Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor

It's got two knobs. It doesn't get much easier. I've got it set up so that some noise reduction is always on, but when I stomp on it, it will totally mute my sound.

I have noticed absolutely no difference in MY sound. I don't have it setup to eliminate every little tiny bit of noise that comes along, and I haven't experienced the little delay problem that others have had because they have the attack set improperly. I play metal, and with lots of gain. This is unit does get rid of most the noise. It does all that I need or expect without even touching my tone. Nice product.

I've only had it a couple of weeks, but I have never ever had a problem with any boss pedal and I don't expect this one to be any different

don't know

This unit must be set correctly to function properly. It will not eliminate every little noise. At least not when you have a screaming metal sound. But it does an excellent job of cleaning it up. I've found that it will even allow some feedback. Which I feel is good, but I can let go of my guitar for a few seconds and my amp won't go crazy either.

This is an update to an earlier submission with some hints and help.
After using the NS-2 for several weeks, it all of a sudden quit supplying power to my other Boss pedals via the daisy chain cable. I opened the unit only to find that the circuit board foil connection between the center post of the two dc power sockets (in and out) had fried. It could have been this way when I received the pedal (bought used, pretty scratched up, but worked fine then). It appeared that somewhere along the line, the unit had seen a spike, overpower or, perhaps, reversed polarity and had simply "popped" a small section of the foil linking the two center posts. Thus, no power found it's way from the DC "in" socket to the DC "out" socket. The good news was that the pedal was still receiving dc power from the connected AC adapter, just not passing it to the daisy chain cable.
Rather than try to solder a jumper on the circuit board, I decided to just leave well enough alone on the NS-2. But, since the fancy "can supply dc power to up to 5 other Boss pedals" was nothing more than a "y" connection, I made a quick trip to Radio Shack and built my own splitter.
Here's what you'll need:
1) small project box (I used a plastic 3x2x1 box, <$2) 2) two DC power jacks (5.5mm OD, 2.1mm ID, <$2 ea.) 3) 2 short lengths of jumper wire
Simply mount the DC power jacks in the project box and connect the center posts together and the outer posts together by soldering the jumper wire between each post.
Plug the AC adapter into one jack and the daisy chain into the other and, you can power up to 6 Boss pedals.
If you include $25 for a Boss AC adapter, and $15 for the daisy chain cable (I got mine used for under $5), you can make your own power distribution set-up for less than $50.

Very simple to use. 3 knobs - "Reduction", "Attack", and "Mute/Reduction". I bought it used, so it had no manual, but none was needed. 10 minutes of fooling around with the reduction and attack settings and I was good to go. As it turns out, it took a while for me to realize that when set to mute, the noise reduction is on all the time and engaging the pedal mutes all sound. When set to reduction, the pedal only engages when the effect is selected ("check light" is on), otherwise all signal is passed through. When set to mute, even with the pedal "disengaged" ("check light" off), the noise reduction is working.
The "reduction" light is a nice feature. It shows you if the pedal is reducing noise or not and, by light strength, how much reduction is taking place.
The only small complaint I have is that all the effects are hooked in a "loop" at the NS-2. There's an input jack (from the guitar) and an output jack (to the amp), send (to the effects) and return (from effects). This makes it a bit of a jumpering nightmare to get the cables to and from the effects pedals. Sometimes I just put a jumper between the send and return jacks and run all my other effects directly into the input jack. I dock it a point for the send/return jacks.

The quality is great. While playing, it has no noticeable affect on the sound, although the hum and buzz comes through too (not bad considering the guitar sound should cover that up). When you're not playing, though, the hum and buzz are shut down. There is a slightly noticeable "swell" when you first hit a note after a pause. We're talking milliseconds here, but it's still noticeable, basically long enough to dampen the sound of the pick hitting the string. I deduct a point for that.
I keep the reduction set at full or just below full, attack at min and the unit on mute. Really nice for killing all sound between songs or between sets.

It's a Boss.

Never have, never will.

Great unit. I play worship services at our church and the sound man, program director and band leader love having no guitar buzz or hum (especially with all the lights and such adding interference). The mute function is great 'cause I have a nasty habit of bumping the neck or brushing against a string ... a bit distracting if it happens during a drama or our pastor's prayers! The mute protects my clumsiness!
The power supply (w/daisy chain cable) is worth the price alone. This unit powers all my other boss pedals. Just a word to the wise, though, be careful with the daisy chain cable. If you have any open plugs (i.e. less pedals than the daisy chain's capacity), you may want to put some electrical tape over the exposed daisy chain cable plugs. If the plug ends brush against a conductive surface (like the casing of one of the boss pedals or the base of a mic stand) it will momentarily short out the power supply, shutting down all of your pedals and producing a rather large "pop" (if you're the victim, it's a "rather large pop", if your the program director, sound man, or band director, it's a "deafening boom" - trust me on this one!). A bit of electrical tape over the ends solves that problem.
Even with the couple of 9s above, I still give this an overall 10.

This pedal is ridiculously easy to use. There's three knobs - reduction, decay, and reduction/mute. The reduction knob is basically the only one you'll ever use - just turn it 'til the noise is gone, and you're ready to play.

It's a noise suppressor; therefore, it has no sound. And it's really good at not letting any noise through. The only problem is that at the higher reduction settings, which you'd use when you have a lot of O.D. or distortion going on, the pedal tends to chop off some of the sustain time. So you have to be very careful to get the perfect balance on the reduction knob.

As everyone always says - It's a Boss. These pedals never break and never give anyone any problems. I've had quite a few of them, and I have no complaints.

I've never had to deal with the company.

This pedal is basically for those of us who like to use a lot of noisy effects - O.D.'s, distortions, and the like. All I can say is that it does what it promises to do. It gets rid of ALL the noise. Not only that, but this pedal can power all your other Boss pedals. All you need is one adapter and a "daisy chain" (costing about $10-$12). That feature alone makes it worth the money. Get it!

Pretty much a no-brainer. Knobs for Threshold (where Noise gate kicks in), Decay (how fast it turns off) and Mode (Noise reduction or Mute). That's it. Mute mode turns NR on all the time and mutes output when you activivate pedal. Otherwise stepping on pedal turns NR on/off.

Seems to work well. Cuts out noise without really killing your tone in the process. You only notice the effect if you use extreme settings. Very effective at killing the background hiss between songs, but not really much good at filtering out noise, etc. during short pauses, etc. It's works fairly well.

I'll say it again: It's a boss. These things are tough.

This pedal can also be used to power other Boss pedals off of a single Boss power adapter (get the one meant of digital pedals since it provides more current) and a daisy chain which connects to the back. Very handy. THis pedal is probably best suited for someone using alot of gain or single coils, who wants to cut down the hum and hiss in between songs. It doesn't do much for you while you're actually playing though. A good value for what it does.

Just plug it in, turn up the volume of your guitar and play around till don't get noise anymore.

I use this pedal with a Dyna Comp, Daddy-O, DD-5 Delay.....cuts out all the nose when your not playing...just what I wanted it to do. \ It didn't seem to affect my overall tone when I was playing. By far the coolest feature is the ability to power other pedals. I use it to power all of my pedals (only one wall wart!!) As long as whatever you plug it into is 9v with center negative polarity you're good to go.

It's Boss.

Never had to call them for anything.

Great pedal! It cuts the noise when you're not playing and doesn't affect your tone when you are playing. The mute function is especially cool if you're changing guitars a lot. I'd buy one again...(shouldn't have to though)

Extremely easy. The manual is good, but then again we are talking about Boss.

Use it with a revved up Epiphone Les Paul with Razor THVP+ pick-ups which are just awesome, and a Squier Venus with a DiMarzio Tone Zone humbucker at the bridge, a very excellent Danelectro Fab Tone through a Peavy Bandit 112 and a Classic 30. The noise reduction is just sweet. It's not choppy and you can control the threshold and the decay. There is nothing wrong with some noise, so I set it with the threshold at 9:00 and the decay at 3:00. I definitely like and use the mute.

Hellooo!! Talking about Boss????

Today I also bought a DOD FX76 Punkifier in a store with a hell of a lot of people. It's December 23 so there was just too many people and I wasn't in the mood 0of trying the pedals out. This pedal made my day since the Punkifier really sucks (you can read my review on that thing). I would buy the NS-2 again and again if I need to. It beats the DOD FX-30 hands down. Thanks to Boss my 23rd won't be as bad, no thanks to the DOD Fx76. If you have hum trouble that you or your tech can't fix and you are not in the mood of replacing pick-ups or use your gear near speakers or TV purchase this pedal. You won't regret it.

Easy enough, three knobs, Threshhold and Decay and the other knob selects the mode it's on (Mute and Reduction), didn't come with a manual, but I figured it out quickly

It cuts out noise effectively, I use the mute function and it's on the effects loop of my amp (I use an overdrive pedal and the amp's distortion)

I could whack it with a baseball bat and it would still work, they really should take out that reliability question for BOSS pedals, they never fail, and they should last me a lifetime

Is there a customer support at BOSS, nah I don't think so, they shouldn't have one

Yes, I would buy it again, if it got stolen

3 knobs (one a two-position swith), straighforward as all get-out

i like the way the reduction fades smoothly, instead of chopping everything off. used this box to cure a feedback nightmare on a buddy's PA one dark night. worked as good as his fancy rackmount. he even tried to swap me. bought the box for one reason - to power up the other eight pedals i schlep on stage. the dc out jack alone was worth the price of the pedal. noise reduction abilities are just gravy. now that i use it all the time, though, i really appreciate how sophisticated the nr really is. this is the best noise reducer i've ever used.

it's a boss. i don't have a backup because the darn things are so high, but if i could find another pawnshop prize i would leap at it.

bought used

every pedal stomper in the land should be knocking boss's door down to get one of these. the noise reduction feature is magnificent, and you can run all your pedals off ONE WALL WART!

It's really easy to use. Turn the threshold fairly high and the decay fairly low. Turn it on end of story.

No noise. Works great AND powers all of my pedals

They should take this question off for Boss. Why even bother asking on reliability.

I would definitely buy it.

Two Knobs --- Threshold and Decay --- Can't get much simpler than that

Very good when used as a noise gate. I was a little dissapointed with the job it does separating the noise from the signal, as the box claims it can do. It does an excellent job of *NOT* cutting out any of my playing, and mute funtion is very handy in a situation where you need to quickly switch guitars during a performance if you don't use a volume pedal. I use it as a power supply for my other Boss pedals with the daisy chain power cable.

BOSS -- Never had any problems

n/a

I would buy it again. I needed the power supply anyway, and this unit kills two birds with one stone. I would buy this pedal again. I did not compare to other products, since I needed a BOSS effect to perform this function and keep my set-up consistant. Would be nice if the input and output jacks were physically located on top of the unit, so that it fit into my BCB-6 carrying case better, like the Boss master power supply box.