Can someone help mod a Peavey Gatekeeper?

[swipesy]

I have a Peavey Gatekeeper which is perfect for our needs, except the gates close too abruptly. It has two controls for each channel - sensitivity and release. The release control, though, acts more like a "hold" control, and when the gate closes it's way too fast.

I would like the release control to be more like a "fade out" control that allows us to choose how long it takes for the gate to close (say, up to three seconds after it opens) and when it closes it is a steady reduction in volume instead of a hard close like it is now. I can do the mod itself, but I don't know what would need to be changed and/or added. Gates are greek to me.

Can someone help with this? I have the schematic from Peavey.

Thanks in advance!

[Enzo]

I am willing to try to help, I have the drawings as well, but try this first. COntact Gene Ford at the factory and see if he has some advice. If not, oh well, we can try on our own. His address - gford@peavey.com

[swipesy]

I contact Gene and he did write back, but his suggestion didn't affect the abrupt gate closing, and he didn't write back again after my reply. Any ideas?

[chipprogr]

I am a sound engineer and i can tell you from experience the peavey gate keeper is a turd for that very reason. It also makes a clicking sound as it opens and closes. Look to replace it with something like a symetrix (564 i think) off ebay. They use what are called downward expanders , its like variable speed volume controls to turn down the output instead of on-off gates. they are much more expressive because you can tell them when to react, how much to turn down and how long to hold on.

Good Luck- Eric

[Enzo]

What did Gene tell you to do?

And consider that this piece of gear is over 20 years old. Things have progressed since then.