Isp Technologies Decimator

It doesn't get much simpler that the ISP Decimator. One knob to control your threshold and on or off with a press of the pedal. Whatever time vector processing is, I don't care. It equals no latency in lighter or quick notes and the response of the ISP. This unit also does not eat tone like so many noise supression units do. Built extremely well and instruction manual is sufficient.

UTILIZATION

I bought this for one simple reason, I play a nuclear powered hot rodded Marshall for gigs. When I am not actively hitting a note, the hum from the amp was annoying. The sound guy finally came up to me one night and asked me what the problem was and asked if I ever tried the ISP Decimator. Picked one up for the next gig and never looked back. So easy to use and adjust on the fly depending on volume levels. The big middle knob makes it easy to adjust with your foot to find your threshold setting. This is also built like a tank with the metal shell, perfect for gigging.

SOUND QUALITY

Because this is a noise reduction device, the only question on sound I have is does it affect my core tone? The answer is no. It does not suck bass or tone in any way and is transparent as any noise suppressor I have ever used. I played several older Boss noise gates and they were not as transparent as this one.

OVERALL OPINION

I love the simplicity and the fact that it is totally transparent allowing my tone to flow through but be kept under control. It is obviously top notch construction and built well. No complaints on the sensativity of the threshold once you set it properly to your volume. It just plain works and does the job it says it does. Do I wish it was a bit cheaper, sure. Is it worth the money...yes. Just ask my sound guy, made is job much easier. I would suggest this to any musician looking to tame a wild Marshall or any other amplifier.

Noise gate with one knob: sensitivity

UTILIZATION

Super easy to use; no manual needed. Plug in before amp, set threshold just to the point of activation and rock out.

SOUND QUALITY

the quality of this unit is extremely impressive. I would venture to say that ISP is now the leader in noise reduction. I had several units in the past including a 2 channel rocktron hush and several multifx with built in gates. This ISP is clearly at the top of the heap.

OVERALL OPINION

I love having this on my pedalboard. I'm a guy that typically avoids using nosie reduction these days...if possible. I usually go with minimal effects and wire it guitar>wah>overdrive>phaser>isp>amp. I could toss everything, but not the isp. Too many times it has saved the day. Example,, rig sounds great at home,even at high levels...go to practice, the drums are wailing and the room is smaller than ideal.. In order to compete, you turn up the volume, but then any lapse in playing results in abrasive squealing feedback. This results in either quieter guitar volume(never gonna happen, lol) or doing a pedal dance to silence your squeals, or knob turning acrobatics on your guitar. The ISP changes all of that; it will sense your stoppages and kill the noise. This allows for much greater perfomances, as you can just rely on this pedal as your rock, allowing you free to express yourself, play with dramatic Gilmore-ish breathes, execute deadly hi gain riffage countered with the needed chainsaw silence.

This pedal rules in live applications; the last thing you want at an important gig is uncontrollable noise. There were many shows I played where I never engaged the pedal(and the bypass does not seem to suck too much tone like other pedals), but there were plenty of shows where this thing was engaged all the time. Make no mistake, all noise reduction units will reduce quality of tone, but this unit seems to be the best at achieving transparency. It can give you that cool singing feedback while detecting the bad feedback and killing it. It has a very natural reaction time to the point where I haven't hesitated to use it in recording session as well. I would buy this again in a second, or explore some of their other pricier options. Great company and no need to look elsewhere ISP has this technology on an unparalleled level.

There is not much to describe in terms of features. This is a straight forward noise suppressor with one knob. It has standard 1/4" input and output jacks and a 9 volt dc power input jack. Rock solid casing similar to boss enclosures.

UTILIZATION

The simplicity of this pedal is what I love so much about it. It's just a simple pedal that hooks up like any other and only has one knob to control the noise. Other suppressors have multiple knobs to adjust but it seems like ISP has taken all the guess work out and make it just work. If you hear noise you turn it up til their is complete silence and then back it off just a bit so your notes do not get cut off. No manual needed and I do not recall if it even came with one.

SOUND QUALITY

I run a rather large pedal board into a high gain Framus cobra 100 watt tube amp. I generally play at a high volume level and this pedal simply works. I keep the pedal at the end of my signal chain just before hitting the amp. I tried running it in the amp's effects loop but the framus has too hot of a signal with the channel volumes cranked and it clips the input of the decimator. I had previously used the Boss NS-2 and it worked well but sometimes I did not like the cut off point. The boss also had more things to mess with which sometimes is good but I think a noise suppressor should be simple. The decimator is just that, simple and effective. I can easily get controlled feedback when needed and as soon as I mute with my hands I am awarded with silence.

OVERALL OPINION

If you nave any noise issues that are not related to grounding problems then you should pick one of these up. It is absolutely essential to my rig at this point. I have never had a noise suppressor that worked as well as this does without sacrificing sustain or tone. They make a higher end model now that has more options but I will stick with what I know works.

This pedal from ISP Technologies is meant to be a serious improvement on the typical stompbox noise gate such as the Boss NS-2, Rocktron HUSH, or MXR Smart Gate. It is laid out very similarly to a Boss stompbox with the same casing design and switcher. There is only one control on the pedal, which is labelled "Threshold." This basically controls the level at which the pedal is working and acting as a noise gate. It has single 1/4 inch input and output jacks, and is powered by a 9 volt battery or a PSA adapter.

It's also a mirrored pedal, how cool is that?

UTILIZATION

Setting up this pedal is one of the simplest things in the world to do. You plug it in and use the Threshold control to adjust how much of the gate you want. If you're playing with a moderate gain sound and only want to remove some minor hum from your tone, you would set the Threshold control lower. Conversely, if you were playing high gain staccato palm muted riffs, you would turn the Threshold control up higher to combat the extra noise.

Very simple, yet very effective. This pedal uses a different technology than say, the Boss NS-2. If you're using the Boss unit and turn the controls up to combat noise, it actually can start to deaden your tone or suck it up because the gate itself is cutting into the actual sound. The ISP is wonderful in that it's very transparent and all it really does is remove noise. It doesn't cut into your amplifier's gain or take away any nuances from your tone like some other noise gates do, which is great.

SOUND QUALITY

I've used this pedal with various different amps, from clean to extremely high gain. Like I stated above, it seems to be very transparent and it does what it says, it is a seriously good noise gate. Using it with clean amps worked well to kill some minor unwanted hum without cutting into my tone, and using it with extremely high gain (and often very noisy) amps was great too, because it simply took the noise out of the equation, leaving all the gain/saturation and sustain so that the amp's tone still sounded almost exactly as it did before I put the gate into the equation.

OVERALL OPINION

All in all, I'm convinced the ISP Decimator is the best noise gate on the market, bar none. Compared to other stomp boxes in its price range like the Boss NS-2 or Rocktron Hush, there's no comparison. The other units just are left in the dust. At $150 new, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg either, and your ears will thank you when you have great tone without any noise or tone suckage.

Definitely worth the 10/10 rating!