AFD Gate, the Amanorsac Frequency Dependent Gate, is a linear-phase gate for close-miked drums. Drag one band to choose what the detector listens to, and another to choose what actually gets turned down — so a snare hit can open a gate that only cuts cymbal wash. A decibel-domain envelope keeps tails even, lookahead preserves transients, and a retrigger lockout stops buzz and wash from flapping the gate.
$12 once · version 1.3.0 · runs offline with no activation, ever
The full interface · the detector trace, the two band selectors, and everything that shapes the envelope
Why it exists
Most gates decide with the whole signal, and act on the whole signal.
On a close-miked kit that is the wrong shape of tool. The snare mic hears the hats. The tom mics hear everything. A gate that ducks the whole channel takes the room with it, and what you get back is a kit that sounds like it was assembled rather than played.
AFD Gate splits the two decisions apart. One band decides when the gate opens. A different band decides what gets turned down. A snare can open a gate that only cuts cymbal wash, and the snare body never moves.
Choose what opens the gate.
The trigger band is the only part of the signal the detector hears. Drag an edge to move one end, drag the middle to slide the whole band, double-click to reset. The gated band below it is what actually gets turned down, so a snare can open a gate that only cuts cymbal spill.
See the decision, not just the result.
The display draws the filtered detector against the opening threshold, with the hysteresis line beneath it and gain reduction filled in behind. If the gate misses a ghost note you can see why before you touch a control.
Compare, undo, recall.
Two independent setups for A and B, undo and redo across every control, factory presets with step arrows, and setup files on disk. The preset name is marked the moment you change anything, so you always know whether you are still on it.
An envelope that behaves
Attack and release are time constants smoothed in the decibel domain, so a release travels the same number of decibels per unit time from the start of the tail to the end, instead of collapsing at the front. Hold bridges the gaps between hits, hysteresis stops the gate chattering at the threshold, and retrigger locks out a re-open after a close.
Lookahead that costs nothing to report
Lookahead delays the detector less than the audio, so the gate is already open when a transient lands. The latency reported to the host does not change with the setting.
Trigger from anywhere
An external sidechain bus takes the decision from another track, and falls back to the track's own signal when the bus is absent.
Audition what it hears
Listen to the filtered detector on its own. It is the fastest way to know whether the band you picked is actually hearing the drum or the thing beside it.
Presets
Seven starting points, one per job.
Kick, snare, toms, cymbal spill and the rest, each with the bands already in a sensible place. Step through them with the arrows without letting go of the mouse.
The same plugin, three jobs
What it looks like once it is working.
Kick. The trigger band down where the beater is, everything above it ignored by the detector.
Snare. Natural body, with the hysteresis line holding the gate open through the ring.
Cymbal spill, in frequency mode. The snare opens the gate; only the band above it is turned down.
Specifications
The numbers, and where they came from.
Formats
VST3 and standalone, on Windows x64 and macOS
iOS
The iOS target compiles in CI and produces both the container app and the AUv3 extension. It is not released — never signed, never built for a device, never loaded by a host.
Channels
Mono or linked stereo, with an optional stereo sidechain bus
Latency
128 samples of band-split group delay plus 5 ms, reported to the host
Detector
Two-pole band-pass, 12 dB per octave each side, 20 Hz to 20 kHz
Attack 0.01–30 ms, hold 0–250 ms, release 5–1500 ms
Lookahead
0 to 5 ms, with no change to reported latency
Interface
Resizable. The size is stored with the session.
Network
None. It runs offline, with no telemetry and no activation.
Two things worth saying plainly, because they are the ones that get checked: the linear-phase band split reconstructs the input exactly when the gate is open at unity, and the plugin passes pluginval at strictness level 10 with no warnings.
Windows will warn you once.
The build is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen shows a blue box saying it protected your PC. That is Windows not recognising a new publisher, not Windows finding a problem with the file.
Click More info, then Run anyway.
$12Once, and that is all
No activation. No account needed to run it.
Twelve dollars, and once it is yours it simply runs: offline, with no key to type, no server to reach and nothing phoning home. You buy it here because that is where the download lives, not because the plugin will ever ask who you are.
When the gate is open, the two bands sum back to exactly the signal you put in. Nothing is smeared and nothing is phase-shifted, so leaving the plugin in the chain costs you nothing while it is not gating.
What is the difference between the trigger band and the gated band?
The trigger band is what the detector listens to — it decides when the gate opens. The gated band is what gets turned down in frequency mode. Keeping them separate is the whole point: a snare can open a gate that only cuts what is above it.
Does it add latency?
128 samples of band-split group delay plus 5 ms, and it tells the host, so your session stays in time. Changing the lookahead does not change that number.
Does it need the internet, or a licence key?
Neither. There is no activation, no telemetry and no network use at all.
Windows or Mac?
Both, as VST3 and standalone, from the one purchase. iOS is a separate matter — see the specifications.
Is there really no licence key?
None. Buying puts the download in your My Apps, and after that the plugin has nothing to check and no way to check it. Install it on every machine you own.
