dbx 463x

The DBX 463X is a single channel over easy noise gate that is an older piece of gear no longer being made. It's a really simple piece of gear, that has a Hi-Z 1/4" input in the front of it. It also has 1/4" connections for input and output in the back of it, as well as for a few other features including for stereo coupling this with another one. It is rack mountable, but will only take up half of a single space.

UTILIZATION

The make up of the DBX 463X couldn't be much more simple. The only parameters that is has are for threshold and for setting your 'downward expansion,' which is basically setting the amount of gating that you'd like. That's all a user will need to know about the the 463X, but the manual is put together pretty well with a lot of information on it if you think you need some help with it.

SOUND QUALITY

I don't really know what to say about the DBX 463X in terms of sound quality, other than it does it's job and doesn't add it's own color to the mix. I've only used the 463X on various different drums and for no other applications. I've used it on a few tracking sessions where I was getting a lot of bleed from other microphones on the tom tom drums and wanted to simply gate it so that there would only be a signal when the toms hit, which was easy enough to dial in. It did the job just fine for this application, but I'm not sure that it's any better or worst sounding than other gates out there.

OVERALL OPINION

While gates are really all that necessary by modern recording standards, DBX 463X does it's job well if you're looking for one. It can be had at an incredibly cheap price if you're able to get one used, but I'd probably only recommend doing so in a larger studio setting where something like this might be needed every now and again. As far as single channel noise gates go, the DBX 463X will definitely give you some bang for you buck if you need it.