ISP Technologies Decimator Noise Reducer

Do you really need a manual? Only one knob to be tweak!! Dead simple.

I have tried the Decimator with Fender P-90 which is quite noisy as P-90 can be, along with Fulldrive 2 MOSFET go through Fender Twin Reverb. I added Decimator at the last place before the signal go to Amp. After turn on Decmimator...It's a jaw dropping moment, dead quiet. Very clean and Transparent. The Time Vector just did the trick, the CPU decides clevery to release short or long notes.

I don't think I will need any back up. The unit looks very solid.

haven't contacted them yet. Doesn't need to, I supposed.

I have been playing around 12 years. I have tried a Rocktron HUSH and Boss NS-2, neither can come close to the ISP. With this price, If I lost one of this, I will definitely get a new one. I can't be missed on pedal board, ever!!

Couldn't really be easier, you'd have to have a hollow for a head to be confused by it.

I run a 5150 combo with hi-gain tubes and run the tubes hard - the high gain causes alot of interference, in fact, enough interference to make me angry enough to get a decimator pedal.


I have to say, isp do do a very good job, i haven't really noticed any significant change in tone, my 5150 still sounds rude but now lacks the interference and cuts to silence upon muting - Does what it says on the tin :D

It's built like a tank, really, no kidding, i'd be happy to use it in hand to hand combat in between gigs, it really is just a chunk of metal.

Not had the displeasure yet, hopefully i will be able to avoid customer service entirely

I can see this pedal being invaluable for any guitarist who plays at volume, at hi gain or for owners of rowdy pedal boards.

I personally think it's great, i would particularly recommend this pedal to Metal heads who like to really crank those amps.

very easy, 1 dial, turn it to the level you need.

i found that this could sound bad if you rely on the battery. with 9v adaptor however, it's awesome.

people who say about killing sustain etc should either switch it off for solos or just drop the level a bit. i don't have any issues going from distorted to clean, unlike some reviews, but i guess the solution for those guys would be to drop the gain on the distortion so you can lower the level of the noise gate, thus meaning less gating on the clean.

no colouration, no treble cut like someone else said.

i had to send the 1st one back because it was creating its own noise (not good!)got the 2nd one, once i used the adapter, no problem

the company itself didn't get involved, i went through highly strung whose support was crazily good. send it back, we'll give you another one. simple.

i find that if you set it to take care of general hiss clean then it should be fine. if your pedal feedbacks, either learn to love the noise or turn the gate up. personally, i like the staccato effects you can get, it just does what i need it to.

it doesn't clean up noise when playing, but to be fair, why would it?

i'd recommend it over the boss noise gate, i've compared them both and this wins hands down. awesome unit.

This unit is about as easy as it gets, one knob. The controll knob is very precise.

I play mostly Death Metal and Grindcore stuff. For my setup I run a N.J. series Beast tuned a step and a half down, through a wireless unit, into a Boss Metal Zone, Hendrix Wah, then the Decimator into a Mesa Triple Rect with a Mesa 4X12 recto cab. This pedal works great with my setup. It cut my noise with out any effects on to just barely above my standby noise. With the gain on my amp AND distortion pedal turn way up with the ISP unit set at the 11:30 to 12:00 area it is so quiet that I can hear the clock in my practice room ticking. No more screeching and squeeling and it lets you play with a monsterous tone when you bash out a chord. This thing is what I've been looking for. It lets me get a tone very close the Static-X roar and then silence deal they have going. My only gripe is that it may need to be tweaked a little if you do a guitar change. The thing is so simple to use that it not a big deal though.

This thing is built like a bar of lead, seems to be very tough. But it's still new so I guess I'll find out how reliable it is in the future.

I didn't deal with ISP directly but my tech guy said Buck was pleasant to deal with and got the pedal to him quickly.

I've been playing Metal for about 7 years and wish I had this pedal from the begining. If it went missing I would replace it as fast I as could get another one. It makes brutal metal even more vicious because it lets me play with a very pro/precise tone with great stops. It also lets you control how quickly the gate closes so it sounds more natural, not cut off to quickly, unless you want it that way. I hate when great tone is killed by a rig that sounds over produced. Gone are the days with screeching and poping before and after songs. This thing is worth every cent I paid!

It's a bit picky, but overall not too hard to set up.

I bought this pedal blind based on the claims that it is completely transparent and doesn't effect your attack or sustain. The problem I have with this unit is that while it does come very close to acheiving tansparency in those areas, after spending some time with it I've realized that your sound is slightly colored by the Decimator even after you've set it properly.

My primary issue with the performance of the Decimator is the effect it has on palm mutes: it takes away a little bit of the punch and on various amps will have them sounding slightly sounding mushy or rounded off. Sustain is probably where the ISP comes closest to living up to the claims, as it indeed allows the advertised "natural decay" with only the faintest loss in sustain, but the loss is noticeable.

In the last paragraph I said that the palm mute issue was my biggest gripe, but I should've said second biggest. Whether it's used in the chain or the effects loop, (as goes for everything mentioned above) the Decimator taints the sound of your axe with an ever so slight "tinny" sound to the highs and causes a slight drop in what sounds like the upper midrange. I'd also have to describe it as making your sound a little more sterile. I know that term gets kicked around a lot, usually in reference to EMGs and SS amps, and the ISP doesn't impart any of that onto your tone, but the effect it does have I can only describe as sterile. It's very, very slight and I'm not suprised that most people can't hear it, but after extensively A/B ing it on several diiferent amp/pedal/axe combinations, there is no question that it is there. A lot of people rated this pedal at 98-99% transparency, but I'd have to say it's more like 90%. Granted, in a live situation nobody in the crowd's going to shout out "Hey, that guy's gate is really sterilizing his tone!", and even band members probably won't notice it, but the effect is there.

As for it's actual suppression of sound, I'd also have to say it's a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, the Decimator does have the capability to tame even a dimed Metal Zone with only the minor tone coloration described above, and the claims that it makes your amp so quiet you'd swear it was off are to be believed, but there are a couple of drawbacks. First off, the way the threshold works is that it will kill all of your feedback below a certain point. If your feedback level builds up to the point where it exceeds the gate's threshold (a scenario which usually occurs when you have your hands off the strings for more than a few seconds) , the feedback immediately becomes audible at full volume with no reduction in sound from the Decimator. You know how feedback usually gradually builds in volume so you have time to kill your guitar volume? With the ISP you get a piercing squeal that comes out of nowhere if you get careless. It also really pisses off band and crowd members. Also, and I suppose this is more of a critique on the nature of gates in general rather than this unit in particular, the hum from your guitar which is "decimated" when you put this pedal in your chain and aren't playing comes right back into the mix when you resume playing and is not filtered out in any way. I can chalk that last one up to unreasonable expectations on my part and I wouldn't bust it just for that, but the other problems I mentioned make me unable to give this product a full recommendation.

On the flip side, I will say that there is definitely no pedal out there that beats the Decimator at what it does, but this is still not nearly the magic box that it's made out to be.

Very, very nicely made unit, heavier than anything else it's size and a good number of larger boxes as well. The chrome on this thing is very nice and will make it stand out in your board. Switches on and off every time. Sturdier than any Boss pedal.

I give it a 6 with an extra point because I do believe this is the best thing going right now as far as noise gates are concerned, but it does demonstrate some areas in which noise reduction technology as a whole could use some development. Personally, I'm trading mine in while this is still a hot product.

It has one knob and you either have it on or off, how much more easy could it be?

I have a bogner uberschall, esp M-2, and I was using a mxr zakk wylde overdrive in the front end and an mxr 10eq in the back end. I had a boss ns-2 with me and I wanted to see which was better. To my surprise the decimator elimanated more noise than the NS-2. I wanted to try it against an mxr smart gate but I didn't have one avaliable. Also having the the decimator in my signal chanine didnt effect the signal at all.

I've had mine for 3 months and havne't had a problem with it yet.

I sent an e-mail requesting information about the decimator rackmount g and never got a response.

This is a great pedal, it will kill any noise in your signal without changing the tone.

Stupidly simple to use. Comes with a one page manual.

I bought this pedal based on the reviews posted below,and a few magazine reviews, most of which seem to be drooling over this pedal. The only review I read for this pedal that actually listed any cons was Guitar Player.

I used with a Carvin Legacy head and a Schecter C-1 with Seymour Duncan JB/'59 pickups. I get a very slight hiss from my effects chain, and with the gain on the lead channel past 7.5 I get some real nasty feedback. Above all, I wanted to try to eliminate the feedback.

I tried it both in the effects loop and between the guitar and my amps input. It actually seemed to work better between the guitar and amp, before my effects loop. Turning my guitars volume down, I turned the threshold knob clockwise until all noise disappeared. At this pint it was around 9 o'clock. When I turned the volume of my guitar back up and started playing, it wasn't enough, so the threshhold eventually made its way to 11 o'clock.

So here's where it gets ugly. Set at 11 o'clock, it seemed to take care of the problem, I had dead silence before I started to play again. However, at this setting, it was starting to take away from my sustain, and it didn't keep the noise out every time that I stopped playing again. I didn't dare turn the threshold up further as it was already starting to cut off notes.

Now I move on to the clean channel having taken care of the noisier of the two, and this thing is absolutely killing my clean sound. If i pick anything somewhat lightly, it struggles to get through or doesn't sound at all. Sure, I coulld just shut the pedal off when I play clean, but I use a few effects and I just don't want the hassle of switching to the clean channel on my fotswitch, then shutting of the decimator, then messing with whatever effects I might use. It's too much tap dancing.

I only kept it for a week. It looks pretty tough though.

I can't say, I didn't deal with them.

The decimator is OK at best in my opinion. It's a little better than most noise supressors, but theres stil plenty of room for improvement. It either does too much or does too little. It's not a terrible pedal, I think what you get out of it all depends on your playing style. The things I hated about it, such as it killing my very softly played clean parts and cutting my really sustained notes too short, probably wouldn't matter to some guy playing mosh metal riffs through a 5150 or a Krank or something. It all depends on what you're going to use it for I suppose.

I will give it this much, it doesn't degrade your tone a bit.

Writing this review to dispel the few occasional myths about this pedal. It is very easy to use, and could be used to gate some LOUD noise. I give it a 9 to be fair because in all honesty, it is not hard to not get the best possible sound out of this pedal.

This noisegate is AMAZING. I had the boss NS-2 and it did not do what I wanted it to do, although it is a good gate. This pedal took about 5 minutes to tweek, and completely stops all amp/effects noise and as long as you have your hand over the strings, it will stop feedback, which the NS-2 would not do. I use an ESP mx-3 usa into a VHT 100Cl with about 6 effects total. Run this in your effects loop behind everything (unless you have delays, reverbs, etc.) and turn up to the volume level you play at. Turn the knob until it slightly reduces your volume. Then, turn it back a hair to get your normal volume back sans noise, and bang, you done. This amp is a must for high gain applications. really cleans up your sound. People complain that it clips your sustain. All you have to do is very slightly decrease the effect and it will allow you to keep your sustain and still reduc the noise. They really did a good job with this one, i wouldnt be surprised if Boss's next noise supressor incorporates this type of technology.

Built a lot like boss pedals, might even be more solid, definitely would gig without a backup, its almost always on anyway, so its not like it'll get much wear and tear.

I love this thing, it really helped clean up all the noise from my effects chain and makes practice a lot more coherent without all the feedback I used to get (we practice in a small room). This pedal is one of the most useful I have, that and the Boss Enhancer. If you think you've tried every noise gat there is, think again, this pedal will help you if you think you need a damn good gate.

One knob, works easily. I got no manual w/ mine, the store lost it, along with the box I think, but not a problem.

I agree with the post below that it could offer a little more fine control. I have a rack expander that works wonders because of the extra parameters and control. I know this isn't fair to compare rack units to a pedal, but it's worth pointing out. Perhaps the simplicity is the selling point here.

Very easy, nonetheless.

Does the trick in most situations without problems. I use it as a multi-purpose personal studio tool, moving it around in signal chains where ever it may be useful. I have a bunch of odds and ends, it works well with hissy stuff, cleans it up for recording.

But it doesn't work miracles. It can clean up in between playing no problem, but only does so much once the "gate" is open. Sometimes it's just too much or not enough. For what it is though, this isn't a complaint, just a fact.

To its credit, it responds nicely and quickly and doesn't heavily suck away the uneffected tone.

Even though it's probably the best NR pedal out there right now, I give an 8 with room for improvement. Good product fidelity, not practically perfect though.

It's hardcore heavy duty.

no need.

I do a lot of different recording with different instruments, and I like that it's small and portable and and easy to move and set up pretty much instantly.

As far as I know it's the best out there. For as much as I wish it could clean up everything perfectly, obviously it can't do magic, but it is very handy. A rack expander and adjustable gate is better, but more hassle. With this it's easy and fast, and I use mine pretty much every time I'm recording on the go, so I'll let that speak for itself.

Can't say how it does in a live senario, I've never had an extreme stage hiss issue so I don't use this when playing shows.

It's fine and good for what it does, but given that they impressively crammed into pedal form, it's great. Could be better, hypothetically, but for what's on the market, it's as good as it gets, far as I know.

I wish it were more adjustable, but like I said the selling point is probably its utter simplicity, for players looking to toss a pedal into their rig to cut the hiss and be done with it. And it does indeed set up fast because it's so simple.

One knob. period.

Fender Stat + BK single coil = very noisy

It gets rid of the noise very well, but the knob is very sensitive. Turning a bit can keep it noisy, while turn it too far can cut your sound and sustain. It is really hard to find the ideal spot. I wish they would narrow the range so that finer adjustments can be made.

Reliable? Yes!

Email, but no reply. I haven't tried any other way of communicating, but honestly most people now use E-mail anyway.

In the end its an effective pedal. This product does not need a thorough review. It does what its meant to do, nothing more, nothing less.