So how do I use a noise gate/suppressor and which ones are the best ?

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Panhead5

Well-known member
It seems like some my od pedals generate noise, some more than others . I see some people using them in effects loops , before or after the pedals ? Hell I don't know I'd just like to get the noise under control a little better . I don't have a complicated pedal board Just a delay and a chorus and everything else is in front of the amp.

Maybe I should just turn the volume down to 11 and get farther back from the amp !!!
 
I've put them in the loop and out front. For me, if it's out front, it's before everything else but my tuner. It's been a while since I've tried one at the end of the chain. From what I remember, I felt that it killed a lot of the dynamics of the pedals. Could've been user error though:dunno:
ISP Decimator or Decimate are the gates I have.
 
I have the Revv G8 and have owned the Decimator pedals and had the Silencer. I'm always wondered if a noise suppressor would be better than a gate for the effects loop noise I get.
 
I use a Fortin Zuul (not plus) and a buffered splitter. Works perfectly and I only ever have the Zuul turned to 9 O'clock at the most. I play with as much gain as humanly possible. The Zuul+ and other pedals have too many knobs, too much to fuck up. One knob make brain work good.

Code: 
Guitar > Tuner > Buffered Splitter > The rest of my pedal chain > Zuul Normal Input > Zuul Out to Amp
                                  \> Fortin Zuul Key Input
 
I have a selfbuild cone of the Fortin Zuul I am pretty happy with. Running it in the FX loop of my amps. That way you get rid of all the noise that is generated in the preamp as well as the pedals in front of the amp.
Best feature of the Zuul is the key input which triggers the noise gate. That way the gate does not choke your signal when switching between highgain and clean.
 
vultures said:
I use a Fortin Zuul (not plus) and a buffered splitter. Works perfectly and I only ever have the Zuul turned to 9 O'clock at the most. I play with as much gain as humanly possible. The Zuul+ and other pedals have too many knobs, too much to fuck up. One knob make brain work good.

Code: 
Guitar > Tuner > Buffered Splitter > The rest of my pedal chain > Zuul Normal Input > Zuul Out to Amp
                                  \> Fortin Zuul Key Input
Click to expand...
You can actually use a boss TU Tuner which has two outputs to trigger the key input ;)
 
Props for the Boss NS

I run my guitar into this guy, then Wah > OD > Phase 90 > ABY > TC Mimic > amps and then my Splawn loop runs thru the Boss NS as well so guitar and loop.

L0sHhn8.jpg
 
I've used a first version Decimator for about 15 years now, first in my chain. Does the job and I've never noticed any high end loss, unlike the Boss NS I tried before I got the Decimator. I've bypassed the pedal, then compared the tone with it in use and its the same to my ears.
 
I use the Zuul+ in the loop with the key, setup for two amps at the moment.
323118885_831942404533657_1750034880283370885_n.jpg
 
I use a boss ns2 after my boost . But the catch is I only will use it with a battery . After about an hr the weird high cut it had plugged in outlet and disappears. It’s a big thing for how I set my tones up now .
 
IMO the best ones are the 4-jack type. They sense the clean signal from your guitar to gate whatever noisy stuff you want to put in their loop (some pedals, or the whole amp preamp section).
 
I use an ISP Decimator II. Super happy with it. At first I used it in the loop but then at gigs when I was cranked I was getting uncontrollable feedback that I couldn't gate out without turning down the gain farther than I wanted to, so I switched it to the front & problem solved.
 
GJgo said:
I use an ISP Decimator II. Super happy with it. At first I used it in the loop but then at gigs when I was cranked I was getting uncontrollable feedback that I couldn't gate out without turning down the gain farther than I wanted to, so I switched it to the front & problem solved.
Click to expand...
That's the best one I've used as well.
 
I used to have the Decimator 1, and never bonded with it. I thought it was a step up from the Boss NS-2, but nothing special. It wasn't choppy enough for my taste. I don't do much weedly weedly, so I don't really care about how noise gates handle like bends higher up the fretboard (I can always turn the gate off if I want to), but for choppy rhytm stuff, I found it wasn't fast enough. Not only that, but to kill all the feedback standing in front of a cranked tube amp, it had to be set pretty high in the threshold knob to the point where it started messing with what's actually being played through it. Nor was it fully transparent as many people claim. It didn't mess with the tone a lot, but there definitely was a change.

I then got an EHX Silencer, and it was absolute crap. Super slow, left a trail of noise before it shut, and even when it did, there was a little hiss left.

I then got the TC Sentry and I was much happier with it. It's a lot more tweakable, it can be set faster an choppier, and I find it messes with the tone less.
 
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