Noise gates/suppressors

[chrismuzz]

Mornin bassers!

I currently run my bass > pedalboard > input on my head. I have some fairly extreme options in my pedalboard, especially when i use any combination of the sansamp, marshall, and big muff pedals together! I've tried taming it down a bit, and where I can have dead silence with all three engaged, the tone just isn't nasty enough. So a noise suppressor/gate seems to be the only option! I was just wondering whether a pedal would be best, or whether I'd get a better quality, and less possible tone suckage with a rack mounted gate through the effects loop of my amp? (not to mention I wouldn't have to squeeze anything else on my board!)

Any input welcome Cheers!

EDIT: it's not a horrible screechy feedbacky kinda noise, it's that crackly humming sound that metal guitar players are so used to putting up with until they sort their lives out and get a gate.

Edited June 5, 2011 by chrismuzz

[EskimoBassist]

The ISP Decimator is a very popular choice for this in pedal format. Currently £99 new at soundsgreatmusic.com and I don't think you'll get a much better new deal than that:

[url="http://www.soundsgreatmusic.com/products/6972/5371/isp-decimator.aspx"]http://www.soundsgreatmusic.com/products/6...-decimator.aspx[/url]

[Finbar]

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=135841"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=135841[/url]

[chrismuzz]

Thanks guys. Looks like i'll be sticking with pedals and not messing about with any rack equipment! Should I steer clear of the Boss NS-2 then? And does the Decimator cause any tonal issues if you leave it on all the time even when not using noisy pedals before it?

[chrismuzz]

Actually... I keep being tempted by those DBX compressor/gates, and it's come to my attention that even John Myung uses them in his current rig. What's the gating like on those? If I had one of those I'd have more space on my board for lovely pedals!

[cheddatom]

I use an NS-2 for this, and I think it works fine. That being said, I've never used another hardware gate, other than in the cheapo behringer compressors - seemed OK.

[Monckyman]

Lo.
I have a DBX266, but I don`t use it for gating.
This is primarily a compressor with the gate as a bonus.
Though the gate works fine, and has a threshold control, the only other pot is a ratio pot, because it`s more of a Gate/expander affair.The ratio determines the amount of expander used and turned right up it gates completely.
However there are no envelope pots,so you don`t get to choose how quickly it starts gating, or how slowly it stops gating.
The auto timing on the unit is pretty good though, not too clicky or jerky.
Section from the manual
[i]"Expander/Gate THRESHOLD Control and LEDs (BELOW/ABOVE)
Adjusting this control sets the level at which the gate will open and allow the signal
at the input to pass through to the output. Turning the knob fully counterclockwise (to
OFF) allows the gate to pass all signals unattenuated, effectively bypassing the gate.
Turning the knob fully clockwise causes the gate to attenuate input signals below
+15dBu. The depth of attenuation depends on the setting of the Expander/Gate
RATIO control.
The two Expander/Gate LEDs indicate the relationship of the input signal level to the
threshold setting. The red LED lights when the signal is BELOW threshold, the green
LED lights when the signal is ABOVE threshold."[/i]

The compressor is fully featured and in my opinion well worth having if you have rack space as it gives far more control over your compression than the average on off gain you get on a pedal.
The metering allows you to see exactly what`s going in, and what`s coming out, plus the extra lights will be attractive to females.
If you`re cunning you can use the two sides for different basses so you can compensate for different pickup outputs on different instruments and compress accordingly.
I`ve had to make a patch up for my backup Jazz bass as it`s pickups are a lot hotter than the Nordys in my main bass and my standard compressor setting was choking it down.
Borrow one and try before ye buy but I reckon £50 should secure one from the El Bey
[url="ftp://ftp.dbxpro.com/pub/PDFs/Manuals/English/dbx266XLManualA2.pdf"][color="#FF0000"]DBX266xl manual[/color][/url]

MM

[BottomEndian]

[quote name='chrismuzz' post='1258002' date='Jun 6 2011, 02:43 AM']Should I steer clear of the Boss NS-2 then?[/quote]
I've used the NS-2 quite happily for many years. It's a bit of a tone-sucker (not too much, though... no more so than any other Boss pedal), but the key beauty of it is that it's essentially a side-chaining gate. If you put your dirt pedals in the NS-2's loop, it runs the signal through the pedals in the loop, but bases the gated output on the clean input signal. If you're running stuff at really high gain levels, sometimes the hum/noise/hiss between notes can be almost as loud (if not [i]actually[/i] as loud) as the notes themselves; that doesn't matter if the gate's only listening to your clean signal.

That said, the guitarist I play with uses a Decimator, and it's bloody great. Just a bit of top-end loss if you set the threshold a smidgeon too high, so in a high-gain situation it can be a bit of a micro-adjustment balancing act.

[umph]

[quote name='chrismuzz' post='1257056' date='Jun 5 2011, 02:56 AM']Mornin bassers!

I currently run my bass > pedalboard > input on my head. I have some fairly extreme options in my pedalboard, especially when i use any combination of the sansamp, marshall, and big muff pedals together! I've tried taming it down a bit, and where I can have dead silence with all three engaged, the tone just isn't nasty enough. So a noise suppressor/gate seems to be the only option! I was just wondering whether a pedal would be best, or whether I'd get a better quality, and less possible tone suckage with a rack mounted gate through the effects loop of my amp? (not to mention I wouldn't have to squeeze anything else on my board!)

Any input welcome Cheers!

EDIT: it's not a horrible screechy feedbacky kinda noise, it's that crackly humming sound that metal guitar players are so used to putting up with until they sort their lives out and get a gate.[/quote]

tried a different power supply or getting a higher gain pedal?

[chrismuzz]

[quote name='umph' post='1264108' date='Jun 10 2011, 04:35 PM']tried a different power supply or getting a higher gain pedal?[/quote]

Yeah, I even used to use a pile of batteries before i got my power supply! It's literally the amount of distortion I use on a few of my settings that causes it. But those are both worth trying out so hopefully someone else'll find that suggestion useful. Cheers!

[lucky]

is there a difference (and if so what) between noise gates/suppressors?

I have the NS-2 i've never used another such thing to compare it to, so the only fair thing i can say is that my set-up is alot better overall/much more forgiving for having it

[chrismuzz]

[quote name='lucky' post='1269672' date='Jun 15 2011, 09:14 AM']is there a difference (and if so what) between noise gates/suppressors?[/quote]

I've heard many different things. Like that they both work slightly differently, possibly with one isolating certain frequencies, with the other just cutting any signal below a certain dB level

I've also heard that they are just different names for the same thing, but that some work differently to others

In short, I've no idea mate!

[cheddatom]

"noise suppressor" describes the effect of a bit of kit. It might be a gate, but it might also be some sort of automatic EQ or filtering dealy. In the case of the NS-2 I think it's basically a gate.