If I use a noise gate will it affect sustain?

[MacDaddy]

If I introduce one to my signal chain to reduce hiss, will it also affect sustain?

If you use one what settings do you use?

ta.

[cheddatom]

If you can hear the hiss while you're playing, then it won't help. A gate only cuts out noise when the input drops below the set threshold (sorry if i'm teaching you to suck eggs).

I use an NS-2 to cut out feedback on high gain settings - I use a lot of dirt and compression and it can feed back horribly. With my gate all I have to do is set the threshold to kick in when I mute the strings.

Edited December 9, 2011 by cheddatom

[SebCarr]

It depends how you play, as well. If you let notes ring out for ages then gate will to cut in at some point (determined by the threshold setting), at which point it has affected your sustain.

I've only played with gates in a studio/recording setting, and found them most predictable when gating an already compressed signal. I've also found that they're often more useful when they don't actually cut the signal completely, but instead attenuate by ~20dB or so. It's a lot less harsh and obvious, but still drops your noise floor by a significant amount.

[RichF]

good advice so far, also I would say it's critical to not use a gate to remove otherwise removeable hiss. So again knowing what kind of hiss, hum, etc., you are talking about. I got some excellent advice recently from Shep (Pantherairsoft) on here about the obsessive way he cleans up his signal chain (better cabling, power supplies etc) which I find has helped me approach gating in a more relaxed way. Again, really sorry if you are well up on all this and I am stating the bleeding obvious!

[gafbass02]

I'd be interested to hear what Shep has to say as a bit of a cable/power supply fanatic. (yes I've heard all the it makes no difference stuff a 1000 times

[cheddatom]

power supplies deffinitely make a big difference, and I would guess properly shielded patch cables would too