels consistent without sounding robotic or over-compressed.

See Level for detailed explanations of Split, Targets, and Hit Clipping.

Export MIDI for replacement or reinforcement

Generate MIDI notes from your acoustic drum performance for triggering sample libraries or layering with the original recording.

1. Set MIDI Out Settings to your desired note number.
2. Enable MIDI Out Capture.
3. Play through your track - MIDI events are captured in real-time.
4. Drag the MIDI file icon directly into your DAW timeline or file browser.
5. Route the MIDI to your drum sampler or duplicate the track for layering.

Done when: MIDI triggers line up perfectly with your original drum hits.

Alternatively, use External MIDI input on the Detect tab to gate acoustic drums using MIDI from electronic drums or pre-programmed patterns. See Detection Sources and Types.

Global Controls

These controls are always visible regardless of which tab you’re on.

Bypass: Oxford Drum Gate’s processing for quick before/after comparison.

Trim: Trim plug-in’s output volume from +20dB to -20dB.

MIDI Out Settings: Settings to select the MIDI Note to Capture MIDI output to.

MIDI Out Capture: Enable the internal recording of detected transients to MIDI events.

MIDI Out Drag: Provides click and drag functionality for captured MIDI to be dropped into your DAW or OS file explorer. Cmd/alt-click on this button to wipe previously captured MIDI events.

Quick Guide : Open a walkthrough guide for each tab.

Detect

The Detect tab of Oxford Drum Gate 2 is split into two views, the ‘Detect View’ and the ‘Classify View’. The two views represent the two stages of drum hit classification that determine whether the gates opens.

1. Detect - Every drum hit in your audio is detected.
2. Classify - Each detected drum hit is analysed for how closely it matches the selected Drum Type. Only those scoring above the Confidence Threshold pass through the gate.

This two-stage approach is what allows you to successfully gate quiet snare ghost notes even when kick spill is louder.

Classify View

Important: Confidence Threshold isn’t a volume threshold.

Whilst this is the second stage of the drum hit classification process, this is the default view once a specific Drum type is selected.

Unlike traditional noise gates, the Confidence Threshold represents how much this hit resembles the selected drum type, not how loud it is. This means quiet ghost notes can pass through even when louder kick spill is present. Oxford Drum Gate 2 separates by timbre and tone, not by dB level.

What you’re looking at:

• White triangles — Detected transient locations.
• Blue spikes — Confidence percentage per hit (height = how closely it matches your Drum Type).
• Threshold line — Pass/fail cutoff (spikes above pass through, below are gated).
• Green spikes — User specified learnt hits that are forced to pass through.
• Red spikes — User specified removed hits that are forced to gate out.

How the Classification Works

The main display shows blue spikes representing how closely each hit matches your selected Drum Type. The height of each spike represents the confidence value (shown as a percentage). The horizontal threshold line determines which hits pass through. Spikes that cross the line are kept, those below are gated out.

Basic Operation

In most cases, you won’t need to adjust detection settings or manually Learn/Remove specific hits. In most DAWs, the correct Drum Type will be selected for you, based on the track name, and the default Confidence Threshold will need no adjustment.

If some of the blue hits peaking above the Confidence Threshold line are spill that you’d like to remove, raise the Confidence value. Conversely, lower it if hits you’d like to keep are falling below the line.

If you find that you’re unable to set the Confidence Threshold to a value which removes all of the spill hits without missing any of your selected Drum Type, you may need to use Learn/Remove for specific hits, or adjust the Detect View settings.

Common Scenarios

Everything working correctly: Blue spikes for your intended drum hits cross the Confidence Threshold line. Spill remains below the threshold and is gated out.

Wanted hits being gated: Lower the Confidence Threshold to be more permissive, or use Learn for specific problem hits.

Unwanted hits passing through: Raise the Confidence Threshold to be more strict, or use Remove for specific problem hits.

No white triangle markers appearing on drum hits: Hits aren’t being detected. See Detect View below.

Detect View

These settings adjust the initial detection stage for drum hits. The default settings are pre-set to work well for most material. This is the default view when the ‘All’ Drum type is selected.

Threshold: Adjust to include or exclude hits based on their dB peak level.

Sensitivity: Adjust the overall sensitivity of the hit detection algorithm. - Increase Sensitivity to detect more and smaller hits (useful for fast snare rolls, ghost notes, or quieter playing). - Decrease Sensitivity if you see multiple markers on a single hit’s peak or markers during the decay of a drum hit.

Re-Trigger Time (ms): The minimum time between detected hits. This prevents false detections when using high Sensitivity settings. Increase this value if you’re getting “phantom” hit markers during drum decays despite lowering Sensitivity.

Sidechain Filter: Remove low frequency content before the hit detection stage. Increase this when detecting rapid hits in the presence of lots of low frequency resonance or spill, such as when gating toms. This helps the detector focus on the hit attack rather than low-end rumble.

Detection Sources and Drum Types

Detection Sources

These settings determine what source the gate’s detection is driven by.

Input: Default. Drum hits are detected from the audio of the channel the plug-in is inserted on.

External (side-chain): Drum hits are detected from the audio of another track. Useful for: - Multi-mic’d drums triggered from a single source. - Triggering from existing audio trigger signals.

MIDI: Drum hits are detected using MIDI notes instead of audio detection. Perfect for: - Sample-replaced drums that need gating on the original tracks. - Triggering from electronic drums or drum triggers. - Perfectly timed gating synchronised to MIDI performances.

Alignment Only: For Cymbal, Overhead and Room mics which you want to include in the Alignment process, but don’t need gating. In most DAWs, the plug-in will default the to this mode on these channels when inserted.

Drum Types

Kick / Snare / Tom / Hats: Detected hits which match the selected Drum Type will pass through the gate.

All: All detected drum hits will pass through the gate without the additional drum type classification stage. This is useful in conjunction with an External side-chain to trigger Oxford Drum Gate 2 with existing audio trigger signals.

Learn / Remove specific hits

Fine-tuning tools for when the automatic classification isn’t quite perfect.

Learn low-confidence hits that you want to keep:

1. Make a short loop around the hit you want to keep (just one hit, with a little pre-roll).
2. Click Learn, then play.
3. Confirm the hit now has a green fill in the display.
4. Stop playback.

Remove high-confidence spill:

1. Make a short loop around the hit you want to remove (just one hit, with a little pre-roll).
2. Click Remove, then play.
3. Confirm the hit now has a red fill in the display.
4. Stop playback.

To undo: If you’ve learnt or removed the wrong hit, press the undo arrow next to the ‘Learn’ and ‘Remove’ buttons to undo the last learnt or removed hit.

Tip: If multiple hits are being learned/removed at once, your loop may be too long. Make it shorter to isolate just the single hit you want to modify.

Decay

This is where you’ll control the release of the gate, or the tail of your drum hits. Every hit that passes through the gate is shown here on the Decay tab’s waterfall graph. Each hit draws frequency (horizontal) over time (vertical) on a dynamic waterfall graph.

Decay Fader

Sets the default release time for all frequencies. Higher values allow drums to ring out naturally, lower values tighten up the sound and reduce spill.

Resonant Decay

When gating drums, you may not always want the entire frequency range to be affected in the same way. For example, when gating a floor tom, it could be more beneficial to have a longer low end release time, while keeping a very short high end release time to control cymbal spill. This is when you would use Resonant Decay, to let a drum resonate naturally while applying faster attenuation to the rest of the frequency range.

The Resonant Decay is controlled by the yellow handles in the waterfall graph.

Resonant Decay : Drag up/down to set the maximum decay time for frequencies between the Low and High Cutoffs. Option/Alt + Drag up/down to adjust the Low and High Cutoffs.

Resonant Decay Low Cutoff : Drag left/right to set the minimum frequency cutoff of the resonant decay range.

Resonant Decay High Cutoff : Drag left/right to set the maximum frequency cutoff of the resonant decay range.

Standard and Adaptive Modes

Which mode should you use?

• Standard: Use when you want the classic, smoother “Oxford Drum Gate 1-style” behaviour and don’t mind the spill decaying naturally along with the resonance.

• Adaptive: Use when you want to keep the drum’s resonance but suppress spill in the same frequency range. Perfect for toms and ringy snares where cymbal bleed sits in the same frequencies as the drum body.

HF Damping (Adaptive mode only): Increase this to progressively speed up the overall decay time in the high end, independently of the main Decay fader and the Resonant Decay time.

Shorten Decay (on softer hits)

Often, softer hits sound “shorter” than louder hits. With the same decay time for all, you’ll either cut loud hits short to avoid spill on quiet ones, or let spill through on the quiet ones while preserving the loud hits.

Turning Shorten Decay up automatically adapts the decay time based on the level of the hit so that you don’t have to compromise in either direction. This is most effective on hits with a lot of dynamics, for example, a snare with a mixture of loud backbeats and soft ghost notes.

Gain Reduction

The amount of attenuation applied to the gated signal. For example, -80dB will provide maximum ‘hard’ gating. If you only want to duck the gated signal to retain some of the spill to keep a more lively feel, then you could apply less Gain Reduction.

If you hear this, try this:

• Tails feel chopped or unnatural? → Raise the Decay fader, widen/raise Resonant Decay, or try Adaptive mode.
• Cymbals wash through the tail? → Increase HF Damping, or narrow the Resonant Decay band to focus only on the drum’s fundamental.
• Soft hits have spill at the end? → Increase Shorten Decay so quieter hits close faster.
• Hard gating sounds too aggressive? → Reduce Gain Reduction to keep some bleed for realism (instead of full -80dB silencing).

Align

When recording drum kits with multiple microphones, achieving phase coherence between different microphones can be time-consuming. Even when mics are optimally placed, some combination of time alignment, polarity inversion, and phase shifting is often needed to prevent destructive interference when signals are mixed together. With a full kit using many microphones, doing this manually is impractical.

The Align tab automatically time aligns, polarity corrects, and phase aligns all drum tracks in seconds, enhancing tone, punch, and clarity without introducing flamming artefacts.

Workflow

1. Insert Oxford Drum Gate 2 on all drum tracks. For Cymbal, Overhead and Room tracks, select Source: Alignment Only. In most DAWs this will be automatically set for you based on the track name.
2. Open the Align tab on any instance.
3. Find a section of your session where all channels that you wish to align are present.
4. Press Analyse and follow the instructions in the plug-in.

Instances are automatically grouped based on track names. Any tracks in the Kick and Snare groups will first be aligned to each other. Tracks in Tom and Cymbal groups, and the combined Kick and Snare groups, will be aligned to the Overheads, which serve as the timing reference.

The final time alignment is then shifted to centre around the Kick group to maintain overall musical timing.

For best results, use the Align feature with at least one Overhead track; If no Overhead tracks are included, single drums with multiple source tracks (e.g. “Snare Top” and “Snare Bottom”) can still be aligned relative to each other, but any remaining tracks will be unaffected.

Stereo Link

The Stereo Link button is only visible when multiple Overhead or Room tracks are considered to be stereo counterparts, e.g. “Overhead Left” and “Overhead Right”.

If Stereo Link is enabled for the Overhead group, they are first aligned to each other, then all other drum groups are aligned to the overheads.

Before you Analyse:

• Choose a section with consistent playing that includes all drum types (kicks, snares, toms, cymbals) so the algorithm has good reference material.
• Turn off loop/cycle mode and use single-pass playback for most reliable results.
• Start playback 1-2 bars before the first drum hit to ensure stable playhead context.
• Play for at least 10 seconds of continuous drums. Analysis will timeout automatically after 20 seconds.

After you Analyse - what to listen for:

Use Hold to Bypass to A/B the aligned vs original sound. You should hear:

• Fuller, tighter low end (kick and toms sitting together instead of fighting).
• More focused snare with clear attack and body.
• Stable stereo image (overheads and close mics working together, not pulling apart).
• No flamming - hits should sound tighter, not doubled or smeared.

If something sounds wrong:

• Overheads feel skewed or lopsided? → Check the Overhead group’s Stereo Link setting is enabled so L/R are aligned to each other first.
• Drums sound hollow or thin? → One track might have inverted polarity already - try pressing Reset and re-analysing.
• Still not sure? → Bypass alignment and compare - the difference should be obvious.

Also double check the audio track groupings. While all efforts have been taken to ensure consistent grouping based on the track name, sometimes tracks can be misclassified. If this happens, try renaming any Excluded or misclassified tracks with a clearer name while running through the Align feature. The names can always be set back to your preferred naming conventions once alignment is complete, as the calculated alignment parameter settings will remain!

Why are my results different each time?

The Alignment analysis algorithm uses sophisticated statistical analysis to find the best solution to increase time and phase alignment between audio signals.

As with most problems of this nature, there are often multiple combinations of time and phase adjustments which improve the overall alignment. This can result in different reported time delay, polarity inversion, and phase shift parameter values being reported when running the analysis over the same section of audio. Another reason can be micro variations in your playhead’s position on your DAW’s timeline at the start of playback, which cant effect which path Drum Gate 2’s alignment algorithm will take to get to the best result.

The most important thing to do is to use your ears!

Controls

Analyse: Starts the analysis process. Follow the instructions in the plug-in, play at least 10 seconds of drums, then stop.

Reset: Returns all time shift, polarity, and phase adjustments to default across all plug-in instances.

Hold to Bypass: Hold this button down to temporarily bypass all alignment processing across all plug-in instances. Release to hear the aligned sound.

When to Re-Analyse

You don’t need to re-analyse after editing regions or making arrangement changes, as long as the edits don’t change the relative timing across tracks.

Re-analyse if you:

• Re-record or replace drum performances.
• Add or remove drum tracks.
• Significantly change microphone positions.
• Move one track’s audio independently (slip-editing, manual nudging, or time-stretching individual tracks) - this changes the relative timing between tracks.

You don’t need to re-analyse if you:

• Cut/copy/paste the same edit to all drum tracks at once (relative timing stays the same).
• Change plug-in settings on the Detect, Decay, or Level tabs.
• Adjust fades or volume automation.

DAW Compatibility

The Align feature relies upon the host DAW handing track properties and correct playhead context to each Oxford Drum Gate 2 plug-in instance.
While this functionality has been confirmed in most popular DAWs, we cannot guarantee that every host DAW will support this feature.

DAW Instance Sandboxing

Host DAWs which provide per-instance sandboxing of plug-ins will not be compatible with the Align feature. Consider temporarily reducing the sandboxing restrictions for Oxford Drum Gate 2 to allow instances to communicate internally. Instances only need to communicate during the Alignment analysis phase, and full sandboxing can be re-enabled once the process is complete without affecting the end result.

Level

The Leveller tab is designed to add a final flourish of consistency to your drum hits after they’ve been gated but before they’re sent to your chosen EQ, compressor or other effects. Oxford Drum Gate 2’s Leveller affects dynamics transparently so that you can use a compressor after the fact to focus on tone rather than trying to fix an inconsistent performance.

How much is too much?

• Levelling: Low-to-mid settings (30-60%) often give the best balance - you get more consistency while preserving the human feel. 100% levelling creates modern, perfectly consistent drums, but it’s a stylistic choice that will reduce perceived dynamics. Start conservative and increase gradually.

• Hit Clipping: Start small (1-3 dB). If the snare crack gets brittle, thin, or harsh, or if the kick starts sounding squelchy or distorted, back it off. Clipping adds intensity but can quickly become too much.

Split

The Leveller has two “targets” - Loud and Soft. For some drum hits and genres, a single target may be sufficient, but on some instruments, like a snare, having a differentiation between loud hits and quiet hits such as ghost notes allows the Drum Gate to keep a performance dynamic and realistic while also increasing the consistency between hits.

Use the Split fader to determine which hits are Loud (above the fader) or Soft (below the fader). Hits above the Split will be processed toward the Loud Target, hits below will be processed toward the Soft Target.

Loud Target and Soft Target

The two dotted horizontal lines represent target levels for Loud and Soft hits respectively. Set the desired peak level in dB for your loud and soft hits respectively. These are the target levels that the Levelling process will work toward.

Loud Target: The target level for hits above the Split.

Soft Target: The target level for hits below the Split.

Levelling

The Levelling faders control how strongly each hit is adjusted toward its target level.

0 %: No levelling applied. All hits pass through at their original level.

100 %: Maximum levelling. All hits peak at their target level.

Use the Loud and Soft Levelling faders independently to transparently improve consistency between peak levels and bring each hit closer to its target level.

Hit Clipping

Hard clip each hit to increase intensity and help drums cut through dense mixes evenly. When using a typical clipper with a threshold or ceiling, louder hits are clipped harder than softer hits. With Oxford Drum Gate 2’s Hit Clipping, each hit is clipped by exactly the same dB amount regardless of its peak level, resulting in more consistent tone.

Loud and Soft Hit Clip faders: Set the amount of clipping (in dB) which will be applied to each hit.

Auto Gain: Automatically adjust the output of the clipping to prevent the clipping from significantly changing the loudness of each hit. With Auto Gain enabled, the white gradient below the Loud and Soft Target lines shows where peaks will sit. Auto Gain keeps peaks slightly below the target lines at 100% Levelling to prevent the clipped hits from sounding too loud.

Auto-Set Leveller

Use the Auto-Set Leveller button to automatically configure your Split threshold, Loud and Soft Targets, and Levelling parameters.

For best results, let the Auto-Set Leveller analyse the most dynamic part of your track so that it can determine the optimal Split threshold and target levels.

If you hear this, try this:

• Performance sounds robotic or lifeless? → Lower the Levelling percentages. Try 30-60% instead of 100% - you’ll get more consistency while preserving the human feel.
• Ghost notes are still too quiet? → Lower the Split threshold to treat more hits as “soft”, or raise the Soft Target level.
• Loud hits are too aggressive? → Lower the Loud Target, or reduce Loud Levelling percentage.
• Drums need more punch and consistency? → Add Hit Clipping with Auto Gain enabled. Clipping adds intensity but can quickly become too much, so try starting lightly with only 1-2dB.
• Auto-Set isn’t working well? → Manually adjust the Split to properly separate your loud and soft hits first.

Troubleshooting

No hit markers appear

Symptoms:

No white triangles showing up in the Detect display when you play audio.

Solutions:

1. Check that audio is actually reaching the plug-in - watch your DAW’s meters.

2. Lower the Threshold in the Detect View Settings.

3. Increase Sensitivity in the Detect View Settings.

4. Make sure Source isn’t set to External or MIDI when you’re trying to detect from the main input.

5. Try on a section with clear, isolated drum hits first (not dense fills or soft playing).

See Detect View Settings for detailed control explanations.

Too many markers / phantom hits

Symptoms:

Multiple white triangles on a single hit, or markers appearing during drum decays and resonances.

Solutions:

1. Decrease Sensitivity in Detect View Settings - this is the most common fix.

2. Increase Re-Trigger Time to prevent false detections during the decay.

3. Raise the Threshold to ignore quieter resonances.

4. Increase Sidechain Filter if low-end rumble is triggering false hits (especially useful on toms).

See Detect View Settings for more details.

Ghost notes being gated out

Symptoms:

Quiet snare ghost notes or soft tom hits aren’t passing through.

Solutions:

1. Make sure Sensitivity in Detect View Settings is high enough to detect the quieter hits in the first place.

See Gate snare without losing ghost notes for a complete workflow.

Spill still passing through

Symptoms:

Kick bleed on snare, cymbal wash on toms, or other unwanted sounds getting through the gate.

Solutions:

1. Raise the Confidence Threshold - be more strict about what passes.

2. Use the Remove function to manually gate out specific spill hits.

3. On the Decay tab, shorten the overall Decay time or increase HF Damping.

4. Check that the correct Drum Type is selected - the ML classifier needs to know what to keep.

5. If using External triggering with “All” type, switch to a specific drum type for classification.

If spill is louder than wanted hits and the threshold isn’t helping, the classifier might need training - use Learn and Remove strategically.

Tails sound chopped or unnatural

Symptoms:

Drums cut off abruptly, resonances don’t ring naturally, or the gating is too obvious.

Solutions:

1. Increase the Decay fader for longer tails.

See the Decay “if you hear this, try this” section for more troubleshooting.

Alignment sounds worse / hollow / phasey

Symptoms:

After analysing, drums sound thin, hollow, or have weird stereo imaging.

Solutions:

1. Press Reset and try analysing a different section with better drum separation.

2. Check that Stereo Link is enabled for the Overhead group (they should align to each other first).

3. Make sure all tracks overlapped during the analysed section.

4. One track might already have inverted polarity - try flipping polarity on that track before analysing.

5. Use Hold to Bypass to confirm the difference - alignment should sound noticeably better, not different-but-weird.

If alignment consistently sounds worse, there might be an unusual mic setup or pre-existing phase issue. Try aligning just the close mics first, then add overheads.

See Align for proper workflow and what to listen for.

Why is latency so high?

Symptoms:

You’re seeing up to 170ms of latency reported in your DAW.

Explanation:

Oxford Drum Gate 2 uses sophisticated lookahead detection and ML classification that requires this latency. The plug-in needs to “see” the entire attack of a drum hit before it can classify and process it correctly.

Solutions:

1. Use your DAW’s delay compensation (enabled by default in most DAWs) - the latency will be compensated automatically across all tracks.

This latency is consistent and compensated - it won’t cause timing issues in your final mix.

See the Specifications table for exact latency values at different sample rates.

Missing detection events

Symptoms:

Hits which should be classified are randomly missed. A popup appears on the GUI to raise runtime issues.

Solutions:

1. Keep the DAW buffer size as large as possible. We recommend at least 1024 samples.

2. Reduce external app usage to reduce overall system load.

3. Reduce the number of active Oxford Drum Gate 2 plug-in instances by committing/freezing/rendering some instances.

4. Use the MIDI Out Capture feature on some instances to lock in the transients you want to keep, reducing the load on the ML runtime.

Specifications

Sample Rates and Latency

Oxford Drum Gate 2 introduces latency due to its lookahead detection, ML classification, and spectral processing. This makes it primarily intended for mixing rather than live tracking. Your DAW’s automatic delay compensation will handle this latency across all tracks, so it won’t cause timing issues in your mix.

For live monitoring or tracking sessions, disable any Oxford Drum Gate 2 instances during recording and enable it afterwards for mixing.

Reported Latency

Avid® DAWs

Pro Tools® and Media Composer® have known limits for the maximum allowed delay compensation on a signal path. These limits are outlined below.

*Pro Tools®-only supported sample rates.

Preset Manager Toolbar

Sonnox Oxford plug-ins come equipped with their own onboard Preset Manager, which is displayed at the top of the plug-in window. The reasoning behind this is to allow increased portability of your presets across all the host applications, while also providing a consistent and versatile interface. While most host platforms allow creation and loading of presets, those host-created preset files are not portable between different host applications. With the Oxford plug-ins’ Preset Manager, you can create a named preset in one host application and load it when using an alternative application.

The Sonnox Preset Manager is fully described in a companion document — Sonnox Toolbar and Preset Manager User Guide — available for download at www.sonnox.com/docs

Supported Platforms

• AAX Native in Avid® Pro Tools® 11 or higher
• VST3
• AudioUnit

Minimum System Requirements

macOS®

• macOS® 11.0
• Intel i5 6600 CPU
• 8GB RAM

Windows®

• Microsoft® Windows® 10 22H2 (64-bit only)
• Intel i5 6600 CPU or equivalent
• 8GB RAM

Recommended System Requirements

macOS®

• macOS® 12.0 or higher
• Apple® M1 CPU or higher
• More than 8GB RAM

Windows®

• Microsoft® Windows® 11 (64-bit only)
• Intel i7 9700 CPU or higher/equivalent
• More than 8GB RAM

All versions

• Free iLok account and the iLok License Manager
• Appropriate product licence (www.sonnox.com)
• iLok2, iLok3, iLok Machine, iLok Cloud (where available)

Disclaimer Our products may work on older OS or host DAW versions, but they are untested.

Copyright and Acknowledgements

Content copyright © 2007-2025 Sonnox Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sonnox® and the five dots logo are registered trademarks of Sonnox Ltd.

Avid® and Pro Tools® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries.

VST® and other Steinberg product and technology names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, registered in Europe and other countries.

macOS® is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and regions.

Microsoft® and Windows® are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

All other product and Company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.