noise suppression/gating

I use a deadweald Golem. It's basically a 2 channel noise gate. I have it a bit tighter for rhythm and more relaxed for leads. I used to use a Zuul religiously. Revv has the G8 out and KSR is getting ready to come out with their gate.

Besides the LWA guys general douchiness some of his work is pretty shoddy. I've seen some soldering work that he must have done high or drunk.
 
My favorite one still has been the Highland Phalanx (not sure if it's available or not these days). It's not perfect, but has the least tone suck of what I've tried and most natural feel and decay of notes when playing lead or more single not stuff. I also kept a Gu'ul and Cockblocker because they can get faster and tighter than the Phalanx for that modern stop-start effect that I occasionally like to go for. The Phalanx can do that too, but imo not as well as those 2. The Guul sounds the most colored, but for modern stuff I sometimes like color and compression it adds to the tone. I sold a while ago the LWA Endless Blockade, Zuul, Lichtlaerm, Decimator I & II, and NS-2

On my list to try is:
Atlantic Thelema
Deadweald Golem
Wizard Gate Keeper
KSR
 
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Smashedguitarist said:
I heard the endless blockade was badass. You still have it?

ha. I have a zuul. i could put it in front and barely turn the knob..

I have been playing a lot less actual metal lately. So I am paranoid about sustain, and don't need that hardcore stop/start
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That definitely makes sense then
 
I use an ISP Decimator II between my overdrive pedal (Boss SD-1) and amp (Engl Artist Edition) and the built-in noise gate of the amp takes care of the rest. Both gates are set quite low and complement each other really well.
 
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2 gate setup work best. Boss NS-2 in front of amp to remove noises from pickups and Decimator in loop for total silence. Also Decimator helps with chugga chugga because it cut right after palm muting. Of course with proper technigue 😉
I am suprised nobody recommend Fractal noise gates. In FX8 they are top notch. One in input block work like NS-2 then another one after preamp. ISP G string is 40% of FX8. Those are imho best solution for gigging guitarist for 4CM setup. Even overdrives can replace most of boost on market.
 
I’ve tried a bunch of noise gates and have abandoned them all. Every one of them has lots of tone suck. Especially when used in the loop. That said, playing a gig, they are 100% necessary and I would use one.

Here is my opinion on the few I’ve used: Note that I mainly used them in the amp loop and tried 3-4 different boxes to split the signal for the key since I was thinking the splitters were the tone suck issue.

LWA Endless blockade. Worst one I tried. I actually owned two different ones and it has a lot of tone suck. I believe it’s been confirmed it’s a Zuul copy with some added knobs. There is a thread here about it.

Fortin Zuul full size. Was okay, worked, but has tone suck. I’d like to try the new one.

Highwind Phalanx. Good. Just like the Zuul though. I had mine built with a ground lift which helped a lot. Still has tone suck. I kept it because I got it new and cost less than the others. I was one of the first buyers of this thanks to a forum friend alerting me. 👍

Fortin Zuul mini. Same as above… BUT the one I had sounded the best and had almost zero tone suck. I tested it for days to confirm since I thought I was nuts. I regret selling it.

Deadweld duality DX. Boost with a gate. Didn’t like this pedal at all. Not the gate or the boosts. Nope. I tried to order the Golem, but they didn’t seem to care about my inquiry on trying to purchase. 🤷. I moved on.

Lichtlaern the key and the gate. Didn’t like it at all. The boost ruined it for me.
 
I use the GUP Tech Guul.. which has now been renamed to the GUP Tech Sun Noise Gate:
https://guptech.ca/products/copy-of-guul-noise-gate
Works like a charm. Sits in the effects loop of the amp. I use it to just kill additional noise while not playing like hum. Doesnt kill sustain or affect the tone.. and it lets me create feedback "naturally".

Good luck.
 
Smashedguitarist said:
I don't use gates anymore, but was having a discussion with a friend about them. And I was wondering if everyone still sits in the same place on them now. Braintheory has tried some that I wanted to try, but were sold out by the time i was ready to pull the trigger. I have had three zuuls. Anyone used any rackmount stuff? I want to know what the hell is going on, damn it. Give me answers. Also, anyone tried the wizard gate yet?
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I've used the ISP Decimator Rack for years & before that i used the Rocktron Guitar Silencer cause it worked great & i could find them for cheap.
 
Just ordered the Wizard Gate Minder, we'll see if it's better than the Zuul and or Revv G8, or if it's on par with those. Rick's stuff is top notch so I'm hoping it's stellar.
 
''The Wizard Gate Minder also provides a Key Input for creative Side-Chaining, a must for every effects Loop and controller units.''

What the hell does that mean
 
You poor souls and your gates. Too bad you have to deal with this shit.

If I turned up the gain on my rig any higher, I wouldn't be able to turn the volume up on my guitar past halfway before it freaks out with feedback. My rig is seriously a super high gain Zero hiss rig, and I run two amps at once!

Noisy amps I guess have something you guys like, I can't stand them. 5150's that I've played were hissings at one on the gain knob, WTF, oh, yeah, some amps have gates built-in, that's right. The design is so bad they threw a gate in the circuit. Brilliant.

Doesn't tone suck mean anything, after all the shit you have done to make your rig the best, you give back 2% or more?

Wait wait wait, wait for it, here comes the gate. It has to chop off something because it can't read your mind to know about something called "attack". The attack happens and the gate opens, a little bit late because it needs to "hear" when to open.

I'm chiming in to let naive younger players know that it's ok to try a gate but there's a much better option out there that won't ruin an amp's texture to the point of nothingness for pick attack, something a gate has to do, unless of course someone has designed a gate with esp built-in so it can open before you pick a note.
 
John4021 said:
''The Wizard Gate Minder also provides a Key Input for creative Side-Chaining, a must for every effects Loop and controller units.''

What the hell does that mean
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Probably like the Fortin Zuul. Split the signal before the input of the amp. Run one side to the key input. The other to the amp. The in/out of the gate is in the amp's loop. It basically gives you gating effect before and after the preamp.
 
I haven't used one in about a year. It was rare when I did use one. I only used them when using overdrive and boost pedals. I was never into the overdrive and boost pedals. I'm using less gain from the amp than I have in decades. I'm mostly in the ACDC to Rolling Stones amount of gain these days.
 
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