This thing is so much more than a gate. Those who know, know. Its usually seen on tour and in larger installations rather than in local clubs. I use it mostly for local gigs for my solo, duo, trio, and fully band work. This thing does three things. 2 are not subtle at all and 1 is.

In regard to the gate, you never hear opening and closing. It seems to know what to omit where and when. Also, how it continues to reduce background noise while the gate is open is the truly amazing thing. Once a traditional gate fully opens, everything is coming through. With the 5045, it does what it says. Even with the gate open, it moves things back or even out that are not the primary source (your voice), leaving your primary source in the front. I heard someone say that its using a combination of techniques to do this, one possibly being even phase cancellation of these background noises. Even drums. I have to put drums back into my in-ear mix even when I'm sitting next to the drummer and singing lead. He's gone. Not in my mic. I only hear what I'd hear if there was no active mics in my ears but my ears are plugged with in-ears. Its crazy.

Lets talk about more about what this does for in-ears. Wow. What a difference. You don't hear the house sound, the crowd, other musicians amps, drums, etc, coming over your mic if you don't want to, all of which can make it harder to hear your own singing in really noisy tight spaces. It also allows you to have your in-ear volume much lower!!

The feedback reduction on this is great. Expect another 10db before you feedback with this. This allows me to run clearer vocal mixes in bad tight spaces before it becomes a feedback issue. Huge win for me. I want it to sound how I want it to sound and not be limited in mixing clarity into the vocals because of feedback.

This also has Rupert Neve transformers in it. For those mixing using digital boards, that's a plus to get some analog goodness. Its subtle, but its there. This box sounds great. Not a huge coloring or anything like that. But it sounds great.

Worth noting,I had a question after receiving it. I called Rupert Neve Designs and I was immediately put in touch with one of their actual engineers who was incredibly knowledgeable and glad to answer any questions.

Finally, its easy to use. It doesn't take long to dial it in just right. I rarely ever change my settings. It has to be a really bad room situation for me to need more from it. It has happened, though, and it delivered when needed.

So, just to be clear, I highly recommend this gear. Whether you are speaking in a house of worship over a problematic headset mic, a singer on the road or at church, or even doing local gigs but you want the best sound and experience for the crowd and for your self, this will deliver. Dan VanAmerongen was certainly helpful as my Sweetwater Sales Engineer in making this purchase.

For those wondering, here is my setup into the mixer:
I run two mics (an SM58 to a Cloudlifter CL-Z for me and an Neumann KMS 105 for my female singer) into an AEA TRP2 that then goes to to the Rupert Neve 5045 that runs line-in to a Presonus 24r.

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