Optogate PB-05 M Vocal Mute Automatic Mic Mute Switch FOH, Music Directors, Drum Wash
This really helped as we added these to all of our vocal mics in the band. It is the first time in a few years that my ears didn’t ring after the show.
I’ve purchased 3 PB-05D Optogates for my 3 wired EV ND86 mics. My live sound mix, as proven by multitrack recordings and board recordings, have much less ambient noise which makes the mix sound much cleaner.
This is a great tool! Thanks for making my live mix so much better!
Worked out of the box, then stopped working after about a week of careful treatment. The lights are on, but nobody’s home…
Love this product as it cuts out tons of unwanted sounds on vocal mics. makes mixing live so much better.
The actual system works well, but they have used the worlds cheapest materials. The female XLR immediately wants to break off and the faceplate is held on with plastic rivets that you can pull off with your fingernails. I am now trying to figure out how to glue this onto an SM58 so it won't snap off.
Interesting. thank you for your honest review in expressing it works!! Just wanted to say most audio engineers maintain these units for up to a decade.
Are you telling us you broke it already and are upset?
If there is something at fault with the manufacturing of your optogate device its covered with a 2 year warranty.
Reach out to us and we should be able to help you resolve the issue you may be having with your optogate
I’ve been using the PB-05M for roughly 8 years on the road mixing monitors, and I won’t mix a show without it. While in the middle of a show, one less button I need to press to talk to my band or crew mates, the better for critical communication. The ability to throw it in the smallest pocket of my backpack means I don’t ever forget to leave home without it.
We have 11 musicians on stage. Separation in the mix is essential. We have four Optogates that really clean drum bleed and spaces between vocal lines. Very happy with them. They solve uniquely different issues in small venues and large theaters alike. In addition to FOH, the ear mixes stay tight and less fatiguing. Indispensable part of my kit.
Don’t let your drummer have a talkback unless you have this tool. Nobody wants the extra bleed from the drums. In the worship band setting, we have multiple talkbacks on stage and in production. The optogate keeps our inear mixes clean by keeping bleed out of all of our talkback mics and it’s been the best investment. Your band will thank you!
This product is awesome and the customer service is great. Right after ordering Joe messaged me explaining what each optogate does, and asked my needs for it and made sure i ordered the right one. Thank you Joe you're great.
Has helped take our in ear talk back mic bleed completely out!! Works great!! Truly glad we purchased them!!
Really great product does exactly what it’s supposed to do and I love it
I’ve actually been wanting to buy this for some time but the one deterrent was how long it was going to take to come standard shipping. Since I really wanted the product and had need for it for an event, I went ahead and did an expedited option. I paid for 2 day air and it doesn’t really mean you’ll get it in 2 days— and for 30 extra dollars, that was disappointing.
1st off , Thank Your order and bringing this to our attention!
Your order was placed late evening 8pm . Anything ordered after 5pm is more likely to be shipped next day due to logistics in our area.
We did our best to get your order delivered as soon possible. We even upgraded your shipping at our cost which was an additional $6.70. We are just as much disapointed with UPS as you are.
This is not a typical scenario for delivery. We usually have had great a experience with UPS.
Lets work together to put in a claim for a shipping refund for you with UPS. You should be entitled to a shipping refund if we can prove that they failed to deliver a service they promised.
We hope to hear more about your user experience with Optogate in the future.
Keep us posted.
- Joe
This little device works wonder to prevent stage bleed in your mix. I love the ability to set the distance to the mic, the vocalist needs to be to open the gate. Wonderful product.
Works exactly how I need it to. Great job on this product.
I bought the pb07 for our church mic, the sensing range says 4 feet but the max I can set it for is 28 inches, if the sensitivity is set any higher it will not turn off at all, with the podium between the speaker and the mic it’s just not good enough.
This optogate is the game changer. If your band, church, or venue uses a talkback microphone for FOH, Music Director, or communicating to your team/band, optogate puts the power on you instead of your FOH audio engineer.You can change the sensitivity on when it reads you in front of the mic. I have one at every talkback station in my church in San Antonio/Boerne, TX.
I tour mixing for a very dynamic rock/prog/jam band who plays in a variety of venues; sometimes we’re on a big stage outdoors in front of 2000 people, sometimes we’re crammed in a little 250 cap room. My bass guitar vocal lives directly next to our drum kit, with a ton of bleed coming from the cymbals, even when using a hyper or super cardioid vocal mic. It was often an issue that the cymbals would sound super washy/weird/phasey and I’d ultimately have to pull down the fader my super nice/detailed overheads, or conversely I’d pull the bass vocal down during an instrumental section, and then be super late to bring it back up when he talked or sang. Enter the Optogate PB-05D, which ducks the vocal just enough to clear up the wash and weirdness when he’s not on it, and opens right up (with a little work via the distance adjustment) when he’s ready to talk or sing. My shows sound better, I look like more of a professional, and he’s happy because he’s not getting the bleed in his IEMs. All around a winner of a product, especially for my touring situation.
The Optogate PB-05 has been an absolute game changer for my church. We're using 3 of them now for talkback mics and the difference is massive. We used to have a fairly complex setup with footswitches, but Optogate just works so much better. It eliminates all the stage noise from those mics and makes it so easy to place the mic/stand exactly where we need it without having to worry about positioning a footswitch or extra cables.
Compared to what we were doing before, it's a night and day difference and I'd encourage anyone who wants to clean up their stage and have minimal noise from open mics to get an Optogate!
I’ve been playing live with bleed from my vocal mic in my monitor mix for years. I learned to deal with it as nothing really could be done…. Until I found out about the Optogate! It completely killed the Bleed from my Mic and for the first time I could hear the mix I wanted! Thank you Optogate for saving my mix and killin the bleed!
Also my Front of house engineer loves it as well because it kills the bleed for him too! Not only did it clean up my monitor mix, it also cleaned up the house mix!
I’ve been playing live with bleed from my vocal mic in my monitor mix for years. I learned to deal with it as nothing really could be done…. Until I found out about the Optogate! It completely killed the Bleed from my Mic and for the first time I could hear the mix I wanted! Thank you Optogate for saving my mix and killin the bleed!
Also my Front of house engineer loves it as well because it kills the bleed for him too! Not only did it clean up my monitor mix, it also cleaned up the house mix!
While the optogate is known as an incredible live tool it is also very useful in the studio. I have found a few useful applications such as using them for talkback mics, recording only what I desire (saves time in cutting off the before, inbetween and after unused recording) while tracking percussion effects. I have also used it to create synth sounds out of drums by only capturing tone and cutting off initial attack. I did a full review and presentation of this on my YouTube channel williamjohnsonmusic (optogate)
Can't believe we waited so long to get one. The optogate is a must have for musical directors or comms on stage. We had been running a gate from FOH but it was unreliable and frustrating. We got one 20 mins before jumping on stage and it was plug and play, I was able to adjust the distance with ease and started using right away. having the light show you when the gate opens is reassuring and gave me more confidence when making calls to the band. Great product!
Joseph proactively reached out to help complete the my order that I was having trouble with during checkout. Product works exactly as expected and advertised!
Joseph Here, Michael Thank you for taking the time to create this review.
Would love a follow up about the why, who, and where our tech is being deployed!
share it here or on social media. We are even on LinkedIn for the audio pros out there
Good product
Alain thank you for your review!