Increasing sustain on metal tones

Both the front panel NOISE GATE and STOMPS Noise Gate(s) are deactivated?

I'd say humbucker pickups, a bit of compression as well in the stomps section. And a guitar with good sustain. And turn up the gain of course if there is room for that.

Quote from theplayer

Hi Don, Unfortunately not quite. It's a distorted sound and that's why I have set my front panel NG to 4.5. The noise gate stomp is idle.

How is the 'sustain' (decay, really) without the front Noise Gate, ignoring the noise issue for now?

I go for more sustain by

1) using the COMPRESSOR stomp before the amp set to:

- Intensity 3.0-5.0

- Attack 2.5

- Mix 85%.

2) Using a TREBLE BOOSTER after the amp with:

- Tone 1.0-2.5

- Mix 10-25%

- Ducking .5-1.5. Usually closer to 1.5.

The compressor can be thought of as the opposite of a NOISE GATE, so it adds sustain. The intensity ramps up sustain but also colors the tone a little. You will get a little less defined thumpy sound with higher gain. Vary the ATTACK as needed.

The DUCKING feature is a form of compression. Where the signal is quiet then slowly builds in volume after a pick attack. So any stomp with DUCKING could be used to try and slowly boost your volume after an attacked note. When used after the amp, the DUCKING setting can be less touchy then before the amp. The TREBLE BOOSTER will color your tone a little and roll of some high end. So you can try any DUCKING effect here. Your goal is to set the ducking to where it does not change your tone until after a note is ringing out for a little bit.

Quote from theplayer

The gain is full throttle...!

That wasn't the question. The question was if you switch off the noise gate does it sustain? This is to establish if its the noise gate ( which I suspect it is).

Quote from theplayer

I have a Jimmy Page Les Paul with humbuckers for many years (see my avatar). I guess this is good for sustain The gain is all the way up.... I'll also try some compression.

I'll try your suggestions also. Thanks! But I don't have any good noteciable results with Ducking sofar.

The ducking is trying to thread a needle. It all depends on how much gate you have.

Lets say your guitar output / dynamic range is 0-100. The gate is taking that from like 30-100. The DUCKING is trying to make the section between 30-100 non linear. If the gate is set more like 60-100, Ducking will not help much probably. Meaning too much gate may be un-fixable.

If the gate is the issue, you need a cleaner profile. Or add a LOW CUT EQ at around 2-2.5kHz as your first stomp. This will hurt your pinch harmonics and attack but may help you find what works for you sustain wise. Since you will be able lower the gate cutoff.

I wish I knew why some profiles are really noisy and some are not. Sometimes changing the IR helps a little if the IR cuts the right freq where the noise is extra present.

There are a lot of noise sources around houses, so even with humbuckers or noiseless single coils I find high gain tough to get quiet without a gate. In my case it's more Gilmour than metal, but still the same.

What pickups are you using?

whats your clean / distorted sensitivity set at ?

And your general input level ?

I never need to take my gain past 3/4s. On any profile.

I use noise gate and compression at about 5.5 mixed at 100 %

What do you get if you knock off the amps gain and drive it from the front end more ?

I'd like to hear a sample of your sustain. I can get almost as long of sustain with single coils as I do with HBs, and I try never to use a noise gate with HBs. If I use the Metal DS in front of an amp then sustain can go on for like forever.

Quote from theplayer

I'm sorry V8guitar. I had the front gate open around 4.5 because there was a lot of noise. So I now closed this gate and got a reasonable amount of sustain but then noise takes over...

BTW: the used rig is the Blackstar HT60C from the Rig Exchange .

Sounds me like you have a particularly noisy profile.

Its always a balance between noise suppression and sustain, which is thr same for vavle amps etc. The only things I think you can do are:

1) Look for high gain profiles with a better signal to noise ratio

2) Make sure your noise gate is set on the very threshold of cutting the noise

3) A compressor definitely helps

I do prefer the STOMP 4:1 Noise Gate for high gain tones.

And does the guitar have a good setup? Too low string action will give less sustain.

Quote from GearJocke

And does the guitar have a good setup? Too low string action will give less sustain.

Good point, along with new strings and pickup height correct