So I swapped my Decimator for a TC Sentry.

[Rex_Rocker]

And I'm pleased! I've never been happy with the Decimator, TBH. If you're looking at noise gates, I feel the Sentry is a better noise gate than the Decimator.

It's not a night and day difference, but I feel the Sentry can be set faster and tighter. In fact, it just can overall be tweaked, while the Decimator can't. Neither is 100% transparent, though. I've yet to try any of the boutique offerings, but I keep reading the Zuul isn't transparent either.

The Decimator's bypass sucks too. It's noisy. With the Decimator in the signal chain, but turned off, there is more background hiss than with it out of the chain.

So yeah, if you don't mind a bit of tweaking (not even that much as Gary Holt's preset just works right with minimal tweaking), the Sentry is a better gate for metal than the Decimator.

Just wanted to say.

 

[Hank-]

Was it the simple Decimator pedal or the G string one?

The sentry gate is quite tweakable with their app, helps alot to have the extra parameters to customize the pedal to suit per need.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Was it the simple Decimator pedal or the G string one?

The sentry gate is quite tweakable with their app, helps alot to have the extra parameters to customize the pedal to suit per need.

Oh, forgot to menntion. It was the simple one. V1 too.

Don't get me wrong. It was OK. I've also tried the EHX Silencer and the Boss NS-2, and it was better than both. But the Sentry is just overall better.

 

[Bogner]

I am a big fan of ISP. I like the V1 pedal over the V2 personally but have all the various options along with the rack units. I haven't found anything I personally like better than ISP stuff. If your pedal order, power supply, outlet power and cabling is dialed in then you are well ahead of the game compared to most. If one or several of those things are shoddy there probably isn't a product that will alleviate all the noise.

 

[IMENATOR]

Oh, forgot to menntion. It was the simple one. V1 too.

Don't get me wrong. It was OK. I've also tried the EHX Silencer and the Boss NS-2, and it was better than both. But the Sentry is just overall better.

I think you may be comparing apples to oranges, the Sentry has a loop and the regular Decimator does not. Having the clean guitar at the input the noisy pedals/amp in the loop makes the performance way better. I have the Decimator G String ii and it works great, no noise in its buffer. However I admit I am interested in the tweakability the Sentry could offer.

 

[Dudeman7]

I have the little ISP Deci-Mate mounted under my board, always on. It doesn't seem to cause any problems at all and I am thrilled with its noise killing capabilities. Wish I had one years ago.

Never used the Sentry but it is definitely good to know that it works. Might look into one if my ISP ever dies.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I think you may be comparing apples to oranges, the Sentry has a loop and the regular Decimator does not. Having the clean guitar at the input the noisy pedals/amp in the loop makes the performance way better. I have the Decimator G String ii and it works great, no noise in its buffer. However I admit I am interested in the tweakability the Sentry could offer.

I am not using the loop of the Sentry. I don't need to. I just use a tuner and the noise gate.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I am a big fan of ISP. I like the V1 pedal over the V2 personally but have all the various options along with the rack units. I haven't found anything I personally like better than ISP stuff. If your pedal order, power supply, outlet power and cabling is dialed in then you are well ahead of the game compared to most. If one or several of those things are shoddy there probably isn't a product that will alleviate all the noise.

My problem with it wasn't really the noise. It gated fine... just a bit too slow for my taste. I cranked the knob as far as it would go without actually killing notes (at about 12 o'clock), but in front of a raging half-stack, it just didn't kill the feedback fast enough IME. The Sentry is faster in that regard.

Like I said, the Decimator is not a POS. It's way more usable than other gates. It's just I feel the Sentry is better for start/stop fast chuggah riffs.