To All High Gainers: Noise. Noise. Noise

Brian Greco

Inspired
Hey everyone,

Recently, I finished up 15 metal presets for the Axe FX. I am very satisfied with the way they sound, but there is one problem, and that is the noise.

My input and output levels are fine, but even with several gates instantiated, I’m still getting this buzzing noise as I play. I am using a Friedman ASM 12 and an EMG 81. I have tried moving as far away from the amp as I possibly could to reduce the noise. I have even rolled off a little bit again for each present, but I don’t want to take too much out because then the presets won’t sound as intended.

These presets are very high gain, so I understand that there is going to be some noise, but I was wondering if anyone could help me reduce the noise even further. The signal has to be clean in order for me to record.

I have tried using the input gate, a gate block after my amp-or drive pedal- and one gate block at the end of the chain. No matter what I do, it seems that this problem is inevitable with high gain settings. I was actually debating purchasing a used hum reduction pedal to see if it made a difference, but I wanted to check with everyone on the forum to see if they had any suggestions as far as using what’s in the box.

Thanks very much everyone.
 
tons of gain means noise, period...there's no way around it. A gate can cut it off when you aren't playing but doesn't help if it's so much you hear it when playing.

that being said, if there's an issue somewhere like with your guitar or your home's wiring, that's a different story.
 
If you can upload a preset or two I'll try and take a look at it next time I'm at the rehearsal space. I play (death metal etc) with an almost excessive amount of gain and have zero issues.
 
As a test, turn off any gates (threshold fully counter clockwise or bypass Gate blocks). All guitar volume and tone wide open.

Mute your strings - is there noise?
Let go of your strings but don’t strum - is there noise? The same noise you don’t want?

Noise gates only gate signal. They don’t seek out or turn noise down only. Noise is signal, and if it’s as loud as the signal you want, it won’t help.

If your guitar is noisy, then gain will just make the noise louder.
 
What about the Intelligent setting?
i'm not familiar with what it does specifically so maybe it's not exactly like i said. the recent line noise addition to the Axe-Fx III helps as well. but in general, noise is signal and you need to reduce that from the source if you want high gain with low noise.
 
Shouldn't you have less noise from using active pickups? How high is your high gain? Plus, you may have 3 gates on but are you certain they are all working as you intend
 
To the OP - If you haven't done this already, try to narrow down where the noise is coming from.

1. Guitar plugged in, volume pot on your guitar all way down. Still noise? If not, then it's likely coming from the guitar itself, try a different guitar if you have one available. Could be something in the room messing with your pickups too (lights on dimmers, fluorescents, etc)..
2. Cable plugged into the Axe, but not plugged into the guitar. Noise? If so, it could be the cable, or it could be something else in the room (lights, dirty AC, etc.).
3. Nothing plugged into the Axe. Still noise?
4. Is everything grounded properly and cables matched appropriately (balanced/unbalanced)?
5. Are you sure the noise is being picked up on your input, and not between the output of the Axe and whatever is next in line? Easiest way to test this is to put heavy delay in your patch. If the noise isn't delayed, it's being picked up after the patch.

You said "buzz", but that can mean different things to different folks. Some will call a 60 cycle hum a "buzz", and that's a ball game all it's own.
 
I know this is silly but are you in front of your computer??
I was chasing noise for a while till it dawned on me the monitor was creating noise cause I was too close to it...radiating from the pups.....sounds stupid but baffled me for a bit...lol
 
Hey everyone,

Recently, I finished up 15 metal presets for the Axe FX. I am very satisfied with the way they sound, but there is one problem, and that is the noise.

My input and output levels are fine, but even with several gates instantiated, I’m still getting this buzzing noise as I play. I am using a Friedman ASM 12 and an EMG 81. I have tried moving as far away from the amp as I possibly could to reduce the noise. I have even rolled off a little bit again for each present, but I don’t want to take too much out because then the presets won’t sound as intended.

These presets are very high gain, so I understand that there is going to be some noise, but I was wondering if anyone could help me reduce the noise even further. The signal has to be clean in order for me to record.

I have tried using the input gate, a gate block after my amp-or drive pedal- and one gate block at the end of the chain. No matter what I do, it seems that this problem is inevitable with high gain settings. I was actually debating purchasing a used hum reduction pedal to see if it made a difference, but I wanted to check with everyone on the forum to see if they had any suggestions as far as using what’s in the box.

Thanks very much everyone.

Upload one of the presets and a DI sample.
 
I know this is silly but are you in front of your computer??
I was chasing noise for a while till it dawned on me the monitor was creating noise cause I was too close to it...radiating from the pups.....sounds stupid but baffled me for a bit...lol
I had to start copper shielding my guitars because of noisy monitors.
 
Gates will not do anything for noise while playing. They simply cut the signal at a given threshold to eliminate noise when not playing. To help reduce some of the noise while playing, turn the volume on the guitar down to @ 8. It should still give you plenty of gain and tone but knock the buzzing back a bit.
 
you may also find that with extreme amounts of gain that at volume approaching gig levels, noise and feedback much become uncontrollable
not saying that you're doing this right now, but even if you solve the bulk of your issues right now, you may find that as soon as you go use this tone in anger you'll have a world of trouble waiting for you..
there are limits to this stuff
 
With the EMG 81 it should be as quiet as can be. Make sure your battery is still good though. Without hearing it or looking at the patch and only going by your description, I’m betting on you simply have way too much gain on in your patch & really the only remedy is going to be to lower your gain. Here is one way to know for sure, without question that a guitar signal is overloaded with gain; with everything turned up mute the strings & then simply take your hands off, if you get immediate squealing feedback you’re about ten notches & two metal zone pedals too much :eek: . That’s a “for sure”, but you could still be a bit heavy on the gain without that happening. Try an experiment & see where you have to lower the gain down to in order to get the noise down to where it is either acceptable or goes away & see if that tone is really that much different?
Other than having an issue with a ground loop in your house or some other interference or a bad cable somewhere, you really should be dead quiet with the EMG.
 
There's not much you can do about this with hi gain. I just turn my back to the monitors, it seems to help.
 
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