Noise Gate Choke

dkenin

dkenin

Inspired
Hey guys looking for a little advice on how to use the Noise gate at the input or as a block.

I get banshee feedback occasionally, so I crank down on the noise gate, but it chokes my sustain and gets to the point where my alternate picking is too staccato. The issue is I don't need to have the Noise gate as cranked, but the screaming feedback is my only issue. Should I put a filter on a certain frequency instead of using a noise gate?

Also, can somebody give me a guitarist's primer on how the threshold, ratio, attack, hold, and release work with each other. I understand the individual uses of each. I like high gain and don't mind some feedback that I can control with technique like muting or volume knob, but the high pitched feedback squeals are a whole different beast. Using the noise get to get rid of it seems to make the playing seem more laborious and not as smooth.

Thanks,

Dave
 
The high-pitched feedback is pickup squeal and is caused by electromagnetic feedback from the speaker to your pickups. FRFR tends to exacerbate this since you have a tweeter feeding back high frequencies.

A noise gate can help but the best solution is to move away from the speaker.

For guitar I recommend setting the Attack time very short (less than 10ms) and the Release time to 100-200ms. Ratio 2-3:1 and Threshold to taste.
 
Perfect, that's exactly it... when I practice or play at shows I have my FRFR shot right in my face and pickups. I will move it over as recommended. Thanks for the suggestion on settings Cliff. Stay Handsome

FractalAudio said:
The high-pitched feedback is pickup squeal and is caused by electromagnetic feedback from the speaker to your pickups. FRFR tends to exacerbate this since you have a tweeter feeding back high frequencies.

A noise gate can help but the best solution is to move away from the speaker.

For guitar I recommend setting the Attack time very short (less than 10ms) and the Release time to 100-200ms. Ratio 2-3:1 and Threshold to taste.
Click to expand...
 
One of my Duncan Jazz neck pickups does this microphonic squealing at higher gain and volumes. The pickup sounds so good though at all other times that I'm not willing to change it out. I'm pretty sure it's the gap between the pickup and the nickel cover.
 
Hellbat said:
One of my Duncan Jazz neck pickups does this microphonic squealing at higher gain and volumes. The pickup sounds so good though at all other times that I'm not willing to change it out. I'm pretty sure it's the gap between the pickup and the nickel cover.
Click to expand...

the pickup probably just needs to be wax repotted. I had a few pups that squealed like crazy and I had them repotted and no more issues. It's worth a shot and it's a pretty cheap solution to try.
 
Hellbat said:
One of my Duncan Jazz neck pickups does this microphonic squealing at higher gain and volumes. The pickup sounds so good though at all other times that I'm not willing to change it out. I'm pretty sure it's the gap between the pickup and the nickel cover.
Click to expand...

Hellbat-

Super simple fix. I had the same thing with a vintage set of Dimarzios I put into my LP. Simply took the covers off and put rubber shelf liner in the center (between the two sets of poles) and then put the covers back on. No more squeal, but the same fabulous tone and totally controllable sustain/feedback.
 
svl said:
Hellbat-

Super simple fix. I had the same thing with a vintage set of Dimarzios I put into my LP. Simply took the covers off and put rubber shelf liner in the center (between the two sets of poles) and then put the covers back on. No more squeal, but the same fabulous tone and totally controllable sustain/feedback.
Click to expand...

Yeah, thanks for the pointer. I've heard people have had good luck using a little dab of poster putty between the pickup and cover to eliminate that resonance feedback.
 
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