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So after waiting more than a bloody month, my ISP Decimator finally arrived today from the eBay store Amp Shop. Naturally I was excited as I've heard so many good things about it, and I was eager to test it beside my Boss NS-2.
About the looks, wow... I can't tell you how amazing it is to see this pedal in person. There's just something about the smoooooooth polished chrome casing, with its mirror-like finish.. it's beautiful, and it's resistant to fingerprints. The one Threshold knob adds a nice touch of simplicity too. The range goes from -70 to +10 dB, so you really could use this pedal for any application.
The first thing I did was plug the pedal in front of the amp where I usually put my NS-2. It took a bit of adjusting of the Threshold knob to get above the noise floor, but I eventually found a spot that I usually use for the NS-2, that being a quick, gate-like setting. As I expected there was no tone loss, and staccato notes came through, leaving no noise trail after them. Setting the Threshold knob any higher than just below -30 dB completely cut off my guitar's signal, but I guess that goes to show the range of the Decimator. One thing that bugged me though was that in front of the amp, and regardless of the Threshold setting on the Decimator, it just didn't cut as much noise from the amp as the NS-2 did.
Putting the pedal in the FX loop of my noisy Randall gave me the effect I've been looking for. Engaging the pedal with the Threshold anywhere above around -30 dB completely cut the noise coming from the preamp, making it sound like the amp was off, even on the highest gain settings. Increasing the Threshold after this point was like adjusting the Threshold on my NS-2 for a gating effect. I found it works for my Start/Stop metal style at around -24 dB. Once again, setting the knob higher than about -20 reduced or cut off the guitar's signal. I managed to get the gated silence I wanted, but even after a chord was silenced the amp was still feeding back with the Decimator on if I was standing close enough. This was never an issue with my NS-2? (I don't get why this is... can anybody explain that? I thought the pedal was supposed to stop that sort of thing?)
I must admit, I'm somewhat torn between this and the NS-2 now... I'm just not completely satisfied. I wasn't expecting a noise gate that was transparent, as that's not what the Decimator is, it just doesn't have the same feel as the NS-2, which has grown on me. With the Decimator, it's like the sound is slowly being sucked away into a tube. With the NS-2, it's like the sound just hits a brick wall and stops. If that makes any sense, I'm accustomed to and prefer the brick wall type noise reduction. Is there any other sort of noise GATE that has the same silencing effect as the Decimator with the signal chop-off of the NS-2?
What I agreed with my friend and other guitarist in my band was that I would sell him my NS-2, and keep the Decimator. He said that if I wasn't completely satisfied with the Decimator, we could trade so that I could have my NS-2 back. So what should I do? Is there any solution so that I can be happy with the Decimator, or was it just a bad purchase on my part?
*EDIT* There's one other thing I just discovered. With the Decimator in the effects loop, whenever I hit the strings hard on a clean setting, there's this really loud popping noise coming through the amp... this never happened before, only when this pedal is in the loop.
About the looks, wow... I can't tell you how amazing it is to see this pedal in person. There's just something about the smoooooooth polished chrome casing, with its mirror-like finish.. it's beautiful, and it's resistant to fingerprints. The one Threshold knob adds a nice touch of simplicity too. The range goes from -70 to +10 dB, so you really could use this pedal for any application.
The first thing I did was plug the pedal in front of the amp where I usually put my NS-2. It took a bit of adjusting of the Threshold knob to get above the noise floor, but I eventually found a spot that I usually use for the NS-2, that being a quick, gate-like setting. As I expected there was no tone loss, and staccato notes came through, leaving no noise trail after them. Setting the Threshold knob any higher than just below -30 dB completely cut off my guitar's signal, but I guess that goes to show the range of the Decimator. One thing that bugged me though was that in front of the amp, and regardless of the Threshold setting on the Decimator, it just didn't cut as much noise from the amp as the NS-2 did.
Putting the pedal in the FX loop of my noisy Randall gave me the effect I've been looking for. Engaging the pedal with the Threshold anywhere above around -30 dB completely cut the noise coming from the preamp, making it sound like the amp was off, even on the highest gain settings. Increasing the Threshold after this point was like adjusting the Threshold on my NS-2 for a gating effect. I found it works for my Start/Stop metal style at around -24 dB. Once again, setting the knob higher than about -20 reduced or cut off the guitar's signal. I managed to get the gated silence I wanted, but even after a chord was silenced the amp was still feeding back with the Decimator on if I was standing close enough. This was never an issue with my NS-2? (I don't get why this is... can anybody explain that? I thought the pedal was supposed to stop that sort of thing?)
I must admit, I'm somewhat torn between this and the NS-2 now... I'm just not completely satisfied. I wasn't expecting a noise gate that was transparent, as that's not what the Decimator is, it just doesn't have the same feel as the NS-2, which has grown on me. With the Decimator, it's like the sound is slowly being sucked away into a tube. With the NS-2, it's like the sound just hits a brick wall and stops. If that makes any sense, I'm accustomed to and prefer the brick wall type noise reduction. Is there any other sort of noise GATE that has the same silencing effect as the Decimator with the signal chop-off of the NS-2?
What I agreed with my friend and other guitarist in my band was that I would sell him my NS-2, and keep the Decimator. He said that if I wasn't completely satisfied with the Decimator, we could trade so that I could have my NS-2 back. So what should I do? Is there any solution so that I can be happy with the Decimator, or was it just a bad purchase on my part?
*EDIT* There's one other thing I just discovered. With the Decimator in the effects loop, whenever I hit the strings hard on a clean setting, there's this really loud popping noise coming through the amp... this never happened before, only when this pedal is in the loop.
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