Simple noise gate recommendation?

[Mark Hammer]

Someone refresh me on why we never collectively came up with something based on the LM1894 chip for guitar.  http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm1894.pdf

As for abruptness, it will depend on the application.  If a gate is applied to a kick drum, one generally wants the cutoff to be fairly abrupt.  But for guitar, yes, one needs a longer decay - a fadeout rather than a switch-like "gate".

[blackieNYC]

I was just looking at that today.  Max noise reduction? 10dB. 14dB if you squeeze it a little.

[PRR]

> refresh me on why we never ...based on the LM1894

Superficially: because Linear was trying to push "DNR" as a trademarked competitor to Dolby, and would not sell you the chips without a License agreement.

The chips did appear on the replacement market, so not unobtainium, but I dunno how easy to find and how polluted with fakes.

Related bumph:
http://www.ti.com/lit/an/snoa670c/snoa670c.pdf
http://www.ti.com/lit/an/snaa089c/snaa089c.pdf

> 10dB. 14dB if you squeeze it a little.

It takes the edge off. If you need a bigger hammer, you probably have bigger audio problems.

[Transmogrifox]

As for determining where a noise gate will have the most advantage for you, start by shorting the guitar cable at the input of your signal chain and see if the noise from the high gain pedals is tolerable.  Work your way toward the amp from there and see what generates the most intolerable noise, and try your best to get the noise gate into a position ahead of high gain pedals.  Usually the noise you hear at the output of a high gain pedal is the same noise that was at its input.  In other words, the additional noise generated by the high gain pedal is often not the noise you hear, but it's something else that's getting amplified by 1000x by your metal zone (or whatever).

Even in a software multi-FX chain compressors and distortion appear to "make noise", but all they're doing is amplifying what's already on the input.  For the DSP multi-FX noise gate on the front end is a no-brainer because these virtual circuits are noise-free (unless some idiot programmer decided it was a good idea to add noise to a virtual circuit to make it a more "real-to-life" model of something).

For an analog FX chain, there certainly is some noise generated in each circuit in the signal chain, so there is some sense associated with positioning a noise gate further down the chain.  If you're limiting your pedalboard size such that you can only accommodate one noise gate, then you may have to settle for a configuration that is "good enough".

I think the main point that was meant is take some time to figure out what MAKES noise and gate it right at the source.  Gate the noise BEFORE it gets amplified.

Since more than one thing makes noise going down your signal chain, you may have to experiment to find the optimal position for your noise gate.