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King Loudness « Best noise gate I've used! »
Published on 05/01/11 at 12:56This 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!
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!