Solid State Logic noise gates

Peter Gabriel once owned a set of 24 custom-made Solid State Logic (SSL) noise gate units, the ones which they built in to each of the channels of their audio consoles since the 1970s.

To start with, Peter Gabriel was working on his third self-titled studio album (a.k.a. Melt) at The Townhouse Studio 2 in London, where they had an early Solid State Logic SL-4000B series desk installed. The revolutionary drum sound to "Intruder" was stumbled upon by accident, which used the (heavily-compressed) "reverse talkback" mic (a STC 4021 Ball & Biscuit) treated with the SSL's noise gate which was built into each channel of the desk... The idiosyncratic character of the noise gates appealed to Peter, so much that he eventually persuaded SSL to sell him 24 of the noise gates.

The SSL noise gates were put to use on Peter's self-titled fourth studio album (a.k.a. Security) for some of the drum sounds. According to live sound engineer David Tickle, Peter wanted to take the studio on the road, so they brought in the SSL noise gates to use on the Playtime 88 tour as well.