ISP Technologies Decimator Noise Reducer

one button...so easy a retarded caveman could use it.

OK, I am into a lot of very heavy music with a lot of heavy distortion. My 6505+ has the gain on 7-8 and this monster can produce some of the worst squeeling I have ever heard. It was almost impossible to put this thing past 3 and not have the feedback rip your face off. So I got this little beauty and plugged it in after my tuner and then straight into the head. I don't use any pedals at all, just the searing tone of my guitar (Schecter with the Duncan Invader) so I cant comment on how well this thing does in a daisy chain, but I think it would do just fine. The only thing about this pedal is that it is a NOISE SUPPRESSOR not a GATE. I have found that putting it in front of the amp is really where it should be. Not through the effects loop.
The drawback to this is it really only fixes the sound from my guitar, but there is still some hiss from the amp. My solution to that was to put an NS2 through the effects loop and it works great. No hiss. No hum. No feedback. No tone loss. Just the tone I have paid over $3,000 to get.

It looks sturdy enough ,but I wouldn't advise you chuck it at a wall or anything.

The customer service was pretty good. The guy responded to my e-mails within a day and they shipped me a new pedal back fairly quick.(I thought the pedal was broken, until I put it through the front).

This pedal does the job. Through the front it is better than the NS2 no real tone loss or cut offs, just be prepared to mess with the knob for a while. With the stuff I play (Emmure, Acacia Strain, August Burns Red) i need a ton of gain and pretty much shear brutality, but I also need it to be clear. The Decimator allows me to have that.
I just wish it worked better in the FX loop so I didn't have to get the NS2, but with the two I have PERFECT sustain, tone and noise reduction.

Simple to use, one knob.
Just turn it up until the noise just starts to go away. If you go any higher then it will take away sustain.
You will have to readjust this knob when your guitar signal changes because you increased the volume on the guitar or stomped on another overdrive pedal, etc.

It is the best noise suppressor I have tried.
But I have one beef...it is not true bypass so it sucks some tone!
It makes my signal sound a bit "spongey", "squishy" by taking away some of my punch and clarity.
Most people may not notice this but I am obsessed with my tone as I love the sound of my guitar plugged directly into my Marshall but as soon as I introduce non-bypass pedals my tone suffers.

Solid as a rock!

I did send them an email to tell them their ad is false advertising as it says "will not affect guitar tone" but infact it does suck some tone.
Of course I got no response

Here is their website:
http://www.isptechnologies.com/decimatorpedal.htm
Here are some third party reviews:
http://www.highlystrung.co.uk/acatalog/info_918.html

I have a wiring problem at my house which causes a lot of hum, especially when I use any type of gain, distortion, overdrive so this pedal works great for this without chopping off the trails of my notes prematurely.

But like I said earlier it does suck some tone and removes some of the punchiness which I love from my Marshall 1959 Super Lead amp tube amp.
Maybe it would be less noticeable with a newer amp that does not have as high of an input impedance or with a transistor type amp.

I play rock n roll, rock, southern rock, acid rock, alternative, metal, blues, swing, jazz, country, classical

I wish they would make it true bypass so that it would not mess with my signal when not engaged and better yet improve the internal electronics so it would not mess with my signal when engaged.

Very easy to use. One knob to turn, The only thing you might have trouble with is if you use it in you're effects loop to adjust the send and return.

I have tried 2 of the pedals. I have a B-52 At-100 and when I put it in the effects loop there is considerable volume drop, and when I adjust the send up high enough for no volume drop the thing distorts really bad. I am still trying to figure that one out.

Have not got this thing to work yet. I would hope it is reliable if you can get it to work.

Every body says that they are the greatest, But when I emailed them about my troubles they did not give any answers to the problems I was having they just wanted to sell me their $400 dollar Rack version. I dont think so!!

N.A

one knob...
the clue is where to put that thing in the signal chain and to dial in the less amount of noisegate you need.

like tony below i use this pedal as the first one in the signal chain to eliminate the single coil hum (which seems to be a very logical way to use that unit) and the results are really great. i rediscovered positions 1,3 and five of my stratocaster again...;-)
concerning the noise of the pedals following this unit-there is nearly none, cause all of that single coil hum which gets amplified through the next stages has been eliminated.
in fact before i got that pedal there were lots of situations in the studio or during gigs when i didn??t dare to switch to the single coil sounds but also didn??t want to put humbuckers or some other noiseless-shit in my vintage instruments. this pedal here is the solution.
yeah, it colours the tone, but to a very minimal extend. the sound is slightly more compressed and a little more compact, which sometimes makes my guitar sound even better (sometimes not). if you use it the way that i do you don??t have to tweak in a big amount of noisereduction and the pedal doesn??t cut the end of your notes at all.
keep in mind it??s a noisegate and it has limitations but this thing here works totally fine and can save one??s life...

very well buit.
anybody knows if it has true bypass? just for being curious.
by the way-true bypass really is a complete hype anyway. in fact lots of pedals which don??t have t.b. sound much better bypassed. john mayer blogged something interesting and true about that,google "john mayer equipment" .

i am playing nearly everything from rock to jazz.
studio work and gigs, i??m professional musician and play since 21 years.
i got this pedal today and spent the whole day with it, combining it with lots of other new and favourite gear.
i will use it live and in the studio, mainly with my ??71 strat, ??69 tele and ??68 jazzmaster, thd univalve, mesa boogie nomad and fender deluxe-highly underrated amp by the way.
i use lots of boutique pedals from t-rex, hao, z vex, sobbat, okko, jaques and others.
this pedal is a keeper and will help me in many situations. makes me want to tour again with singlecoil guitars...

Quite easy to use. One threshold knob you turn clockwise until the background noise disappears. Hope you don't have to turn it past noon because it will start seriously killing your sustain.

I did found this unit to be fairly transparent. I use it in my 'B' chain with all my OD/Distortion pedals. My 'A' chain of pedals is my clean sound into my channel switching amp, so that keeps the Decimator out of the clean side. My compatriot further down is right about it killing your clean dynanics and soft passages, so if you can isolate it with your dirt boxs you're better off. Sometimes I'll run A T. Jauernig Double DGTM with both sides running, or one side with say my MI Audio Crunchbox(nice box but gainy and noisy when stacked), and it quiets that mayhem about half way up. I set the highest acceptable level of noise suppression in the Decimator (around half) and adjust the gain on the distortion boxs up to where it barely stays quiet. Run it after all your noisy boxs.

Haven't had it long enough to truthfully tell you. Solidly constructed, and reports say it's built well. Cool shiny chrome enclosure, but get out your polishing cloth, smudge marks really show up

Again, no experience with them, and hope I never have to.

I don't know what a jazz guy would do with this pedal, unless those Roland JC 120 amps have gotten a lot noisier. For guys with high gain distortion pedals, noisy single coil pick ups (run it first in that case)or even a nosiy pre amp section of your amp (run it in the effects loop) this pedal delivers the goods. It's not magic, though. If you have to turn it up past halfway, I would lower the gain on the pedals until no longer noisy and you'll still be smokin', otherwise it will mess with your sustain and dynamics. 11 o'clock even better. I recomend it if you're looking for a good quality noise suppressor in a pedal.

Just for some balance here I wanted to share my opinion that I believe that the success that you might have with this pedal is completely style and application dependant. For high gain metal it would probably be great. If you play with a light touch in the vein of jazz, blues or any style with low gain, specifically single note stufff, that I implore you to try the Isp before you buy it!! It was extremely disappointing to me and is completely useless for my intentions. Money down the drain. This is an excellent noise gate however I guess I should have expected that any noise gate has very defined limitations. I was hoping that this product would eliminate the ridiculous noise of my Tonebone Hot British. Turning up the threshold to the point where noise is eliminated is great until you try to play light single note phrases ala jazz/blues/fusion. As soon as you play a note, the huge hum / buzz kicks in with the note making it very distracting and unnatural sounding. In addition, the note will be unable to sustain in an organic way. I could go on but here's the deal: TRY IT FIRST!! This product does what it's mean't to do very well. I however failed to do due dilligence and learned the hard way that the trade off's of using a noise gate are unacceptable to my overall needs. Good Luck.

OK - one knob that you turn until you get the threshold level correct. You'd have to be retarded (or deaf) to not be able to figure it out. Doesn't get any easier!

There's no coloration that I can detect. Some reviewers claim that they can detect an iota of coloration, but then some folks claim that they can hear the difference between an Eveready and a Duracell powering their effects! Seriously, this pedal is completely transparent. I run this pedal as the first pedal in the signal chain rather than the last. I'm using it to kill the hum and interferance from single coils Strats and P90s BEFORE it gets amplified by other devices. This is in complete opposition to the way 99% of people are using it. My setup:
Guitar - Nady wireless - ISP Decimator - Boss tuner - MCFX compressor - Vox wah - MXR Phase 90 - Boss Flanger - Boss DD3 delay - Marshall TSL 100 & quad box.
Running the pedal this way cuts pretty much all the noise that the pickups themselves generate, and at a very conservative threshold setting (between 9 & 10 o'clock). If I run the pedal as suggested in the instructions at the end of the effects chain, it has to deal with the noice from the pickups that has also been further processed with compression/flanging/phasing etc etc..... Hence in that position the threshold needs to be set higher and higher and the results aren't as good for me.

Exceptionaly well made pedal, very heavy duty construction and internally it looks excellent. Never had a problem with it, this one is a keeper!

Never had to deal with them direct. Bought it online from Bmusic.com.au, located in Adelaide, South Australia. Those guys are the best, let me tell you. Excellent service - I had the Decimator in my hands less than 24 hours after placing the order! From Adelaide to Melbourne! And their after sales service is hands down the best in Australia. So my rating is for those guys. Thanks Shane!

Been playing for all of my adult life (plus most of my teenage years), that's the scary total of about a quarter of a century. This pedal has allowed me to use true single coils once again, without the attendant noise problems! I don't know what I'd do without this little chromed masterpiece. I play a wide range of stuff, from SRV through to EVH and even YJM (why do the greats all have three initials?).

Very easy to use initially. Turn the threshold knob until you are satisfied with the reduction. BE CAREFUL not to go crazy on turning the knob too high or it will kill all of your attack and sustain! It's not like the Boss NS-2 where you cant play anything without all the knobs on full, this thing will cover all extremes!

The only hard part is getting the setting right, as too much will destroy attack and sustain and too little will leave noise, so finding the happy medium for your set up can take a while to begin with.

I'm going to be comparing this mainly to the Boss NS-2 as I used to use that. First up I'll start with the positives. This pedal is capable of eliminating pretty much ALL of the noise, alot more noise than the NS-2, this thing makes everything deadily quiet! I'm using a pedal to boost my guitar's input signal to drive the amp harder and that pedal makes a hell of alot of noise, but not anymore! The Boss NS-2 barely coped with this and there was still quite abit of background hiss and hum.

As far as not altering the tone, it pretty much does exactly what it claims to. If you set the threshold correctly it will not suck away any tone! I have very good ears so I can tell if there is an audible tone loss! I noticed the boss NS-2 sucking away a little tone but the Decimator doesn't alter the sound in any noticable way.

Just to give you an idea of how successful this thing is at eliminating noise I'll tell you the setup I have tried it with so far:

Gibson flying V (EMG active pickups) ---> TU-2 (boss tuner) ---> CH-1 (boss chorus) ---> MT-2 (boss metal zone, for boosting the input guitar signal) ---> ISP Decimator ---> Marshall TSL601 (on the lead channel with gain on 9).

Ok, now for the downsides, because there are downsides! If your using a setup where you use alot of high gain distortion AND a clean sound then there is going to be a problem. You see when you turn the threshold knob up to the right setting you eliminate all the noise, BUT when you switch to the clean channel of the amp it totally kills all of your sustain! if you let a note ring, it wont ring for any more than a few seconds! So that means when im playing live and want to change from a distortion to a clean im going to have to disengage the boost pedal, turn off the ISP decimator and switch channels all at the same time! besides any other effects like reverb! Just an extra thing im going to have to tap dance with now! So this thing can only be usefully set up for one particular amount of gain, it cant kill the noise on your high gain channel whithout killing alot of the signal and sustain when you switch to the clean channel! The Boss NS-2 was quite good at compromising on this.

One other thing, you have to be careful when playing palm muted chords etc, if you dampen the strings too much it kills the sound straight away without letting it ring on, but if you loosen the dampening on the palm mutes then your fine, so you may end up adjusting your playing technique slightly to compromise with this pedal.

Well its much heavier than as Boss pedal that's for sure! wether that means its stronger or not im not sure. But I feel it would easily last a life time of touring, so no problems here. I haven't had it for long so I can't say whether it will magically break down and stop working so I can't comment there. But I would definately take this on tour without a backup.

Never dealt with them

Overall this is a great pedal that eliminates all of your noise. HOWEVER if using alot of high gain distortion and then switching to a clean channel you CANNOT leave this pedal turned on, you have to switch it off or the cleans are practically un-playble. It makes things worse because I'm using a boost pedal so have to turn the threshold knob higher, but I tried it just with the amp's gain alone and it still killed the clean notes after a few seconds! So although this will absolutely kill virtually all unwanted noise with a boosted high gain channel it needs a different setting when changing gain levels! So its going to be very annoying having to keep turning this pedal on and off all the time!

If your in a death metal band and use stacks of gain and boost your amp but never use the clean channel then this pedal is for you! It will cut all the unwanted noise and wont affect your tone.

But if you play in a band that uses high gain distortion and lots of clean parts then this pedal will be frustrating. In this case an Boss NS-2 might be better, although there is a slight noticable reduction in tone/compression.

It would get a 9 if I didn't have to switch it off when changing to a clean sound.

Only one dial to turn. Very Simple.

I do alot of reading and comparing before buying music gear. I have a Rocktron Hush Pedal (dual controls) from the early 90's. I've heard great things about the ISP pedal and decided to see for myself. I brought my Rocktron Pedal with me and compared the two. The Decimator DID NOT alter the tone at all! The sustain is smooth. It does what it says. My amp is Quiet! The Rocktron makes the tone a little darker. I purchased the Decimator, and I am very pleased with it.

Nice heavy chrome casing, built like a tank. Should be reliable.

Haven't had to deal with them.

This is a great pedal. A must have for high gain amps. I play old school metal, hard rock, 80's hair bands. Been playing for over 15 years. My current gear: USA Jackson King V, Paul Stanley Ibanez Iceman, Dean Evo Premium> DSL Chorus~Vib> EQ pedal> Decimator> Engl Savage 120> Mesa Traditional Straight 4x12. I run a Peavey Valverb(reverb) unit through the effects loop of the Savage.

Just tune the knob and noise gone!!

it's transparent. it's not change my tone any more isp did it so good.

I let Decimator always on.

i don't know...

you got to check this pedal!

I also own HASH and NR-2 too
but I put them on my storeroom.......