Kjaerhus Audio has announced Golden Audio Gate | GAG-1, a versatile gate / expander & ducking plug-in made for such applications as noise-gating, gated reverb, voice-over, de-breathing and many other practical and creative purposes.

The side-chain can be fed with either internal or external audio, or controlled by a MIDI key. High-cut and low-cut filters are available in the side chain to narrow the frequency range in which the gate should respond. The envelope is controlled by attack, hold and decay parameters where the hold function has a soft release behavior contributing to the unique character of this gate. Other parameters such as range, ratio and knee are used to control the audio attenuation and help make this gate sound more musical than typical “bi-state” noise gates.

Three plug-in variants are available in the package; stereo, stereo with side chain, and mono with side chain. There is no latency, which makes this the ideal tool for real time performance in the studio or on stage. All parameters can be controlled from MIDI controllers.

• Downward expansion, gating and ducking.
• Comprehensive envelope and dynamics control.
• Internal, external or MIDI-key side-chain sources.
• High-cut and low-cut side-chain filtering.
• Stereo linked or un-linked (dual mono) operation.
• Side-chain listening function.
• A|B comparisons.
• Noise free knobs and buttons.
• Supports sampling rates up to 192kS/s.
• Full VST automation.
• Parameter control through MIDI-learn.
• Low CPU usage.
• No latency.
• Presets.
• Users Manual.

Golden Audio Gate | GAG-1 is expected to be released on 2nd August 2006 for Windows and Mac OS X in VST and AU plug-in formats. It will be priced at $78 but will be available for the introductory price of $65 for a limited time.