Mackie dynamics suite- trying to make a keyed gate in racks

[scoop2]

I got all pumped when I saw the sidechain compressors included w/T2-
I figured I could finally use a gate on my drum room mics,
triggering them with the close mics.
So I set up the the mono sidechain compressor in a rack,
sending the room mic track to the left input of the plug-in,
and the close kick mic to the right (labeled key) input.
So it works, sort-of, just not how I'm used to an analog gate sounding.
It doesn't sound like I'd like it to.
The Mackie plug-in has a funky interface, so maybe I'm doing something wrong.
It's got these nodes, which I guess are ways of changing the compression knee.
Cool idea, except you are capable of getting negative numbers for the ratios, like
-4.00:1
and I don't know what a negative value means, being used to analog stuff.
anyways I figured dialing in a 1:20 ratio or as high as 1:inf
ought to work, but it's not happening like I want it to.
I tried all kinds of settings and multiple nodes and still couldn't really get a
gated-room-mic-sound.
WTF!
Anybody got any ideas how to reach my goal,
with or w/out the Mackie plug-ins, I guess.
I looked around for a manual for the Mackie dynamics suite,
no dice.
No forums on the Mackie site that seemed on-topic, either.
Anybody?
thanks

[IIRs]

Try something like this:



this will duck the gain hard when the key signal drops below -12dB.. its downward expansion really, rather than true gating.. but these plugs are powerful enough to blur the difference

[scoop2]

That's definitely on the right track-
It worked better for me if I moved Node 1 to around -24 or so.
That's just about the sound I was looking for. Maybe a little cooler.
Thanks.