I reviewed the original Oxford Drum Gate in Tape Op #135. I've seen Drum Gate users make a lot of requests for features over the last six years, and with competition from plug-ins like Black Salt Audio's Silencer [Tape Op #165] out there, it was time Sonnox revamped this useful tool. Sidechain access might have been the most common request. We can now choose from internal audio, external audio (sidechain), and MIDI sources to trigger Gate 2. There's a high-pass filter to tune the detection circuit, but I'd love a low-pass filter as well. One of the features that might be unique to both Oxford Drum Gates is Learn or Remove, which can teach the plug-in to open up or ignore certain hits. I used this a lot with the original but noticed immediately how much smarter Drum Gate 2 is on its own; I found myself using these teaching tools far less.
There are other new features in Gate 2. One is Align, which seems similar to Sound Radix's Auto-Align 2, which I reviewed in Tape Op #156. Time and phase are analyzed and then "fixed" by the plug-in. It works well and is quick to "train," and drums sounded closer and punchier with it on. I'm not sure if I want or need this feature in the same plug-in as my gates, especially as the track compensation delay on this plug-in is high. Somewhat similar to Silencer's DeBleed feature, the Gate 2 Decay section has a HF Damping slider that can soften cymbal/hi-hat bleed as the kick, snare, or tom fades out. It's a dangerous tool, as this can create some slurpy underwater drum sounds at times (someone feature this in a remix right now!), but the Damping can totally help when needed, and it seems to be more nuanced than a simple time-based high-pass filter would be.