Best gate for distorted guitar live?

[GuitarMaestro]

Hi there,

on guitar tracks I am REALLY picky about having dead silence when no note is played. Even for really small(16th or 32th note) breaks between notes. Luckily this is no big deal when recording (strip silence / manual editing takes care of that easily).

BUT:
How can I get that effect live? I play alot of break-heavy riffs and I want the gate to react brutally fast without sounding bad/artificial...
I never tried or owned one of the common gates for guitar. So I wonder if there are gates which produce a similar result when playing live? What would you recommend? ISP Decimator?

 

[JonWormwood]

ISP Decimator

 

[cobrahead1030]

sounds like you want the rackmount decimator

what kinda amp are you running?

 

[AudioPhile777]

MXR Smart Gate has worked for me plenty well...

 

[midget donkeys]

I have a super old Rocktron Hush IIBX rack noise supressor and it works pretty good for the 50 dollars I paid for it. I have it set as low as I can stand though, because noise gates always suck away cool tone along with noise to some degree.

 

[Kazrog]

ISP Decimator Pro Rack G by far. It is the best noise reduction on the market, the founder of this company quit Rocktron because they wouldn't manufacture gear to his high standards in terms of both design and construction.

 

[Nostalgiaplatz]

I played with an ISP Decimator Pedal about 3 years ago with a 5150 combo and a OD808 and it's great for stop-go-stop-go prog kind of stuff. I just ordered one for myself 2 days ago as well. I heard the MXR spoken about in this thread is also a great buy but I haven't tried it myself.

 

[GuitarMaestro]

Thanks for your tips guys!

I play a 5150 and I use it kinda like EVH: I dont use the clean channel.
I use my volume pot to get all my tones from kinda clean/slightly distorted to full on distortion. I often need those in-between/slightly distorted sounds.

So as far as my research goes it seems the ISP Decimator Pro Rack G is the only device that could handle this requirement, if at all?

At least I cannot imagine how a simple gate before the amp (like MXR smartgate, etc.) would handle this. As soon as I turn down the volume pot I should come under the treshold and the sound will not get through.

The thing is the ISP Decimator Pro Rack G is damn expensive, so it would be cool if one of the cheaper devices would work for me...?

 

[cobrahead1030]

the decimator pedal is a good unit as well...but you can only use that either in front of the amp (to stop the feedback & guitar noise) or in the loop (to stop the amp hiss) so you compromise a bit as far as having dead silence goes

personally with the 5150 being such a hissy amp, i think putting it in the loop you'd be fine most likely...i used to be dead set on having no noise during stops with my sound as well, til i started playing out a lot and realized that there's so much background noise etc. onstage that you can get by with a little bit of noise, just not a lot

 

[Metaltastic]

personally with the 5150 being such a hissy amp, i think putting it in the loop you'd be fine most likely...i used to be dead set on having no noise during stops with my sound as well, til i started playing out a lot and realized that there's so much background noise etc. onstage that you can get by with a little bit of noise, just not a lot

SAGE ADVICE right there - a venue is a noisy fucking place!

 

[cobrahead1030]

yeah, i really found that in the practice room the noise gate helped a lot...because when i'm not playing i'm talking to bandmates etc. but onstage it was really more trouble than it was worth; the other bad thing was back then there really wasn't much of a selection on noise gates, it was either boss or rocktron, both of which were useless if you ever wanted to have your guitar's volume anywhere other than full

the cobra and deliverance i use now are much quieter than the 5150 i had tho, which makes my life a lot easier at band practices...and when gigging out it's not a concern in the least to me

 

[JeffTD]

Unless your amp is unbearably hissy or hummy, which is NOT the case with the 5150, stick the gate in front of the amp. Most of the noise you don't want is 'idle noise' from the guitar being plugged into the amp but nothing being played.

 

[GuitarMaestro]

Thanks guys! Might have been a little unclear in my first posts.

The question for me is not where/if/how to use a gate.

I definately want it before the amp.

With all the stage noise, etc. I dont care about the amp hiss. I want to get rid of the noise/hum/feedback the guitar picks up.

But as I wrote I use the volume pot alot to get my sounds and I guess that makes the use of a usual gate before the amp impossible for me.

So the question is:
Is the ISP Decimator or other advanced gates able to distinguish noise from a weak guitar signal (when the volume pot is turned way down)?

 

[cobrahead1030]

in that case you want the decimator pedal, it will allow you to roll your guitar back pretty well...but thresh hold is gonna be right around the point where noises like accidentally hitting the strings, etc. will come thru

the further you wanna pull the volume back, the less the noise gate is gonna work for you...for what you're wanting tho, the decimator is the best out there by far (that i've tried) but it's still not perfect; if you're just running it in front of the amp then the pedal will do just fine, the rack would be more beneficial if you wanted to gate in front of the amp and in the loop

 

[Sloan]

noise = RAWK TONEZ!!!!

 

[Lazzari]

this might help u, thanks to Morgan138:
If you just stick the NS-2 in front or in the loop, you aren't really using its full noise-reducing powers. That pedal actually has a loop of its own, and ideally you want all your distortion stages inside the pedal's loop.

Run it
guitar -> tuner -> NS-2 input

NS-2 loop send -> [other pedals] -> amp

amp effects loop send -> NS-2 loop return

NS-2 output -> amp effects loop return

If you're using a lot of gain, this will work better than using a single gate in front or in the loop, and should be better (or at least cheaper) than using two gates. The idea is that the gate is controlled by your totally clean signal up front, but opens and closes after all the distortion has been added.

 

[JeffTD]

this might help u, thanks to Morgan138:
If you just stick the NS-2 in front or in the loop, you aren't really using its full noise-reducing powers. That pedal actually has a loop of its own, and ideally you want all your distortion stages inside the pedal's loop.

Run it
guitar -> tuner -> NS-2 input

NS-2 loop send -> [other pedals] -> amp

amp effects loop send -> NS-2 loop return

NS-2 output -> amp effects loop return

If you're using a lot of gain, this will work better than using a single gate in front or in the loop, and should be better (or at least cheaper) than using two gates. The idea is that the gate is controlled by your totally clean signal up front, but opens and closes after all the distortion has been added.

The problem with using the NS-2 with the 4-cable method, like this, is that it does add a bit of digital sounding top end to your signal. It's not transparent, by any means.

 

[Morgan138]

That's true, I have noticed a tiny bit of digital-ness with the NS-2. I doubt it's noticeable live; I have to be listening for it at practice to catch it. Are there other gates you can 4-cable that sound better?

 

[wishtheend]

ISP has the G-String version Decimator which is much more like the Pro Rack models. It's got the NS-2 style setup (guitar in/out, fx loop send/return) and it doesn't kill your clean tone due to high threshold. Probably not as nice as the Pro Rack G - but for a stomp box it's fucking killer.

 

[DestroyTheColossus]

I had some DBX compressor/ gate sitting around from some years ago. I bought one when i first started getting into recording before i realized i could, and it would be easier, to do everything in the box (these were super noob times im talking about). I ended up trying out the gate on it on the effects send of my 6505 recently and it works amazingly. No sound lost, doesnt sound unnatural or anything, but whenever im not playing, its dead silent.