Wire Grind Unagated 2: Advanced VST Gating Plugin

Wire Grind has recently unveiled Unagated 2, a significant update to their well-regarded VST gating plugin. This new iteration introduces a suite of advanced features and refinements designed to offer producers greater control and flexibility over their audio.
The update focuses on addressing common gating challenges while also expanding creative possibilities. For instance, the plugin now includes specialized gating controls, an improved click suppression algorithm, and enhanced ducking functionality. Moreover, all time-based parameters can be precisely synchronized with the host DAW’s tempo, ensuring seamless integration into any production workflow.

Enhanced Gating Controls

Unagated 2 features several innovative gating controls that allow for detailed manipulation of audio dynamics. Specifically, Delay Attack and Force Release enable users to fine-tune the timing of the gate’s opening and closing. These parameters are crucial for shaping the musical characteristics of a sound, such as its punchiness or note duration. Furthermore, the plugin introduces Hold Closed, which effectively inserts silence after a note, and Skip Beats, a unique probabilistic feature. Skip Beats generates random gating patterns that repeat on each bar, offering an avenue for creative rhythmic variations and unexpected sonic textures.

Addressing Common Gating Issues

A frequent problem encountered with traditional noise gates is the occurrence of unwanted clicking noises, especially when attack or release times are set very short. Wire Grind has tackled this issue head-on with Unagated 2’s advanced anti-clicking algorithm. This system functions as a real-time alternative to look-ahead processing, effectively suppressing clicks and ensuring a cleaner, more professional sound without introducing latency. Consequently, producers can utilize extremely short attack and release times confidently.

Flexible Envelope Shaping and Tempo Sync

Both the attack and release stages in Unagated 2 benefit from four distinct volume envelope shapes: Linear, S-Curve, Arched, and Scooped. This variety allows for a nuanced shaping of the gate’s behavior, catering to a wide range of sonic requirements. In addition, all time-based controls within the plugin, including Attack, Release, Hold Open, Delay Attack, Force Release, Hold Closed, Look Ahead, and Scroll Time, can be synchronized with the host DAW’s tempo settings. This comprehensive tempo-syncing capability ensures that the gate’s operations remain perfectly aligned with the project’s rhythm, which is vital for maintaining musical coherence.

Intuitive Ducking Functionality

The new version of Unagated significantly improves its ducking capabilities, making the process more intuitive for users. Ducking essentially inverts the gate’s operation, allowing for classic sidechain effects. However, previous implementations could be ambiguous regarding which parameters were inverted. Unagated 2 addresses this by modifying the user interface in two key ways. Firstly, certain parameters are relabeled for clarity (e.g., Hold Open becomes Hold Duck, Delay Attack becomes Delay Release). Secondly, some parameters are visually reversed in the interface to maintain a logical left-to-right flow, thereby enhancing usability and understanding.

Features

• Special gating controls: Delay Attack, Force Release, Hold Closed, Skip Beats (probabilistic gating).
• Click suppression algorithm for clean gating.
• Four envelope shapes for attack and release (Linear, S-Curve, Arched, Scooped).
• Tempo-syncing for all time-based controls.
• More intuitive ducking with relabeled and reversed parameters.

Price
Sale: 26.00 $ / 22.00 € (until May 26, 2026)
Regular: 55.00 $ / 47.00 €
A free demo version is also available.

More info: Wire Grind | Unagated 2