ISP Technologies Decimator Noise Reducer

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.......

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!