Is The Kemper Noise Gate As Good As ISP Decimator?

  • Hi all,


    I’m a brand new Kemper Stage owner.

    I haven’t gotten to use it yet, as my guitar has been in the shop for repair.


    I use many high gain tones (ie; Testament, Periphery, Devin Townsend Project, 80’s metal, etc.)


    In your opinion, is the Kemper’s noise gate as good as say, the ISP Decimator?


    I do not use Strats, so no 60 cycle hum with my guitar— it’s a dual humbucker model with passive pickups.


    Thanks For Any Opinions Folks!

    -Matt

  • In my view, yes for a couple of reasons:

    You have a choice of 2 - a stomp that you can place anywhere and the front end noise gate which is a smart gate

    Noise can also come from pedals - if you use the internal effects instead, you have no additional noise added


    Both the decimator and the KPa noise gate of course have to be used carefully/set right to avoid unnatural decay...

  • I have a Decimator ProRack G that I used to clean up the stereo signal from my Triaxis rig. In the end I got my Triaxis repaired and the noise stopped without the gate. I’m not a super high gain metal player so I never really felt much need for the gate Other than to treat the symptoms of a problem when I should have been treating the cause 🤦‍♂️


    Therefore, I am probably not the best person to say whether the Kemper gate is as good as the ISP as it is user specific. However, general suggestions would be - for cleaning up noise the input Noise Gate is great. If you want the gate to act more as an effect that tightens up chugga chugga palm mutes you probably want to use one of the Noise Gates from the effects.

  • My "tester" is the intro to Highway to hell to get that silence inbetween the chords...even with relatively low gain on a valve amp there is often some hiss, but with a gate set just right its fab

  • Not sure what a decimator is but it sounds fantastic. I had to do a little fiddling with the noise gate to get the notes to speak for longer by now it works great. I mainly don’t use the stomp

    A brace of Suhrs, a Charvel, a toaster, an Apollo twin, a Mac, and a DXR10

  • The second advantage over either KpA gate is they can be locked and forgot, or the settings morphed or be turned up or down in each rig in say a performance. With a real pedal the ideal setting is a compromise. The ideal setting to adequately gate your lead sound may be too high for your rhythm sound, which still has some noise you’d like to address.

  • The second advantage over either KpA gate is they can be locked and forgot, or the settings morphed or be turned up or down in each rig in say a performance. With a real pedal the ideal setting is a compromise. The ideal setting to adequately gate your lead sound may be too high for your rhythm sound, which still has some noise you’d like to address.

    Really good point!


    Of course not just morph but you set the gate at a rig level...

  • The ISP Decimator G String II is a gate that can be placed late in your chain (e.g., just before the delay and reverb), but has a side chain input that senses the signal strait from the guitar. Because of this, it is not tricky to set - just set it so that it closes when you’re not playing (with the strings muted) and it won’t close on you while you’re playing. All gates should work this way IMO.

  • The ISP Decimator G String II is a gate that can be placed late in your chain (e.g., just before the delay and reverb), but has a side chain input that senses the signal strait from the guitar. Because of this, it is not tricky to set - just set it so that it closes when you’re not playing (with the strings muted) and it won’t close on you while you’re playing. All gates should work this way IMO.

    Many gates can including the humble Boss pedal. As far as I know the Kemper gates also work with a sidechain input which is much easier to achieve in the digital realm.

  • I have a G String, and to be honest, I think it is superior to the Kemper's noise gate. From time to time, I can hear the noise gate trail until off. Yes, you can add another in the stomps, but that will have an effect on the note's normal trail off. The G String is the best of the pedal noise gates. It works differently than the Kemper's gate.

  • I use the (original) Decimator pedal straight after my always on pedals, pre-boost & pre-Kemper

    It's completely silent if set right, I can play quiet without any gate-breathing, and no noise when I'm not

    It is better IMO, I love it

    I use the Kemper gate to take out any amp noise from gainy profiles, set to just enough

    Works for me (had 2 of them for 20+ years now)

    Back in my band days playing high gain amps, I had it in the fx loop of my Diezel, post -preamp & pre-fx

    I prefer having 2 though, 1 in front and one in the loop (or the Kemper)

  • Kemper gate is totally fine, and I use it all the time with generally great results. Having said that, the TC Electronics Sentry pedal is by far the best gate I've used, as it is multi band (i.e., you can set one of the gate points at 60hz to kill hum, while setting different gating parameters for other frequencies. Works incredibly well (and something Kemper should look to implement - it belongs in the Toaster!).

  • I have an ISP decimator rack unit.It has an input from the guitar which then has an output to the amp.A second input/gatetakes the signal from the amp section and cleans that. Both signals can be controlled independently.


    Thats probably overkill for the KPA though as it is the amp itself.