tracking guitars through a gate?

[Arsenu,]

so the other day i played The Blackening to a fellow AE and asked him how the hell you get your guitars to sound SO clean,
without checking or knowing the band too well he said it sounds like they tracked the guitars through a gate.

which got me thinking: inserting a gate in frong of the amp removes some guitar hiss and noise that i really don't think is possible to get rid of after those noises went through and amp.

is that reasonable? or was he BSing me?

 

[ahjteam]

These might or might not help:

 

[Fbarre]

Sure why not? Just be sure that the noisegate doesn't cut off your sound and that it sounds natural.

 

[Fandus]

i track with a isp decimator running through the amps fx loop. this makes it sound like its off then im not playing. then its just a matter of tidying up catches.

 

[Sickan]

Don't print a gate, cut the track manually when it's recorded.

 

[mva801]

Why not? If it's adjusted right there's nothing wrong with tracking with a gate. Hell, Colin Richardson has used NS-2 Noise suppressors in his chains. If it works for him, it's good enough for me. Plus if you're tracking a band very quickly with a small budget, tracking with a properly set up gate can save you butt loads of editing time.

So I would say, as with most things, TRY IT. If you like it, keep doing it. If not, don't do it.

 

[Damage, Inc.]

My gut reaction would be to record without the gate unless the noise is really bad, because you can remove any unwanted bits in whatever DAW you're using. It is much more difficult to add in anything the gate cuts off. However, like another poster said, if you're cutting the tracks live in the studio and don't have time for lots of editing in post, go ahead and use it.

 

[Arsenu,]

well nice vids but net really helpful...

i think you didn't understand what i tried to say.
and neither did i at the time.
maybe a gate isn't a good example because it just cuts the whole signal below a certain threshold...
what i'm trying to figure out is how to achive that "clean" tone that has zero noise, hum or whatever.
i'm trying to think wheter some frequencies cannot be dealt with AFTER the signal goes through the amp and can only be rid of BEFORE they are amped...
of course you can cut any frequency later but it might result in "killing" the guitar tone, so if those frequencies are not amped in the first place, it might improve your guitar tone's clarity.

of course this only goes to amped tracks and re-amps since DI's are always the same and basically don't have any components on it's signal chain...
hope i made myself clear...

 

[rfahey86]

Its almost impossible to get rid of any amp noise. Tight playing and good mixing divert your attention away from it.

 

[egan.]

If it isn't sucking tone go for it. I've personally never had the need to use a gate when tracking a guitarist in a different room from his cab. The tighter the playing is the easier it is to edit out the pure amp noise once it's recorded. I'm not really sure what the post above me is getting at b/c I hear clean guitar tracks all of the time.

 

[drope934]

Its almost impossible to get rid of any amp noise. Tight playing and good mixing divert your attention away from it.

+1 on this IMO.. gate is open or closed so basically will not remove anything when playing. Maybe surgical EQ is the key to clear some noise from the amp

 

[amarshism]

I use a pro rack g. Works pretty fine for me.