Open N ShutNoise gate · silence between the notes, every hit whole, never chattering
Silence between the notes, every hit whole.
Insert it on a drum mic, a guitar or a vocal and the hiss, hum and bleed between the notes go, while every hit and note comes through whole. It opens once and closes once on a fading note, FOCUS keys it on the drum you want, and three types close it hard, gently or by tone.
- Use it on 5 computers per copy
- Lifetime updates
- 90-day money-back guarantee
- Download link in minutes
- VST3, AU and AAX, Windows and macOS
- Try it free
Formats and DAWs
Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit): VST3 and AAX
macOS 11 or later: VST3, AU and AAX
Works in any 64-bit DAW that loads VST3, AU or AAX plug-ins.
Licence
Use it on up to five of your own computers per copy you buy. Yours for good, no subscription. Unlock it with your email and a six-digit code, no dongle and no password. It checks in now and then and works offline in between.
Delivery
Download links by email within about five minutes, and always in your account under Downloads.
Hear the difference
The same part, without and with Open N Shut.
The kit's bleed lowered between the snare's backbeats
A synthesised snare track, kit bleed, room and hiss added - Drums / Snare Clean (FOCUS +40, RANGE 12 dB)
Only the kick opens the gate
A synthesised kick track, kit bleed, room and hiss added - Drums / Kick Isolate (THRESHOLD -33, FOCUS -80)
The toms open it; the rest of the kit stays out
A synthesised tom track, kit bleed, room and hiss added - Drums / Tom Key (THRESHOLD -25, FOCUS -60)
Hum and hiss gone between guitar phrases
A synthesised clean DI guitar, mains hum and hiss added - Init (HARD, THRESHOLD -40 dB, RANGE 40 dB)
Silence between the chugs of a high-gain riff
A synthesised high-gain riff, amp hiss and hum added - Guitar / Tight Chug (THRESHOLD -44, RELEASE 60 ms, FULL)
Room noise gone in the pauses of a dry vocal
A sung dry vocal, room hiss, hum and rumble added - Init (HARD, THRESHOLD -40 dB, RANGE 40 dB)
The drum and guitar parts are synthesised, computed rather than played; the vocal is a sung loop. The noise in each before (bleed, room, hum, hiss) was added on purpose. Each pair is loudness-matched.
Open N Shut in action
Open N Shut in under a minute on a synthesised drum loop with hiss, hum and hi-hat bleed: THRESHOLD, RELEASE, RANGE, a preset and ENGAGE.
Why Open N Shut
Never chatters
A plain gate flickers open and shut on a decaying note. Open N Shut opens at THRESHOLD and shuts 6 dB lower, with a hold that follows RELEASE, so a fading note opens once and closes once: a drum loop over hiss gave 8 opens for 8 hits.
The gate hears what you choose
Bleed opens a plain gate on the wrong drum. FOCUS keys it on the kick's low end or the snare's crack without touching the sound, so the hi-hat stops opening your snare gate.
Every hit whole
A fresh instance is fully open 0.5 ms after the first sample, with no click, and LOOKAHEAD opens it 2 ms early so even the first edge of a hit passes whole. While it is open the sound passes untouched.
Threshold. Release.
Two big knobs do the work: how loud a sound must be to open the gate, and how gently it closes. The key meter and the door of light show it open and shut.
- VST3 · AU · AAX
- Windows and macOS
- Zero latency
- 12 presets
The noise gate plugin
- Never chatters. It opens at THRESHOLD and shuts 6 dB lower, with a hold that follows RELEASE.
- FOCUS. Key the gate on the kick's lows or the snare's crack without touching the sound.
- Three ways to close. HARD for drums and guitar, SMOOTH for vocals and rooms, TONE to keep a drum's body while its bleed goes.
- Every hit whole. Open in 0.5 ms with no click; LOOKAHEAD keeps even the first edge.
- THRESHOLD, RELEASE, RANGE (to FULL silence) and FOCUS.
- HARD, SMOOTH and TONE; LOOKAHEAD; the key meter and OPEN lamp.
- MIX, Input and Output gain, IN and OUT meters, and ENGAGE.
- 12 factory presets and your own preset files; A/B, undo and redo, MIDI Learn on every control; a window from 75 to 200 %; the full manual.
THRESHOLD · KEY
Opens once. Shuts once.
It opens at THRESHOLD and shuts 6 dB lower, so a fading note never chatters. The key meter shows both points and the OPEN lamp.
What Open N Shut does
Every control has one job: silence between the notes, faster.
THRESHOLD
Just over the noise
How loud a sound must be to open the gate, -80 to 0 dB, -40 dB by default. It shuts 6 dB lower, so it never chatters on a fading note; the line under the knob prints the shut point. Set it just over the hiss or the bleed, and the notes and hits open it.
RELEASE
Tight or natural
How gently it closes after the sound stops, 10 to 1000 ms, 100 ms by default: short for tight drums and chugs, long for natural tails and rooms. The hold before it follows, 0.2 times RELEASE, 10 to 100 ms, printed under the knob.
RANGE
Lowered or silent
How far it closes, 0 to 80 dB, 40 dB by default, and FULL at the top of the knob: silence between the notes. 10 to 12 dB lowers a kit's bleed and keeps its air; FULL stops a high-gain riff dead between the chugs.
FOCUS
Key it on the right sound
What the gate listens to, -100 to +100, the full band at 0; the sound itself is untouched. Left low-passes the key toward 150 Hz for kick, toms and bass; right high-passes it toward 2 kHz for a snare's crack or a voice. In TONE it moves the corner above which the closed gate cuts.
HARD
Open or closed
The classic gate: open or closed, for drums and guitar. Fixed hysteresis and a hold that follows RELEASE keep it from chattering, and RANGE sets how far it closes.
SMOOTH
A gentle slope
Under THRESHOLD it turns the sound down gradually on a gentle 1:4 slope, floored at RANGE, never cut off: for vocals, speech and rooms, where a hard gate sounds unnatural.
TONE
Close by tone
The closed gate removes the highs and keeps the lows, under 224 Hz at FOCUS 0 and 50 Hz to 1 kHz as you move FOCUS, so a tom keeps its low body while the cymbal bleed goes.
LOOKAHEAD
The first edge stays
Opens the gate 2 ms early, so the very first edge of a hit passes whole. It reports 2 ms of latency, 96 samples at 48 kHz, which your DAW makes up, and delays every path alike. Off by default, at zero latency.
MIX, IN, OUT and ENGAGE
Fit it to the track
MIX blends the gated sound with the dry, in phase: 80 to 90 % keeps a trace of the room. IN and OUT set the gain either side, -24 to +24 dB, with meters. ENGAGE crossfades in 20 ms, with no click.
12 sourced presets
Start from a gate that works
A snare with its bleed lowered, a kick that alone opens the gate, two tom settings, a gentle bleed setting, a tight chug and a high-gain gate for guitar, vocal breaths lowered, a slow speech setting, a classic console channel's gentle slope and a slow room, each from a documented setting.
The door of light
See it open and shut
The key meter shows the level against THRESHOLD and the shut point, with the OPEN lamp. Above it, the hallway's door opens with the gate: green light through the gap and a wedge across the floor, dark when it shuts.
Inside the plugin
The Open N Shut window: two big knobs, RANGE and FOCUS, three types, a key meter, and a door of light that opens with the gate.
Every feature
Everything in Open N Shut, down to the smallest switch.
36 features
The gate
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No chatter
Opens at THRESHOLD, shuts 6 dB lower: a fading note opens once and closes once
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FOCUS
Key the gate on the kick's lows or the snare's crack, sound untouched
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Three types
HARD for drums and guitar, SMOOTH for vocals and rooms, TONE to keep a drum's body
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RANGE to FULL
Lower the floor 10 dB, or close to silence
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Hold follows RELEASE
Tight or natural closing from RELEASE alone
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Fast and clean
Fully open 0.5 ms after the sound arrives, with no click
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LOOKAHEAD
Opens 2 ms early so the first edge of a hit stays whole
Seeing and blending
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Key meter
The level against THRESHOLD and the shut point, and the OPEN lamp
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Parallel MIX
The gated sound against the dry, in phase
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Input and Output gain
-24 to +24 dB either side, with meters
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Linked stereo
The louder side keys both, so the image never shifts
Workflow and control
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A/B compare and A>B
Two complete settings, switch in one click
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Undo and redo
Step back and forward, or press Ctrl+Z
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MIDI Learn
Take complete control of your workflow: right-click any control, move a knob
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Host automation
Automate every control from your DAW
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ENGAGE
Click-free bypass, to hear the before and after
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IN and OUT meters
See the level going in and coming out at a glance
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Tooltips
Every control explains itself as you point at it
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Resizable window
75 to 200 %, and the size you pick is remembered
Presets
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12 factory presets
Each one built from a documented setting
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Previous and next arrows
Audition presets one click at a time
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Save your own
Keep your settings as .noisegatepreset preset files
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Open presets folder
Back up or share your presets in one click
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Reset to default
Back to a clean start in one step
Performance
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Mono or stereo
Linked on stereo tracks
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Light on CPU
About 0.6 to 1 % of one core, any type
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Any session rate
Timing tested at 32, 44.1, 48 and 96 kHz
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Audio-reactive face
A door of light that opens and shuts with the gate
Licence and compatibility
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VST3 and AAX, Windows 7 SP1 or later
Loads in any 64-bit Windows DAW with VST3 or AAX
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VST3, AU and AAX, macOS 10.13 or later
Loads in any Mac DAW with VST3, AU or AAX, Intel or ARM
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5 computers per copy
Studio, laptop and more on one licence
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Email and code unlock
No dongle, no password, no extra app
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Works offline
No internet needed between check-ins
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Check for updates
From the plugin's menu; nothing installs without asking
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Lifetime updates
Every future update included
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Platinum priority support
Questions answered by the people who build it
How Open N Shut compares
A gate that never chatters and hears what you choose.
| Open N Shut | Typical noise gate plugins | |
|---|---|---|
| Chatter | Fixed 6 dB hysteresis and a hold that follows RELEASE | Often chatters on fading notes |
| Keying | FOCUS: the lows or the highs, sound untouched | Often a separate filter section, or none |
| Ways to close | HARD, SMOOTH and TONE | Often one |
| The first edge | Open in 0.5 ms, LOOKAHEAD for the rest | Often a clipped attack |
| Seeing it | Key meter with both points, and the OPEN lamp | Often a single light |
| Latency | Zero, or 2 ms with LOOKAHEAD, reported | Often fixed lookahead latency |
| Try-and-compare | A/B, A>B, undo and redo | Often missing |
| Hardware control | MIDI Learn on every control | Often host automation only |
| Licence | 5 computers per copy, no dongle, works offline | Often fewer activations, or a dongle |
| Updates | Lifetime updates included | Often paid upgrades |
"Typical" describes what we commonly see in this category; it does not describe any particular product. Open N Shut facts are from the plugin and its manual, October 2026.
What you get
Vox Samples
90-day money back · Thank you
Specs and system requirements
- Formats
- VST3 and AAX on Windows; VST3, AU and AAX on macOS
- Operating system
- Windows 7 SP1 or later, 64-bit; macOS 10.13 or later, universal (Intel and ARM)
- Host
- Any 64-bit DAW that loads VST3, AU or AAX plug-ins. No standalone app.
- Channels
- Mono or stereo, in = out; stereo is linked (the louder side keys both)
- Sample rates
- Whatever your session runs at; timing tested at 32, 44.1, 48 and 96 kHz
- Latency
- 0 samples by default; LOOKAHEAD on reports 2 ms (96 samples at 48 kHz, 88 at 44.1 kHz) and delays every path alike
- Types
- HARD (open or closed), SMOOTH (a gentle 1:4 slope floored at RANGE), TONE (closes by tone)
- Controls
- THRESHOLD -80 to 0 dB; RELEASE 10 to 1000 ms; RANGE 0 to 80 dB and FULL; FOCUS -100 to +100; TYPE; LOOKAHEAD; MIX 0 to 100 %; IN and OUT -24 to +24 dB; ENGAGE
- Hysteresis
- Opens at THRESHOLD and shuts 6 dB lower (HARD and SMOOTH)
- Level
- A gate adds no make-up: every preset within 1 LU of the dry on average at -10, -18 and -26 LUFS in
- CPU
- About 0.6 to 1 % of one core (the engine, each type, 44.1 and 48 kHz); the open window about 0.9 to 1.1 %
- Presets
- 12 factory presets; your own as .noisegatepreset files
- Manual
- https://voxsamples.com/open-n-shut-noise-gate-manual
- Window
- 960 x 600 at 100 %, resizable from 75 to 200 %
- MIDI
- MIDI Learn from any controller routed to the track
- Licence
- 5 computers per copy you buy. Unlock with your email and a code we email you. Checks in now and then and works offline in between.
- Internet
- Needed once to unlock, then for the occasional check-in
90Day money-back guarantee
Our guarantee
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90-day money-back guarantee
Not for you? Email contact@voxsamples.com within 90 days for a full refund.
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5 computers per copy
Use it on up to five of your own computers per copy you buy, and move it yourself from the plugin's Licence menu.
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Lifetime updates
Every future update and upgrade of Open N Shut, included.
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Platinum priority support
A real person at contact@voxsamples.com, first in line.
Try Open N Shut free
The whole plugin, with the same sound as the full version and no time limit. It goes silent for a moment every few seconds; the full version never does.
Windows and macOS installers in one download. Like what you hear? Get the full version on this page, with a 90-day money-back guarantee.
Questions
What is a noise gate for?
It silences, or turns down, what sits between your notes: hiss, hum, amp noise, the bleed of other drums, a room. While the gate is open the sound passes untouched.
Will it cut the start of my notes?
It opens 0.5 ms after a sound crosses THRESHOLD, with no click (tested on a fresh instance from the first sample). For the sharpest attacks, LOOKAHEAD opens it 2 ms early.
Why doesn't it flicker open and shut on a fading note?
In HARD and SMOOTH it opens at THRESHOLD and only shuts 6 dB lower, so a note decaying through the threshold opens once and closes once.
The hi-hat keeps opening my snare gate. What do I do?
Turn FOCUS right first, so the gate listens to the snare's crack, then raise THRESHOLD just above the bleed.
Does it remove noise while the music plays?
No. A gate works in the gaps; while it is open, the noise plays with the music.
HARD, SMOOTH or TONE?
HARD for drums and guitar, SMOOTH for vocals, speech and rooms (it turns quiet parts down gradually), TONE for toms and kicks whose low ring you want to keep.
Does it add latency?
Not by default (0 samples). LOOKAHEAD adds 2 ms, reported to your DAW.
Does it work in my DAW?
Any 64-bit DAW that loads VST3, AU or AAX plug-ins, on Windows 7 SP1 or later or macOS 10.13 or later. There is no standalone app.
How many computers can I use it on?
Up to five of your own for each copy you buy. To move it, deactivate it in the plugin on the old computer and unlock it on the new one.
Does it need the internet?
Once, to unlock it with the code we email you. After that it checks in now and then and works offline in between.
Is there a manual?
Yes. The full manual explains every control, every preset and the menus, with tips. It opens from the help key (?) in the plugin's top bar, and lives at https://voxsamples.com/open-n-shut-noise-gate-manual.
What if it's not for me?
Request a refund from your account within 90 days.
Founder's Story
"When COVID hit, I finally had time to dive into music production—only to discover I was missing the right tools. The plugins I tried were clunky, overloaded with unnecessary features, and killed my vibe with endless tweaking. I knew there had to be a better way.
So, with my engineering background, I started making free and simple audio plugins for my producer friends. They loved them! That’s when I set out on a mission to create plugins that save you time, streamline your workflow, and keep your creativity flowing."
- Ryan Svensson (Founder & CEO)
Silence between the notes. Never chatters.
A gate that opens once and closes once, keys on the drum you choose, closes hard, gently or by tone, and keeps every hit whole.
$42.65 AUDRegular price $142.19 AUD70% off
- 90-day money back
- Five computers
- Lifetime updates
Pairs with
Open N Shut Noise Gate
$42.65 AUDRegular price $142.19 AUD70% off