Noise supression in audio chain

Says that a noise gate should go after most of the effects. Many guitarists put the noise gate after distortion. This makes no sense to me.

From an electrical perspective shouldn't a noise gate be at the beginning of the chain?

Distortion effects are non-linear and also generally go before time-variant effects(reverbs, delays, etc...). But If you are feeding in noise into a distortion effect then it is much more difficult to filter it out since distortion is generally a nonlinear effect.

Is there some real electrical reason why you would put the noise gate later down the chain rather than right after or soon after the guitar?

noise gates doesn't filter anything, they gate off the signal when it is below a threshold

if you don't put it last you'll still have what ever noise the effects make with no input signal

-Lasse

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It is filter. You can call it what you want though as it is irrelevant.

Yes, it's right that it will filter the noise of the effects if they create noise. But most effects are solid state/digital and shouldn?t create a lot of noise. I suppose the best option is to have a noise gate before and after for that case. I guess if you only have one noise gate then it may be best to put it after all the effects so you can get all the noise.

I was under the impression that the majority of the noise in a signal chain came from the guitar itself but I guess I've worked too much with digital multi-effects where that is the case(no significant noise is created in the digital realm).

I can't imagine really that digital effects themselves(which most guitar effects are now days) give much noise? Of course all that digital to/from analog conversion between digital pedals might add up significantly?

"Stretto" = a DAMN TROLL !!!!

Guess that counts you out - f*****ad.

A "noise gate" is not a noise filter.

It is a simple " signal gate " with the same function as a mute button.

.... Phil

It's audio. I doesn't make sense. People do what sounds good to them, or what they imagine sounds good.

John

Stretto expounded in news:iq1kfj$s2k$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Be careful about the meaning of "noise" here. The term noise here refers to the guitar "string noise". Not noise from electrical signals and interference.

For example, if you palm mute, you want the noise-gate to completely cut-off the guitar pickup from any other string noise that small movements of your muting hand might cause.

It is simply a (volume) threshold thing. Normally you only use it when you're using high gain guitar work. The NG pedal is also often combined with an audio compressor, for improved sustain.

Given that, you have some flexibility about where it goes in your signal chain.

Warren

In radio that sort of thing is called 'squelch'.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

"Warren"

A " noise gate " cuts off a ALL noise !!!

Most electric guitars suffer from electrical noise pick up and this IS one of the primary reasons for using a noise gate with them.

Noise gates are also used with microphones to eliminate ambient background noise when not in use and with multi-miced drum kits to eliminate un-necessary spill from one mic to another.

.... Phil

Phil Allison expounded in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

Yes, that is the nature of the beast.

Sorry, this is just wrong (the "primary reason" part).

Yes, there is electrical noise, especially with single coil pups, but the electrical noise is the least of your worries when playing high gain distorted guitar. The strings jangling around make far more noise and far outweigh any other noises coming in while you're playing (you want muting to actually be a mute when you mute). This is the _primary_ reason.

Yes, as a _secondary_ reason, it quiets the instrument when it isn't being played.

Do you play? If you did, this would be obvious.

This is 2ndary to a guitarist. A guitarist who doesn't do high gain distortion acts may not even use a ng. That's how unimportant that aspect of it is.

Warren