Product: Carl Martin Noise Terminator
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
12/23/2006
at
08:09am
by
matt
Ease of Use
:
No Opinion
Sound Quality
:
1
see below
Reliability
:
1
see below
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
1
I usually don't write reviews, but this time I felt obliged to write one as a warning. I have been playing for almost 25 years, with two albums on the world-wide market, plenty of experience with rack-based and mulit-effect noise gates (t.c. electronic G-Force, Alesis Micro Gate, POD 2.0, POD XT, Zoom, ...).
Shopping around for a noise gate pedal quite extensively the Noise Terminator was on the top of the list, given the review below and the good reputation of Carl Martin Pedals in general. The music store just around the corner had one in stock that I almost bought without trying - I am glad I didn't. The gate did not open no matter how high the input and what the threshold setting. In addition, it added quite a lot of noise that had not been in the signal chain before. Since I tried it side by side with the Boss NS-2 and the Rocktron Hush pedal I am 100% positive it was from the pedal and not from something else. The store returned it to Carl Martin as defective.
The week after I drove about 50 km to another major music store that sells Carl Martin gear. They had a noise terminator that apparently worked, but added more noise to the signal chain than it filtered out. First of all, the gate did not close entirely even with the threshold setting on maximum. Some single coil hum still passed even with the gate closed. Whatever the unit took out it replaced with a very loud murmur so all in all there was more noise with the pedal in the signal chain than without. Soundwise the unit killed dynamics and sounded sterile and processed to an extent that the guitar was barely recognizable any more. In fact, even the Rocktron unit which I consider quite sterile sounding was more effective noisewise and won the sound quality contest with flying colors. To make a long story short, this is the worst sounding pedal I have played in my entire life. It is absolutely ridiculous, especially given the price it is sold at; no sane would use this pedal.
Since the reviewer before me seems to have had quite the opposite experience with it I am asking myself if Carl Martin is having a serious quality control problem. Both units I have tried were an absolute piece of junk. If you are lucky you may find a unit that actually works (review below). I have been told Carl Martin products go like hot cakes in the states and the company can't catch up with the rising demand - but this is not supposed to be my problem. Just two months ago I checked out a brandnew Delala XL that behaved erratically, with the delays going on and of without a button touched ... As far as I am concerned, Carl Martin is off the shopping list for future purchases.
Do yourself a favour and check out the Boss NS-2, which is a lot cheaper and gets the job done, and the ISP Decimator, which is more expensive but in my view the best gate on the market. Don't buy the Carl Martin Gate untried.
Product: Carl Martin Noise Terminator
Price Paid: US $132.25
Submitted
05/07/2004
at
03:38pm
by
Len
Email: dailey<at>colfax dot com
Ease of Use
:
8
Learning how to use this product PROPERLY, or any noise gate for that matter, is the only hurdle you'll encounter with the Noise Terminator. It's nearly a set-and-forget tool, you just need to get it set right in the first place.
This pedal has two threshold adjustment knobs, one labelled "Soft", the other labelled "Hard". Set the "Soft" adjustment to remove the noise from your quieter pedals. Set the "Hard" adjustment to remove the noise from your noisy pedals. Stomp the footswitch to toggle between them. All other gate pedals I've seen either have but one threshold or are difficult to change during performance, so this is like having two gates in one pedal. The concept of this pedal is simple. Adjusting the knobs just right may take some tweaking.
Sound Quality
:
9
The sound quality is excellent IF YOU SET IT UP RIGHT. I run a '69 Tele w/ (real) Bill Lawrence pups (L-490 neck and L-290TL bridge)into a Danelectro Trip L wah, Visual Sound Rt 66, old E-H Big Muff, Visual Sound H2O, Danelectro BLT slapback echo, Danelectro Fish n Chips 6 band graphic then into the Noise Terminator and on to my amp, a THD UniValve, and a 2x12 Avatar cab. I run a slave power amp with more speakers if the venue is large. All cable connections are made with Bill Lawrence low capacitance cable.
The noise level in this system isn't too bad when the distortion pedals are off, increases somewhat when I stomp the Rt 66 (essentially a TS808 clone) and jumps way up when the Muff is engaged. I set the Noise Terminator's "Soft" threshold so it removes the noise when all but the Muff are on and the "Hard" threshold to pull out most of the Muff's noise when it's turned on. If you turn the "Hard" threshold up too much, your tone will suck - wimpy and lifeless. If you turn it down too far, you leave in noise. This is not so much a fault of the Noise Terminator as it is the Big Muff. The Muff and similar pedals take EVERY signal coming in and jack it way up to saturation. When you're playing, that signal is music and everything's fine. When you stop playing, the Muff keeps amping up the signal so ANY line noise or pickup noise at all will be jacked up to essentially the same level as the music was. No noise surpresser in the world is going to take care of that. I've reached a compromise setting that takes very nearly all of the noise out - it's so low that the audience certainly can't hear it over the buzz from the PA - and still leaves my guitar tone pretty well intact. Prior to getting the Noise Terminator, I rarely used the Big Muff, even though I like it's sound for specific purposes, simply because of the noise. The Noise Terminator makes it usable.
The Noise Terminator is always on, either "Soft" or "Hard". You can, by setting the threshold too high, totally trash your tone. But if you pay attention and adjust properly, there is no audible change in your tone whatsoever! There are very few gates of which that may be said.
To rate a 10, a noise gate would have to take ALL the noise away without effecting the tone whatsoever. I'm unaware that such a product exists. The Noise Terminator is clearly the best I've found.
Reliability
:
8
The build quality is quite good. Overall, it's as solidly built as anything on my pedal board, and way better than the Danelectro stuff. (Hey, the Danelectro gear is cheap and the funky designs and model names make me smile. Gimme a break.)
Customer Support
:
10
Can' speak about Carl Martin - never dealt with them - but I can HIGHLY recommend pedalGEEK.com These are good people who know their stuff and care about their customers. With free shipping and no tax, they're often cheaper than MF and AMS and the like.
Overall Rating
:
9
I've been playing, recording, performing and teaching for better than 30 years and this is flat the best guitar noise gate I've found. If I run straight to the amp, I don't use the pedal 'cause I don't need it. When I use my pedal board, the Noise Terminator will certainly be the last pedal in the chain for the forseeable future. Of course I'd replace it. I want to hear the notes, not the noise.
