What is the problem?
Today, Steps never silence audio.
This should mute the track output when a step is off, not just stop input to the effect.
A true output gate / VCA-style.
The gate should follow the step trigger:
- Active step = gate open
- Inactive step = gate closed”
Optional extra (nice extra!):
Gate should respond to probability (Play Chance) like other step behaviors
The goal is to make rhythmic gating, stutter patterns, and polymetric silence patterns possible
What should this feature achieve?
Please add an optional Gate Mode for each track so that:
- Step ON = audio passes through that track
- Step OFF = no audio passes through that track
In other words, inactive steps should behave as true silence for that track, not just “no new effect trigger.”
Ideally this would be different from Trails behavior:
- Trails Off = current behavior.
- Gate Mode = inactive step fully mutes that track’s output.
- optional Gate + Trails mode = inactive step stops new input but allows existing tails to decay
Each track should gate independently, but global silence should occur when all active tracks are gated.
Ideally the gate should be click-free (very short fade or envelope).
The goal is to make rhythmic gating, stutter patterns, and polymetric silence patterns possible
Are there any workarounds?
No.
“Only Trails” behaves like closing the input to the effect.
True gating would be muting the output of the track.
Currently Mess behaves more like parameter sequencing, whereas this feature would allow tracks to optionally behave like trig-based sequencers (Elektron-style) or VCA-gated signal paths (modular-style).
Any links to related discussions?
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Any references to other products?
Similar to Elektron trig behavior where steps act as gates for sound generation.
Polyend devices like Tracker and Play already use step-based triggering where no step results in silence.
A similar concept applied to Mess at the track level (post-effect) would allow tracks to optionally behave like gated signal paths rather than continuously passing audio.