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King Loudness « Fair enough noise gate »
Published on 01/31/12 at 17:51The BOSS NS-2 has been one of the standard "go to" noise gates or suppressors since the late eighties. It's pretty simple to use and very common to see in guitar rigs regardless of style or gear used, just to cut down on that ever present hum and buzz that many players are fighting in their rigs. It has a threshold control, as well as a rate control and a knob to select whether you want the pedal to reduce your noise or act as a mute, very cool feature for sure. Otherwise it's pretty standard BOSS as far as the features go and there isn't much to say about it. The construction is the standard stomp box fare and it really has a durable feel that will last for a long time.
UTILIZATION
The setup of this pedal is either easy or difficult depending on your angle. I'm a huge fan of the ISP Decimator gate, which has a more gradual sweep and doesn't cut your tone off so staccato. That's really the biggest thing I find with setting this up. It can be more difficult to get it so it doesn't completely choke off your sound with its gate, whereas the ISP unit is more about keeping the tone and just removing the noise and not cutting off your signal. That being said, each has its place and if you want that sort of very abrupt cutoff, the NS-2 is a great pedal for thaat.
SOUND QUALITY
This pedal is really best used in situations where either you're in a noisy place playing, or if your rig is high gain and has a lot of inherent noise issues. This particular noise gate would probably be of interest to a lot of thrash metal or death metal players where you can get those nice quick cutoffs and not be left with a wall of noise. Many players actually prefer the feel of the BOSS unit, but for me where I play more of a standard hard rock style and like having my tones sustain, I prefer a unit like the ISP which has that more gradual cutoff for the notes.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the BOSS NS-2 is a decent noise gate for someone looking for a basic stomp box noise suppressor with a nice fast cutoff and more controls for adjustment. If you just want something to get rid of hum and don't need that fast attack, I would have a look at the ISP Technologies Decimator which does that job well and has served me quite nicely for a few years now. It really depends what you're looking for, but for most applications the NS-2 will do fine.
UTILIZATION
The setup of this pedal is either easy or difficult depending on your angle. I'm a huge fan of the ISP Decimator gate, which has a more gradual sweep and doesn't cut your tone off so staccato. That's really the biggest thing I find with setting this up. It can be more difficult to get it so it doesn't completely choke off your sound with its gate, whereas the ISP unit is more about keeping the tone and just removing the noise and not cutting off your signal. That being said, each has its place and if you want that sort of very abrupt cutoff, the NS-2 is a great pedal for thaat.
SOUND QUALITY
This pedal is really best used in situations where either you're in a noisy place playing, or if your rig is high gain and has a lot of inherent noise issues. This particular noise gate would probably be of interest to a lot of thrash metal or death metal players where you can get those nice quick cutoffs and not be left with a wall of noise. Many players actually prefer the feel of the BOSS unit, but for me where I play more of a standard hard rock style and like having my tones sustain, I prefer a unit like the ISP which has that more gradual cutoff for the notes.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I think the BOSS NS-2 is a decent noise gate for someone looking for a basic stomp box noise suppressor with a nice fast cutoff and more controls for adjustment. If you just want something to get rid of hum and don't need that fast attack, I would have a look at the ISP Technologies Decimator which does that job well and has served me quite nicely for a few years now. It really depends what you're looking for, but for most applications the NS-2 will do fine.