Are there any DIY noise gate out there?
Something that will take away the noise inherent to high-gain pedals.
Thanks.
Zener
There's one at tonepad.
http://www.tonepad.com/project.asp?id=18
I built the Gaines Noise Gate a while back (hammer.ampage.org page 3). Didn't work out too well and gave up on it. I'm going to build the MXR gate from Tonepad.com when I finish what I'm on right now. The reviews sound promising.
I have the real MXR noise gate and it seems to work OK for me.
I've been working on the Boss NS-2 for a short while. It's pretty tough going so far. The schematic I have done so far doesn't seem like it will work properly.
Build the MXR Noise gate at tonepad. Easy to build and very effective.
I highly recommend the SSM2166 IC, as long as you don't mind soldering surface mount. You can get sockets from Digi-Key that allow one to solder a 14-pin SOIC on top and it has the 14 pin DIP pinout that makes it useable for perf-boarding and bread-board experimentation.
The SSM2166 is a very easy-to-use unit and the datasheet has a schematic and PCB layout for use as a general preamp/compressor/noise gate. For noise gating, it does well, I used it for a Senior design project and it squelched ambient noise from radio and people talking into a microphone, so it should be nicely adjustable for use with guitar.
I'm in the process of building the compressor/noise gate/ preamp primarily for use with my acoustic guitar. The compressor can be adjusted to a 1/1 ratio (no compression), so it can be used as a unity gain amplifier with a noise gate.
Go to google and type in "SSM2166 datasheet", and it should come up.
The IC itself is about $5.00 available from Allied Electronics, and I think Small Bear stocks it as well...
If you want my PCB layout and schematic from Eagle Layout Editor, email me at transmogrifox@yahoo.com and I'll send it. If you don't have Eagle, you can download a limited version of it from their site...which should be sufficient for viewing and printing the PCB.
the craig anderton one is really quite nice..
Part of what will determine an "ideal" noise gate for you will be the sorts of noise and noise levels you normally encounter and how you play. All of that will also be further qualified by where in your signal chain you need to stick a noise gate. The Gaines Noise Gate, for instance, more or less assumes it will be dealing with pretty hot signals nearer to the end of the signal chain.