# Best noise gate?



## zurn (Oct 21, 2009)

I have a bunch of old EHX pedals and they add a lot of white noise when on. I also have a some hum and single coil pickup noise, any of you know of a pedal that can do it all?

Ehx Hum debugger, Boss NS-2 ? Are they really effective on white noise?

I don't want to spend 200$ on it though, something below 150$ canadian would be nice.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...there's an ISP DECIMATOR for sale on craigslist:

http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/msg/1489554053.html

he wants $100 but needs cash asap, so...

for single coil hum, i believe that a noise gate is entirely the wrong tool for the job, but others report success with it.

i have an ehx hum debugger in my effects loop. it does an amazing job of eliminating fx loop hum, and even lowers single coil noise to a degree.

-dh


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## zurn (Oct 21, 2009)

thanks, I'll check it out!


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## forum_crawler (Sep 25, 2008)

There is also the MXR smartGATE. Awesome noise gate. Works well with very high gain amps.


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## theroan (Oct 7, 2008)

The Decimator is the BEST pedal you can get, which I happen to have for sale if you're interested. $100 + shipping and paypal.

By the by, the smart gate is as bad as the NS-2. They both steal attack from your first note. Watch and see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng8Q2JhkdSg


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## mspizziri (Nov 16, 2009)

theroan said:


> The Decimator is the BEST pedal you can get, which I happen to have for sale if you're interested. $100 + shipping and paypal.
> 
> By the by, the smart gate is as bad as the NS-2. They both steal attack from your first note. Watch and see.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng8Q2JhkdSg


I tried the MXR and Boss and have to agree the ISP was by far the best one


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## warplanegrey (Jan 3, 2007)

I've had great luck with the Decimator.


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## zurn (Oct 21, 2009)

Lol so I guess it's a no brainer! Thanks guys.


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## Metal#J# (Jan 1, 2007)

Just don't get the Gstring. Having to use 4 cables BLOWS!!!


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## zurn (Oct 21, 2009)

It's 160$ at L&M's

http://www.long-mcquade.com/products/401/


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## theroan (Oct 7, 2008)

Great, the average used price is $100. I've got a buyer in T.O. so forget it.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Check through the older threads here. I've written a LOT of posts explaining noise-reduction pedals and how to best use them. I'd write more here, but I'm just back at work and there is much to catch up on.


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## forum_crawler (Sep 25, 2008)

mhammer said:


> Check through the older threads here. I've written a LOT of posts explaining noise-reduction pedals and how to best use them. I'd write more here, but I'm just back at work and there is much to catch up on.


Good point, lots of people like the Decimator, but for my applications, I just didn't do anything. The only time I need noise suppression is when I run the red channel on my amp and the MXR works really well in this scenario.


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## zurn (Oct 21, 2009)

Well the one I would use would go in my effects loop where I have the most noise, the main problem I have is white noise caused by my Small Clone, Holy Grail and Digitech JamMan.


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## KujaSE (Jul 30, 2006)

I never understood why there's so much hate on the NS-2. If you're not playing metal, it works fine. Cuts the excess feedback/buzz and I don't notice much -if any- difference in tone.


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## forum_crawler (Sep 25, 2008)

zurn said:


> Well the one I would use would go in my effects loop where I have the most noise, the main problem I have it white noise caused by my Small Clone, Holy Grail and Digitech JamMan.


Hm... I would try at the store first just in case... Putting a gate after your time based effects might give you weird results.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

zurn said:


> Well the one I would use would go in my effects loop where I have the most noise, the main problem I have is white noise caused by my Small Clone, Holy Grail and Digitech JamMan.


...the ehx hum debugger works absolutely brilliantly for this!

-dh


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

theroan said:


> The Decimator is the BEST pedal you can get, which I happen to have for sale if you're interested. $100 + shipping and paypal.


...soooo....how come you're selling it?

-dh


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

What people lump under "noise" includes a lot of different things from a lot of different sources. Consequently, there is no single solution that can be applied in heavy-handed fashion at one point in your signal chain without having any undesirable side-effects.

Ideally, whatever you use should be in the most favourable position to make fine distinctions in signal level if it makes its decisions based on signal level. This means that it, or at least the signal-sensing portion, should ideally be situated at the very start of your signal path, well before anything else might have an impact on signal dynamics or introduce any noise that gets misread as low-level signal.

For me, the ideal is a hum-reducer up front, and a hiss-reducer at the end. The various pedals along the way will generally add some hiss of their own, so you deal with that at the end. And all those pedals will behave themselves better if any hum from the guitar is killed as early in the sequence as possible, before it gets amplified.


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## zurn (Oct 21, 2009)

Good advice, thanks mhammer.


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## neilli (Nov 22, 2009)

I like the MXR Smart Gate


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...what a helpful post!

thanks mhammer.

good timing, too, as i'm thinking of shopping for something to "clean up" my sound a bit, specifically the "hum-reducer up front" to which you allude.

any idea what i should be looking for?

-dh




mhammer said:


> What people lump under "noise" includes a lot of different things from a lot of different sources. Consequently, there is no single solution that can be applied in heavy-handed fashion at one point in your signal chain without having any undesirable side-effects.
> 
> Ideally, whatever you use should be in the most favourable position to make fine distinctions in signal level if it makes its decisions based on signal level. This means that it, or at least the signal-sensing portion, should ideally be situated at the very start of your signal path, well before anything else might have an impact on signal dynamics or introduce any noise that gets misread as low-level signal.
> 
> For me, the ideal is a hum-reducer up front, and a hiss-reducer at the end. The various pedals along the way will generally add some hiss of their own, so you deal with that at the end. And all those pedals will behave themselves better if any hum from the guitar is killed as early in the sequence as possible, before it gets amplified.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Geez, Dave, I wish I was familiar enough with what's out there to make a viable recommendation.

To some extent, it is possible to do what I suggest using the identical sort of unit/circuit, but repeated twice. At the head of your signal path, the hiss has not accumulated yet, so the threshold of any gate placed there can be set pretty low so as not to snip the attack or decay of the notes. If the hum is eliminated at the front, then it doesn't get amplified along the way, so that the hiss accumulated at the end will also not require setting the threshold too high.

I tried pitching an idea for a double-pronged signal cleanup pedal to Bob Weil of Visual Sound when we went to lunch in September. Apparently, they have something in the works. His chief engineer, my long-time buddy RG Keen, was intrigued by my idea of "signal hygiene", so I gather I may have sparked something or at least further encouraged something he had already been working on.

There are some "double gates" out there. I have a Yamaha NR-100 unit ( http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/yamaha/100/nr100 ) with dual ins and outs, but a common set of controls. Something like that lets you plug your guitar into one input, run to your pedal chain, then come from the pedal chain back to the noise reducer.


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