ExpressionGate | Jesper GB Henriksen

ExpressionGate

ExpressionGate follows the input envelope and uses three draggable thresholds, LOW, MID and HIGH, to trigger different effect chains. Play softly for one sound, harder for another.

Thresholds on the left, one effect rack per zone on the right.

Same guitar, three sounds.

Nothing is switched by hand in this clip. The only thing changing is how hard the strings are hit, and the plugin picks the chain to match. Sound on.

Playing through the standalone app. The meter shows which zone is active.

Three zones on the meter.

You drag three thresholds onto the input meter, and each one owns a full rack of six effects. How hard you play picks the rack. Nothing is mapped to a pedal or a knob.

LOW

Quiet playing. For the effect that should always be there, or nothing at all if you want it clean until you dig in.

MID

Normal playing. Crossed constantly, so this is the sound under your hands most of the time.

HIGH

Accents. Only crossed when you hit hard, so the big effects stay occasional.

Stack

Effects add up as more zones are crossed. Play harder and the sound accumulates rather than switching.

Switch

Only the highest active zone is heard. Cleaner jumps between distinct voices.

Attack / Releaseglobal

How fast the envelope follower rises and falls. Short attack catches picking transients, longer release keeps a zone open through a phrase.

Zone fadeglobal

The crossfade time between zones, with hysteresis underneath, so a note sitting on a threshold does not chatter.

Dryglobal

Parallel dry-through under everything. Set it to 0% for a wet-only return.

Levelper zone

Each zone's complete return has its own level, so a harder zone does not have to be louder.

Output + limiter

Global output trim with a limiter and its own meter. Stacking three racks of fuzz and reverb runs out of headroom quickly.

Six effects per zone, fixed order.

Every zone runs the same six effects in the same serial order. Each has its own power switch and Wet blend, so an effect can be dialled back inside a zone without touching the global Dry. Slots stay compact until you hover them.

Amp→ Fuzz→ Pitch→ Chorus→ Echo→ Verb

Ampneural capture

Drive into a Neural Amp Modeler capture, with Output for makeup after it. Three captures are built in and each zone picks its own, so LOW can stay on a clean tweed while HIGH runs a cranked head. With no model loaded it is a plain gain stage.

Fuzzcascaded clipping

Cascaded clipping on a starving supply. Bias offsets the first stage and sags the rail, which gives the spluttering decay of a dying battery. An OCTAVE switch rectifies ahead of the clipping for octave-up. Past three-quarter travel it stops clipping and starts wavefolding.

Pitchzero latency shifter

Shift from -24 to 0 semitones with a Mix control, using a windowed shifter so playing through it stays immediate.

Chorusmodulation

Sits between the dirt and the time-based effects. Thickens a zone without smearing the attack.

Echodelay line

Feedback delay with Time and Feedback, a SYNC toggle locking Time to host tempo from 1/1 down to 1/32T, and an Age control that morphs it from clean digital into tape: wow and flutter modulate the read head while each pass through the loop saturates and darkens.

Verbfeedback delay network

Five modes, Plate, Room, Hall, Spring and Bloom, each setting delay scaling, decay, diffusion, damping and modulation together. Size, Damping, Predelay and Mod on top.

What it runs in.

Formats

Audio Unit (aufx) and Standalone app for macOS.

System

macOS 11 or newer. Universal build for Apple silicon and Intel.

Hosts

Any AU host: Logic Pro, GarageBand, Live, Reaper. The Standalone app runs it without a DAW at all.

Sources

Built and tuned around guitar and vocals, where the dynamic range is wide enough for three zones.

Early playable prototype.

Where it stands

ExpressionGate works and is playable, but it is not a released product. The multi-effect zone design is still experimental. The next step is tuning the effect ranges and the dynamic feel through guitar and vocal play-testing.

There is no public download yet. If you play guitar or sing and want to try it, write to me and I will send you a build.