ISP Technologies Decimator Noise Reducer

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.

Although it is ridiculously simple to use with just one knob, it can be tough to find the right setting that will suit your needs, especially if you play high gain metal and the like. The single Threshold knob has a very wide range for any application you could imagine but I found it's also pretty sensitive.

I run an Ibanez SZ520QM with EMG 81b/60n into a Randall RG100SC 100 watt 2x12 combo (the original model, not the G2 series). I've tried the Decimator both in front of the amp and in the effects loop. If you use it in front, you will be disappointed if you like your rig to be really quiet because it doesn't silence as much hiss as the Boss NS-2 does. Plus it doesn't have a very pronounced gating effect. With the Threshold set too low, you don't get as much noise reduction, and with it set too high you can kill your sustain and if you turn it up even more, you won't get any sound from your guitar.

In the FX loop of the amp is where this pedal is supposed to excel. Playing with the Threshold control I don't think I really found a setting I liked. HOWEVER, it could cut out ALL the noise, so my really hissy Randall amp was COMPLETELY SILENT and I could've sworn it was off, no joke. The problem was that in the loop it did nothing to prevent feedback... there was no noise but I almost couldn't avoid hearing screeching feedback that I couldn't silence. I tried it at band volumes at a practice and the same problem was present: infinite feedback that wouldn't stop until I found a decent place to stand. I guess it did what it was supposed to do, but I still wasn't satisfied.

I think it's a solid pedal, built like a tank. Never had any problems with its functionality.

I never had to deal with ISP so I can't comment.

I've been playing guitar for maybe 5 or 6 years, and the whole time I've played mostly Metal. I thought the Decimator was an outstanding pedal that did exactly what it was supposed to do, that is it was meant to silence the noise coming from an amp. But I expected a more noise gate-like effect and I didn't get it.

The bottom line is, if you're looking for a noise suppressor that will let you do stop-start type things and take away a lot of your noise, go for the Boss NS-2. If you want to make your amp dead silent but don't care about a nice signal chop-off that a gate has to offer, get the ISP.

I decided the Boss NS-2 just suits me a lot better for what I like. It's all in what you like.

As everybody has said this is probably the simplest format you could imagine, one knob to alter the threshold.

However, although this does the job in hand i did find that i was only moving within about 5% of the available range and i do think that the system, although simplistic could provide more control. Maybe over a smaller range of frequencies.

I play an RG550ltd with EMG 81 and 85, a JEM 7V, a Jackson SL-2 with 81 and 81 and an ESP m-II custom, again with EMGs through a mk I Peavey 5150 Signature series and a Mesa Recto slanted 4x12, and i have my decimator as the sole pedal in my effects loop.

I play technical thrash/speed metal using the 5150's high gain channel. Although i got a great tone when playing any time between was dominated by unbearable hiss and uncontrollable feedback, and not just at gig volume.

The decimator, ahem, decimated the hiss in seconds without noticably killing sustain or taking away from top end. Although at first i did feel that certain notes were getting clipped but a bit of tweaking and this was barely audible, and was definitely a worthwhile trade off with the loss of the hiss.

I've had no problems at all, it's been dropped, kicked, fallen from all sorts of places and it still works a treat, it may look like a boss pedal but it's made of sterner stuff.

N/A

Taking into account the cost, the reliability, and the trade-off between cleaning up the signal and loss of sound quality i would be hard pushed to think of something i'd rather use.

It's infinitely better than the Boss NS series, and i'd say personally, i prefer it to MXR's M135 Smart Gate pedal, which is very good as well.

You may be able to get a better end result from far more expensive and complicated rack units (although experience of Behringer and Digitech units, the 2101 was a particular disappointment). But I am yet to do so and am more than happy with the Decimator and would not be looking any further for my noise reduction in the future.

If mine got lost or stolen i'd buy another straight away.

One knob. Retard proof.

I use this after all my high gain or noisy pedals. PRS Custom 22 into EVH Phase 90->Keeley Comp.->Keeley TS9->Keeley DS-1 SEM->Decimator into Hiwatt Custom 100.

Best noise reduction I've ever tried, period. The lowest and highest threshold settings are "out of range" of normal guitar playing so you'll be setting this near 12 o'clock. For this reason, I wish ISP had dedicated a narrower threshold range to the sweep so you could have more control on the edge of the threshold.

When your amp is cranked and you have all your high gain pedals active, step on the Decimator and it's like the amp is on standby. Any old noise gate can do that, but this pedal really shines in opening & closing the gate. There's no chatter, just a smooth ramp. The tops of your notes don't get clipped. The sustain is reduced somewhat, but at that point, the noise is equal to or greater than your signal anyway.

As far as transparancy is concerned, I hear a little extra thickness in the low-mids when active. This might be compression, but it's fairly subtle.

I've owned it for 6 months and it's been fine. However, if you use a battery, beware when the battery starts to sag as this will produce unwanted "bad connection" sounds. I use a Pedal Power 2 so there's no issue.

N/A

Been playing for 20 years and I like hard rock and metal, and I think this pedal was made for high-gain players. It's the best pedal I've added in a long time. I will never be without one again.

If you're like me, the sound of your amp humming & buzzing at high volume makes you want to punch a baby, the Decimator will keep you in good standing with infants all over the world.

Turn your rig on turn this on, turn the knob until the ocean disappears . . . Done! No manual needed.

I use Randall RH100 Solid State amps and my house is very old and poorly grounded. The distortion channel in these amps is noisy by itself in my house, a Decimator in the effects loop and POOF, no noise. I use a Boss Metal Zone in front of the Randalls clean channel. The Metal Zone is a noisy beast and when coupled with lousy grounding, the nasty hum and noise is horrific. Put the Decimator at the end of the chain, turn the knob . . . silence, until you bash a chord and it almost scares you because it comes out of nowhere.

This thing is heavier than any Boss pedal I have ever came across. It looks to be built like a good truck.

No support has been needed, I hope it stays that way :)

I play loud hard rock and metal and punk and thrash. I have been playing 18 years or so. This is by far the best thing I have ever bought for electric guitars.