Silly newbie question?

[jlove0413]

I see the phrase "gating effect" referred to  in many of the posts.  Can someone explain what this is?

Thanks.

[petemoore]

SOunds like a nasty taper off of amplified signal when you're note decays.
 A misbiased Q will gate or shut off sporadically causing a [not exactly a scritch or crackle but] noisey decay or let only transient sputters through.
  Take yer basic transistor ckt and put a trimpot to replace the  collectors resistor , twist the trimpot...if it's adjusted value gets 'outside'  the bias parameter you will hear the gating efkt.

[jlove0413]

Thanks for the explanation!

[smoguzbenjamin]

Spluttery noisy mess.