(Un)Bring the Noise
Dear Dude,
I know you have mentioned this on your site before but I was looking for more detail. What noise reduction units do you use live and what would you suggest?
Thanks
(UN)Bring the Noise
Dear (UN)Bring the Noise,
A lot of guitarists out there don’t understand that the most important piece of gear on stage may be the one that is designed to make no noise at all. That’s right having a noise suppression pedal or rack unit is a must for any live guitarist. I am sure there are many dudes who haven’t thought hard about it but its true, hitting all those rest notes in your song is just as important as hitting all the other notes. Whether you’re playing screaming loud metal, rocking country, or even new age music, you don’t want your shit to feedback or even make noise when you’re not playing. So what does a dude like myself use to solve this problem? Well it all starts with my favorite piece of gear, and yep it makes no sound at all.
I have tried all types of pedals and rack units in my time. Having switched between using all types of heads, cabs, and combinations of pedals live I have put some shit through the ringer. What have I found? Well if I’m in a pinch and I don’t have my regular rig I may fall back on the old Boss NS 2 pedal. Simple and relatively inexpensive this is the most common noise suppressor I see out there. Most dudes just run it cranked as hard as they can. Now this pedal has gotten me though more then a few live concerts and don’t get me wrong it works (most of the time). But like I said the Boss NS 2, its just my fall back plan.
The unit I use live and swear by is my ISP Decimator Pro Rack G. This rack unit is stereo so it allows me to run two heads through it at the same time. This way I can set the threshold of either head in case one is running hotter then the other. Look this unit works; it cleans up the sound perfectly choking it tight and clean. You can set the sensitivity of each gate as well (something the boss pedal also doesn’t really let you do). This little guy is the secret to cleaning up my live sound on the front end, but its not the only secret.
For years I have been fighting light buzz and stage noise. Every night Darkest Hour is in a new club with different power circuits (shit sometimes we even play off of gas powered generators!). These different circuits and stage/house wiring make each night its own little adventure. Yep it means that every night when I plug in my amp we might have some new noise or buzz to contest with. Dude let me tell you it’s annoying as fuck! I hate stage noise it can take your concert from a 10 to a 7 real fast. But it wasn’t until recently that I discovered another technique that helped fight the war on noise.
The ISP is great but didn’t stop the amps from buzzing totally. To do that I had to rely on my old friend the effects loop. I have written about the many amazing uses of the effects loop but none work better then the one I am about to tell you. See in addition to running the ISP through the front of my rig I also run a separate Hush Super C Stereo Noise Suppressor though the effects loops of all the heads I am running. This allows me to clean up the signal between the pre and power amp of my head, and this is where 90% of my “unexplained” buzz comes from (by “unexplained” buzz I mean buzz that is not obviously associated with pedal or gain noise). By running a unit in the front of the head I can clean up all my pedal noise and by running a separate unit for the effects loop I can control my overall noise reduction even more. 
Now, you probably aren’t running stereo heads, 9 or 10 pedals, an outboard effects unit, and fighting a shit load of lights for power every night so honestly the Boss NS 2 may just work for you (Or even the ISP pedal version of the rack pictured to the left).
The Boss NS2 is the most common noise suppressor unit that I see dudes rocking these days. Unfortunately it never really seemed to kill the entire buzz for me clean enough so I continued to explore more options. For me the only definitive way to control stage and amp noise is to use noise suppressor units in front of my head as well as in the Effects loop but, if I had to suggest any one unit for its ultimate rockness it would be the GSP Decimator Pro Rack G from ISP technologies, nothing sounds like nothing better then the pro rack G!
The Dude