Very specific noise gate theory/questions...

ConnorGilks

Experienced
I've used noise gates for years. I know how they work, I know how to get the best out of them while still retaining the amount of sustain or tightness I want depending on the application. I've used everything from the NS-2 to rackmount ISP Decimators to crazy plugins with dozens of buttons.

Now, I wanted to get into the theory behind using multiple noise gates in a setup. Currently I run two gates, one at the input and one after my overdrive pedal, they are both set to the same settings. It works just fine, and it works better than a single gate at that setting, but I really want to understand the theory behind this. How should the two (or three) gates be set?

Should all the gates be set to the same settings but placed in different places in the signal chain to address different sources of noise?

Should the first gate be set for tightness and all further gates be set just above the level of noise the next pedal/amp in the chain generates**?

When all the gates are open the noise level will still be the same, so placing them in different areas theoretically shouldn't improve the tightness or noise level, right? Am I crazy?

Does this change when we start using the input signal as our sidechain for gates further down in our signal chain?

**I know they don't generate noise, just amplify. But it makes more sense this way. :lol

I've just been rattling my brain trying to figure out the theory of this so that I can optimize things in my setup as much as possible. I know not many people here run multiple gates so it may be difficult to find answers, but I thought it would at least be worth a shot, and if anyone knows the theory behind a setup like that it would be AxeFX users, people will full control over their gates and routing!

Thanks everyone.
 
Think simplistically! Each noise gate cuts noise from whatever's "behind" it. The one in your input is cutting out the noise from your guitar, and the one at the end is cutting noise from the things between the first gate and itself. So even though you have one in front, if there are effects, overdrives, amps, etc after it that could potentially make noise, the second gate will clean those up. Before I switched to the Axe, I used to run an ISP Decimator first (well, after a tuner), then my overdrives, wahs, amp, whatever, and then another one in the effects loop before my delays and reverbs. The first cleaned up my guitar, and the second cleaned up the hiss from the amp without muting the delay trails.
 
I also use 2 gates, one at input and one somewhere in the chain, depending on the effect I'm going for.

The first one is simply for keeping the input quiet ~-66dB Threshold and 2:1 ratio, quick response.

For the second one: Heavy riffage, I'll put one after the amp or drive pedal to help give chord separation between palm mutes, and the threshold is quite high. (I saw a Periphery patch used this method as well...) This keeps the hum/static/noise away that exists from the amp sim even when the input gate is open. For volume swell, it's after the cab, before wet effects, with a LONG attack (and thus slow release of the gate for swell). I also put it here with normal attack for nice quiet "trail off" of wet FX so fed back delays and verbs ring out clearly during muting.

As mentioned, the settings differ based on what you want the affect to have. I rarely keep the thresholds/ratios the same...usually the latter stages have higher thresholds because the sound is usually now more compressed from the pre-amp.
 
Thanks guys.

So really it's as I thought, you should be setting each gate based on the amount of noise from the previous blocks. Then, perhaps if you wanted a tighter sound still, would you raise ALL the thresholds of ALL your gates up together?
 
I've used noise gates for years. I know how they work, I know how to get the best out of them while still retaining the amount of sustain or tightness I want depending on the application. I've used everything from the NS-2 to rackmount ISP Decimators to crazy plugins with dozens of buttons.

Now, I wanted to get into the theory behind using multiple noise gates in a setup. Currently I run two gates, one at the input and one after my overdrive pedal, they are both set to the same settings. It works just fine, and it works better than a single gate at that setting, but I really want to understand the theory behind this. How should the two (or three) gates be set?



I've just been rattling my brain trying to figure out the theory of this so that I can optimize things in my setup as much as possible. I know not many people here run multiple gates so it may be difficult to find answers, but I thought it would at least be worth a shot, and if anyone knows the theory behind a setup like that it would be AxeFX users, people will full control over their gates and routing!

Thanks everyone.

previous to the axe i always used a gate before the amp, and a noise supressor in the loop. silent and powerful.

gate the guitar, suppress the gain staging hiss.

beware the nomenclature, for instance the BOSS ns2 says suppressor on it but it is a gate! choose by circuit function, not name.
 
Remember that we can control the threshold with controllers. I pan between a clean amp and a dirty amp and also control the threshold of the noise gate all with just one control pedal.
 
Back
Top Bottom