Two Knobs
TK Gate
Depth walks from genuinely inert to a hard gate. The detector adapts between peak and RMS on its own, so one setting works on a snare and on a sustained guitar. Punch puts the crack back.
AU · VST3 · Standalone - not Pro Tools (no AAX). Formats and requirements.
Price includes VAT. Nothing is added at checkout.
Every update included
One price, and it is yours for good: every future update to what you buy is included at no extra cost. There is no subscription and no upgrade fee.
A gate whose depth knob walks from genuinely inert to a hard gate, moving threshold and range together. The detector adapts on its own - weighting peak detection on transient material and RMS on sustained material - so the same knob works on a snare and on a sustained guitar without being told which is which. A punch knob fires a short boost on the opening edge: the thing that makes a gated snare sound like it was hit harder.
demo
See it work.
what's in it
Every control, and what it's for.
Nothing here talks to the Analyser, or to any other plugin. Two Knobs holds no shared state and needs nothing else installed - what you see is the whole plugin.
The two knobs
Threshold and range, together. It walks from inert to hard gate: at zero the threshold is below anything real and the range is zero, so it genuinely does nothing. As it climbs, the threshold comes up to meet the signal and the closed floor drops away. The travel is spread evenly across the knob rather than bunched - there is no dead quarter at the bottom.
A short boost fired on the opening edge - the thing that makes a gated snare sound like it was hit harder. It is a gain envelope, not a distortion: this is the one plugin in the series with no saturation anywhere in it, and that is deliberate.
Detection
Weights peak detection on transient material and RMS on sustained material, continuously, so the same knob position works on a snare and on a sustained guitar without you having to tell it which is which.
TK Gate
£19 - every future update included, no subscription.
What to reach for it on
Tom mics, a snare bottom, a guitar amp with a noisy pedalboard, a room mic you want tightened rather than removed.
Shared across the series
The same on all six, so learning one teaches you the set.
Input is level-matched to output continuously, so turning the big knob up never simply makes things louder - you hear the effect, not the volume. The compensating readout under the little knob shows what it is doing right now: negative means the plugin made things louder and the compensation is pulling back. It takes about a second to settle after a big move, deliberately - a compensator that reacts instantly is a compressor. TK Compressor is the one exception: its level rises with squeeze (see its own section).
Drag up and down to adjust. Hold shift while dragging for fine adjustment. Double-click a knob to return it to its default. You can also double-click a value readout and type a number.
A small live curve under the little knob showing what the plugin is currently doing to the signal - the transfer curve, the filter shape or the gate contour, depending on the plugin. It follows both knobs and the toggle.
Drag any edge. The aspect ratio is locked, the range is 60 %-200 %, and the size is remembered with the session. Everything stays readable at the bottom of that range.
No preset browser, no meter, no gain-reduction display, no A/B, no settings gear. Nothing to configure and nothing shared with any other plugin - these hold no cross-plugin state and behave identically with none of the rest of the suite installed.
quick start
Four steps to a sound.
- Turn depth up until the spill drops away. At zero it genuinely does nothing.
- If the gate is chattering, back depth off slightly rather than hunting for a hold control - there isn’t one.
- Add punch to put the crack back on a drum that has been tightened.
- The detector adapts to the material, so the same setting works on a snare and a sustained guitar.
Not currently suitable for Pro Tools
These are AU and VST3 plugins. Pro Tools only loads AAX, which these aren't built as - so none of the suite will appear in it. Please check your DAW before you buy - once you download, the sale is final.
Get TK Gate
AU · VST3 · Standalone - macOS 10.15 Catalina or later, Windows (VST3). Installers are not yet notarised, so there's one extra click on first install; the install guide walks through it.
Try the free demo of TK Gate first. Every control works; the demo just drops to silence for 2 seconds in every 30. Buy it and paste in the code you're sent, and the dropouts stop - no reinstall.
Where it's confirmed to work
Honest version: this is a one-person operation, so it has been properly tested in the DAWs below and not yet in the others. Not tested yet means exactly that - not that it fails.
| DAW | System | Plugins load |
|---|---|---|
| Logic Pro | macOS | Yes |
| GarageBand Confirmed with the six Two Knobs plugins on macOS. The rest of the range has not been tested there yet, and brain sharing has not been checked in it at all. | macOS | Yes |
| Ableton Live Confirmed loading on both macOS and Windows. The sharing side is still to be checked. | Mac/Win | Yes |
| Cubase / Nuendo Confirmed loading on both macOS and Windows. The sharing side is still to be checked. | Mac/Win | Yes |
| Studio One Confirmed on Windows (VST3). The sharing side is still to be checked. | Mac/Win | Yes |
| Reaper Confirmed on Intel Mac - both AU and VST3, and the plugins share with each other. Not yet tested on Windows. | Mac/Win | Yes |
| FL Studio | Mac/Win | Not tested yet |
| Bitwig Studio Confirmed loading on both macOS and Windows. Bitwig keeps plugins apart from each other by default, so the sharing side needs checking separately. | Mac/Win | Yes |
| Digital Performer | Mac/Win | Not tested yet |
| Pro Tools Pro Tools only loads AAX plugins. These are AU and VST3. | Mac/Win | No |
| System | Confirmed | |
|---|---|---|
| macOS on Intel | Yes | Confirmed working from 10.15 Catalina upwards. |
| macOS on Apple Silicon | Yes | Confirmed on an M4 Mac in Logic Pro. The installers are universal binaries, so they run natively - no Rosetta needed. |
| Windows 10 / 11 | Yes | VST3 only - there is no AU on Windows. Confirmed in Studio One, Ableton Live, Cubase and Bitwig. |
There is no second column here on purpose. This plugin passes nothing to any other plugin and holds no shared state, so a host that keeps plugins in separate processes costs it nothing - if it loads, it works. Tell me what you find in a DAW that isn't listed and this gets updated.