Advice for Audio Students: Subtlety with Gating

Yet another topic in the basics subject.
When working with students, I often see an all or nothing approach to gating. A lot can be accomplished with a gate set to 10dB of attenuation.
Rather than gating drum tracks by 40 dB, or “tight-editing” the tracks, try using 10 or 12 dB of attenuation with a gate. The crosstalk is still cut back to manageable levels, but the drum tones retain their depth of field, and vibe. This can be made more effective by using some subtle expansion.
This isn’t the right approach for every mix, but it worked for a lot of great recordings in the analog years.