Drawmer’s Latest Gate Technology Found
In The New DS501 PowerGate

Drawmer has just introduced the DS501 PowerGate, which the company claims is the first gate that truly preserves critical percussion transients.

Developed by Ivor Drawmer, the DS501 addresses the issue of "lack of attack". Where typical gates have a slow attack time to prevent clicking and other artifacts, lopping off the initial transient, Drawmer has coupled a frequency tunable "high speed expander" that is tied to the same threshold as the gate.

The tunable expander "punches" a gated transient as the DS501 PowerGate is opening, "letting go" in milliseconds. The combination of Drawmer high-speed gating and high-speed transient expansion make the new technology well-suited for percussion applications.

Drawmer dubs this process "Professional Peak Punch." Initially used in the Drawmer MX40, "Peak Punch " in the 501 PowerGate provides frequency tunable controls to tweak or even exaggerate the DS501's Peak Punch expander.

Two Peak Punch modes are available: "tunable" or "full band". In tunable mode, the user selects the center frequency of a one-octave filter (75Hz to 16kHz) for the expander and effectively shapes the transients of the gated signal.

In full band mode, the gate and the expander respond to the entire audio spectrum. In either mode, a "more" control permits the user to tailor the amount of transient expansion (Peak Punch) employed. In extremely high ambient noise situations, the Drawmer PowerGate(r) is a savior for it can effectively restore the attack of a heavily gated and isolated kick or snare.

Further, Drawmer has built the rest of the DS501 PowerGate to be equal to the respected Drawmer DS201 Dual Gate. Like this forerunner, the DS501 offers two stereo-linkable or independent channels of "frequency conscious" gating for the most complete suite of parameter controls available: attack speed, decay time, hold time, and release time plus downward gain range. In addition, users can use the 501 key input for external triggering or ducking.

Transamerica Group will distribute the DS501 PowerGate in the USA, with the unit listing for $900.