How Do You Use a Noise Gate Pedal Properly?

Picture the scene... you've just spent some time dialling in your dream high gain tone. You've got the amp cooking, stacked the overdrive pedals and achieved that perfect balance between saturation and clarity... but now there is an overwhelming hiss coming from the amp that threatens to derail your tone. What do you do?

This is where the noise gate comes into play.

Often overlooked, the noise gate is a simple pedal that can change your high gain tones for the better. While we all know it's fun to spend our money on overdrives, sometimes a "boring" purchase like a noise gate can make the biggest difference.

In this blog we're going to dive into what a noise gate is, how it works, how to correctly set one up and I'll share some suggestions for noise gates you can check out for yourselves.

What is a noise gate?

A noise gate is a type of guitar pedal that cuts off your guitar signal when the input volume drops below a certain volume level, known as the threshold. This means that if you set it around the same volume as your noise issues, the noise will be silenced.

Noise gate pedals are especially useful if you play with high gain or fuzz, use single coil pickups (which are very prone to noise), or have a very complex pedalboard or amp setup that generates its own noise problems.

Even though the noise gate has this active correctional effect on your guitar, unlike effects like compression, it does not impact your tone or feel in anyway. It only activates when you are not playing.

While the noise gate is the secret weapon for many Metal guitar players, don't let this put you off if you don't play metal. Even the blues and classic rock guys can benefit from a noise gate in the right scenarios.

Where should you place a noise gate in the signal chain?

The placement of your noise gate pedal really depends on what type of noise issues you are trying to fix and what styles of music you play. There are 3 main places you can place a noise gate. Try these out in your setup and see what fits best:

1. Before the gain stages

Placing the gate before your drive section of your pedalboard will help tame any noise coming from your guitar. This can be useful if you're running single coil or P90 pickups that generate noise. The noise gate in this position prevents the noise entering the gain stages when not being played.

2. Before the amp, after the gain stages

If you use overdrive, distortion or fuzz pedals into a clean or lightly breaking up amp, they can introduce noise to the mix. The drive from the pedals, especially stacked pedals, combined with the amps drive can create unwanted hiss. Placing your noise gate after the drive section of your pedalboard will cut out any noise cause by the pedals.

3. In the FX loop of your amp

If the noise is caused by your amp running a high-gain sound, placing your noise gate in the FX loop will help resolve this. The FX loops of most major guitar amps sit between the preamp and power amp stages of the amp circuit.

The preamp circuit is responsible for most of the gain we hear, so placing a gate after this section in the loop will help tame any noise coming from the amps internal gain.

How to set up a noise gate

Depending on what particular noise gate you purchase, you will have a variety of settings available to you, but there are often some common parameters that most noise gates will have. Understanding what these are and what they do is the trick to effective noise gating.

• Threshold - This is the volume at which the signal cuts out. Listen to the hiss and gradually move this control until it just cuts the hiss out. At this level your regular playing should still come though. If you start to hear notes you play getting cut out, this setting is too high.
  
• Decay or Release - This is a measure of how fast the signal gets cut between you stopping and the noise being cut out. High-gain players will prefer a faster decay for a tighter sound. A slower release works better for lead tones and bluesy-based playing.
  
  
• Reduction/Range - If you have a noise gate with a lot of tweakable settings, you may have a reduction or range control. This essentially is the amount you are choosing to turn down the noise by. This allows you to subtley pull the noise back, or pull all the noise out when not playing.

If you are using a higher gain set up for Metal playing, a fast decay will help keep things tight. You'll probably want to experiment with the Threshold and Reduction controls to remove as much of the noise as possible to keep your sound tight.

If you play classic rock or blues, a more subtle approach will help here. These are dynamic styles of playing that can go from soft to hard but often don't use huge gain levels. Start soft and just use the gate to pull out the unwanted noise without chopping your guitar tone too aggressively. 

Common noise gate mistakes

Like with all guitar pedals, it's very easy to make mistakes with your noise gate and cause issues that you were hoping to solve with it. If you're new to the world of noise gates, here are a few common mistakes to avoid:

1. Over-gating the signal

We talked about this briefly above, but over-gating (setting the threshold too aggressively) can kill your sustain and dynamics. It might get rid of the noise, but if the threshold ceiling is set too high, as soon as you play lighter or roll your guitar volume back slightly, you might find yourself falling under this ceiling and the gate cutting your tone out.

When dialling in your gate settings, keep playing at your natural dynamic range so you can hear if the gate is affecting you.

2. Using a gate to fix wiring issues

From time to time cables break. Your guitar cables, your wireless cables, your patch cables... they all break after a while. A noise gate is not a substitution for a cable issue.

If you have a faulty cable, ground hum or electrical issues, a noise gate is not the solution. It will help mask the problem and can make for a great short term solution (for example if this happens mid gig!) but long term, this will not fix the problem - it will just hide it.

3. Placing Delay/Reverb before the gate

When it comes to gate placement in the chain, you want it to combat noise, but if you use Delay and/or Reverb in your setup, the gate placement becomes even more important. Placing a gate after a reverb or delay can kill your reverb decay or your delay trails. As the volume of these drops as they fade away, the gate will instinctively decide that it is an unwanted sound and remove it.

If you have a gate on your pedalboard, ensure it is always before this section of the rig!

Some noise gates you should check out

If you're in the market for a noise gate, here are some of the most popular examples that will help tighten up your sound and kill the noise.

• Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor - One of the most iconic noise gates, and it doesn't break the bank. This pedal icon from Boss is a noise gate you can trust and has proven itself on the road for many years on many famous pedalboards.
  
  
• ISP Technologies Decimator II - If you want simply, this is the one for you. This pedal has just one knob, a single threshold control. This is the easiest to dial in and has become a firm favourite in the metal guitar world.
  
  
• TC Electronic Sentry Gate - If you enjoy tweaking and you want access to a plethora of settings, the TC Electronics offering to the noise gate world is one to check out. This allows you to also download artist Toneprint presets and create your own in depth presets with their editor software.
  
  
• Fortin Zuul - This is a newer offering to the market, but a strong contender none the less. Fortin being an amp company that specialize in high gain amps have designed a noise pedal that will easily tame even the most unruly of high gain amps.

Try one out for yourself

So now that you know all about how a noise gate works, and the benefits that it can bring you, there is only one thing left to do... go and get one and try it out for yourself!

Whatever style of music you play, a noise gate will give you a cleaner, more professional sounding rig. No one likes to hear a barrage of high-gain hiss. Keep your signal clean and keep that noise in check with a noise gate.

[product=kma-machines-pylon]
The KMA Machines Pylon is an "Advanced Transformer Boost" noise gate that will suppress any hiss or hum in your signal chain - a common issue with higher gain setups, single coils and vintage gear. In addition to the noise gate, the Pylon features an integrated Boost/Cut section, an External Trigger Input for external bypass switching or gate-triggering, a relay-based Channel Switcher for controlling your amp, and a built-in audio-grade transformer to polish your sound.
[/product]

[product=lichtlaerm-audio-the-key-and-the-gate]
Lichtlaerm Audio's The Key and The Gate is at first glance just a noise gate - although it's one that's ideally suited to heavier genres of music thanks to its 3-way Response toggle, allowing you to fine-tune the attack and delay characterstics of the noise gate to suit heavy chugging, or to let those searing solos sing. By plugging your guitar into the side-mounted input, and continuing the signal chain from the side-mounted output, you can make use of the pedal's "Key" - the pedal splits your signal internally and uses your unaltered guitar-signal as a reference for its gating: absolutely no tone sucking and no loss of sustain! As the gate uses your pure guitar-signal, you can leave it always on - it really doesn´t care if you are using a distortion pedal or not. And as an added bonus, this effective utility pedal is super-easy to dial in, with just one knob. You can even inject another signal into the Key input to control the Gate, giving you unlimited opportunities for side-chain operation in the studio or live. [/product]