The principle is quite simple, that you use one sound to tell another sound when it should be heard. The trick is choosing the right sounds and getting the settings just right.

Start by playing a chord on a pad sound, change the chords as per the progression of the piece of music you’re working on but ensure you are holding down a chord all the time without any gaps.

Then place a gate on the insert of the channel (or channels if it’s stereo).

Now, find a rhythmic sound which has fast transients (a quick attack) and a fairly quick decay. A hi-hat is perfect.

Record the hi-hat playing 8th notes or 16th notes in time with the piece of music. Keep it simple for now.

Feed the output of the hi-hat channel into the key input of the gate(s) that you have placed on the pad channels.

Go to the gates and switch on the key input, then use the key listen function to monitor the hi-hat sound through the gate. Adjust the settings until the gate is only open when the hi-hat is hit.

Now switch off key listen so that you can hear the pad again. You should now only be able to hear the pad when the hi-hat is being hit. Tweak the settings for attack, hold and release until you achieve the sound you like. A long attack and release will make the pad fade in and out like a tremolo effect.

Experiment with using different sounds and different triggers. You can also programme complex rhythmic patterns with a sequencer to feed into the gate, which will make the pad sound even more interesting. Why not try applying this effect to some guitar chords?

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