High-shielded cables and EMI noise

If it’s cutting off your notes then it might be set too aggressively. Try raising the threshold. Although if there’s still noise after browning out your house, maybe it’s your house’s power? Try moving the guitar around to see if the noise comes from a particular direction. Also, did you turn off your lights? Down lights especially make a lot of noise.
 
Note that by design a noise gate does nothing at all while you are playing. It only kicks in when you stop playing, and the threshold parameter tells it when to kick in. If there is noise while you are playing, then a noise gate won’t help. It’s like a tap: when you turn the tap off (stop playing) the gate stops it from dripping. But if the water is dirty, the gate is not going to clean it up.

Tell us about your guitar and where you are playing. Is it single coil or humbucker? Are you in a house or a block of units?
 
The gate in the AxeFx doesn't work well it cuts off my notes and sustain and after I hit a note or chord you can still hear the noise. And I have turned off literally every electrical device in my house. My pickup is picking up electrical noise from the air.

the gate in the Axe FX does a much better job than the ISP II.

I have really bad EMI in my guitar room (good thing we're moving in two weeks) and I am truly struggling with it.The best method I have been able to come up with is to use another gate after the input gate. I use a low cut @ ~ 100Hz and a High cut at 6kHz, for a tight, high gain rhythm tone I will set the input gate to intelligent, threshold to around 55 dB, ratio to 3. That catches the worst of the noise, the next noise gate block is the fine control.

For a lead tone where I'd want more sustain, I would lower the rate a bit so the gate acts softer, but keep the other parameters of the input gate and increase the threshold of the following noise gate to maybe 60 or 65 dB

Doesn't mean that works for you, but for me that's the best I have come up with yet.

Let's hope it's better in the new house, because we bought that one : |
 
The gate in the AxeFx doesn't work well it cuts off my notes and sustain and after I hit a note or chord you can still hear the noise. And I have turned off literally every electrical device in my house. My pickup is picking up electrical noise from the air.

An ISP Decimator will do the same thing if you have incorrect settings.

I recommend shielding your guitar's cavities to lower the amount of interference noise and then use Gates to reduce amp noise.


Here are some example presets of different ways to use a gate. The 1st 3 have the Input gate and a Gate Block enabled.

The 4th one has the input gate and 2 Gate Blocks, one before and after the Amp Block and a compressor after the Amp Block to even out the output. Your gain is controlled by your picking dynamics. If you pick soft you get cleans sounds and as you pick harder, you'll get more grit.
 

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So there's not a product I can put in between my guitar and rack units that can filter out EMI?
If your rack is the source of EMI, you could put a big grounded plate of sheet metal between your guitar and your rack, but you wouldn’t like that very much.
 
So there's not a product I can put in between my guitar and rack units that can filter out EMI?

it's frustrating, believe me, I know, but you have to get rid of the source. No product will know what's EMI and what's intended noises i.e notes

you can use the low cut and high cut to remove everything that's outside your normal guitar bandwidth, you can use the gates as we explained, and set the input gate to "intelligent"; I don't believe you can get anything better on the market. I tried a few things including the ISP Decimator II: the fractal gates are much better.
 
Everything apart from shielding the guitar is a bandaid. Shielding the cavity makes a big, big difference.

You need to tell us what type of guitar it is, and where you playing.
 
So there's not a product I can put in between my guitar and rack units that can filter out EMI?

the interference goes into your pickup and is mixed in with the sound of the strings. you can't just filter it out. You need to work on reducing the amount going in.

does the sound change as you aim your guitar different directions?
 
I cannot explain just how helpful this is. Thank you for bringing this up. It is a big improvement in my setup. It allowed me to relax the gate settings and resulted in a much more effective gate.

I forgot to mention to try using the Gate's Classic setting instead of the Intelligent. I find that I have more control with the Classic setting.
 
I'm not understanding the logic in your resistance to rid the problem at the source.

It's not a resistance, I simply don't know what the source is. I live in an old apartment building it could be anything, even something not in my apartment. It's more than likely the elevator transformer closet right near my apartment.
 
Also are we talking a chainsaw while you are playing, or a hum when you stop?

It's a chainsaw-like buzz. And I'm using multiple guitars. I've noticed my 73 LP Custom doesn't buzz as much but it's still noisy. I am playing in a bedroom with studio monitors and computer. I tried using a wedge in the living room and it wasn't as noisy but there's still a buzz. And I hit the ground lift button and it didn't help so it's not a ground loop. And I don't wanna fill all of my guitars (especially a vintage one) with copper foil.
 
It's a chainsaw-like buzz. And I'm using multiple guitars. I've noticed my 73 LP Custom doesn't buzz as much but it's still noisy. I am playing in a bedroom with studio monitors and computer. I tried using a wedge in the living room and it wasn't as noisy but there's still a buzz. And I hit the ground lift button and it didn't help so it's not a ground loop. And I don't wanna fill all of my guitars (especially a vintage one) with copper foil.
Turn off your noise gate so you can hear the buzz continually. Now move your guitar everywhere around the room, and pay attention to what you hear. You just might get some clues about the source of the noise.
 
Joining in on the discussion here as I am having similar issues with EMI/RFI noise. I recently moved into a new house, and no matter the floor/outlet/source, I am being completely inundated with interference.

I can conclusively rule out the guitar itself as the noise is being produced without any instrument being plugged in, and I've tested my guitars in other studios and there's no interference.

I've tried nearly every power conditioner under the sun, as well as some other noise suppression options like ground-lift DI boxes etc and nothing is doing the trick. Wondering if Ferrite Ring Core RFI EMI Noise Suppressor could do the trick? I've never experienced noise like this in my life, and it's completely killing my ability to record, or even just enjoy guitar.

I've attached a sound sample here if someone wouldn't mind giving a quick listen. As you can hear, the noise is actually louder than the guitar.

 
Adding a Hush unit helps a lot. In most cases has eliminated the noise that you hear behind the notes. Watch the video and you can hear it kill the EMI noise. I place it before the input, and in between the Amp and Cab block.

 
Noise was driving me crazy when I first got the III. Since the AXE FX III is so powerful, I felt no need to add any out gear to solve the noise problems, we all get, especially with high gain presets. With all gates off, keeping the noise present, I first made sure the unit was set to 60hz, (USA setting) in the setup. Mine came defaulted to 50. That quieted it down significantly. Everytime there is another piece of gear connected, it could potentially cause noise. So, since I'm using a 13 pin cable, going to a synth box, out to a DI Box to FOH, and a instrument cable going to the AXE, with a keyboard connected, in the chain, also going to a DI Box to FOH, I checked for ground loops and fixed them. That quieted it drastically. Lastly, using the input block's gate, I set it to intelligent, threshold to -40 to -50, 2:1 ratio, attack 10ms, release 20ms. I have sustain forever and a totally quiet guitar on stage. It fades naturally to quiet.
 
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