Trans Gate

The Trans Gate chops the deck on and off in time with the song, like a very fast, perfectly steady transformer scratch. It is the eighth unit in the effect rack. Its faceplate is the TG-16 Trans Gate, and its screen shows the gate’s step grid across the bar, with the current step size and duty.

The gate always follows the song grid: each step opens at the start of a note division counted from the bar, so the chops stay locked to the beat.

Controls

Control	Range	Default	What it does
Step	1/32, 1/16T, 1/16, 1/8T, 1/8, 1/4	1/16	Length of each gate step.
Duty	5% to 95%	50%	How much of each step the gate stays open. Low values give short, stabbing chops; high values give brief gaps.
Smooth	0.5 ms to 20 ms	2.0 ms	How quickly the gate opens and closes. Short times give hard clicks like a fader cut; longer times round off the edges.
Mix	0 to 100%	100%	Balance between the dry deck and the gated sound. At less than 100% the gaps let some of the dry deck through.

The strip’s readout shows the Step setting.

Using it

• Instant transformer. Switch the gate on over a long, slow scratch on deck B. 1/16 at 50% Duty turns it into a tight transformer pattern that would be hard to play by hand at speed.
• Triplet feel. 1/8T or 1/16T gives a rolling, swung chop that contrasts with a straight beat.
• Stutter the beat. On the beat deck, a short Duty at 1/8 chops the loop into staccato hits for a break or a drop.
• Softer chops. Raise Smooth for a pulsing, tremolo-like effect, or lower Mix so the gaps only dip the level instead of cutting to silence.

Tip

Map the Trans Gate’s On switch to a button with MIDI Learn, or use a utility pad’s FX unit action in Gate mode, to drop the chop in and out on demand. Because the gate follows the song grid, it stays in time whenever you switch it on.