For 7/8 stringers out there: Palm mute + Noise Gate

    Hello 7 and 8 stringers out there! I'm having a strange interaction between low palm muting and the noise gate.



    For the rigs with high gain that I use, in nearly all of them appears a lot of high-gain hiss (which I think its normal). This is no problem though, as the front panel Noise Gate set to 4 or 5 is enough to take all the hiss away ( I dont like the gate pass 7 as it degrades the attack :( ).
    When palm-muting for instance, a low B or mostly notorious on low F#, you can hear that the noise gate is interacting with the very-lows, and kind of kicking in and out. I have uploaded a sample so that you can hear it yourselves and tell me if this is a normal behaviour with your guitars or there's something wrong with mine.
    In the sample you can hear the noise gate kicking in and out. Then I also deactivate the front panel noise gate and there you can hear the noise, but not the same "frfrfrfrfrfrfrfr" noise with previous the palm mutes. Finally I turn the gate up again so you can hear the issue another time.
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/wo1l…l6h/palm%20noise.mp3?dl=0



    Please tell me if your high gain monstruous low palm-mutes also sound like that :P !


    Thank you all in advance!!

    This is an absolute normal behavior.
    Even without the noise gate, you get characteristic modulations of the noise floor, which is natural.


    However, you might want do go with a classic noise gate for high gain sounds. Check the Gate 2:1 and 4:1 in the Stomp section, in addition to the main noise gate.

    Quote from ckemper

    This is an absolute normal behavior.
    Even without the noise gate, you get characteristic modulations of the noise floor, which is natural.

    Thank you CK, that's actually what I wanted to hear from a professional. I wasn't 100% sure that it was normal, but now I am :)
    Also I tried with the classic gates, which effectively remove the noise between notes ("while not playing") but doesn't help to tame these noise modulations issue at the end of heavy low palmmutes. Although, it only gets annoying when using some specific profilies with quite high gain. I guess I can perfectly live with it :P , its not a disturbing sound artifact..

    I usually keep the default Noise Gate at like 1.5, just enough to reduce noise when everything is muted and not ridiculous gain. I like the 4:1 gate in addition for very high-gain patches - it works VERY well and VERY quickly.


    have you also ever tried using less gain but a compressor in front the amp to thicken up the tone? It can reduce noise and add clarity.

    Thanks for the replies guys!
    Yes it's definately better with less gain (as expected..), and depending on how the distorsion of each profile behaves I end up with more hiss or less.
    The 4:1 and 2:1 noise gate work perfect for cleaning between notes, but they just won't clean the noises while the strings are still vibrating (which is what I'm trying to reduce here).
    Again, it's only noticeable with low palm mutes and with some "excessive" profiles.
    Btw, nightlight what do you mean by sub-par profiles???
    Thank you guys!

    I meant the profiles just might not work well. I've run into a few of them that I just couldn't get along with because of a lot of high frequency content in them. Granted, you can dial out those frequencies, but I've always been more fond of profiles that sit well in a live setting without additional tweaking. Those are the same rigs I like to use while recording because they have more desirable characteristics and less of the undesirable ones.

    Quote from nightlight

    I meant the profiles just might not work well. I've run into a few of them that I just couldn't get along with because of a lot of high frequency content in them. Granted, you can dial out those frequencies, but I've always been more fond of profiles that sit well in a live setting without additional tweaking. Those are the same rigs I like to use while recording because they have more desirable characteristics and less of the undesirable ones.


    Thanks for the clarification! Indeed you're right, that's exactly what seems the better thing to do.

    yeah, def what nightlight said - a profile created with horrible SNR will sound noisy, period. on a great profile, the kemper is amazingly tight and clean, even with saturated gain, only needing somewhat mild settings on the gates.


    of course it also depends on your guitar, setup, and pickups.

    Quote from meambobbo

    yeah, def what nightlight said - a profile created with horrible SNR will sound noisy, period. on a great profile, the kemper is amazingly tight and clean, even with saturated gain, only needing somewhat mild settings on the gates.


    of course it also depends on your guitar, setup, and pickups.


    Not true. The noise from the original amp will bot be baked in the profile.


    For getting less noise it is sometimes required and possible to reduce gain a bit, without losing the tone.
    The Profilers noise gate in the input section is one of a few noise gates that filters noise, while the guitar tone audible.
    Bring it up, in addition to the other gate.

    Quote from ckemper

    The Profilers noise gate in the input section is one of a few noise gates that filters noise, while the guitar tone audible.
    Bring it up, in addition to the other gate


    Indeed the NG does a great job while the guitar is still ringing, I'm pretty satisfied with it. The thing is with some profiles, to get rid of that palmmute intermodulation I have to crank up the gate. Sometimes to get it completely removed I have to set the gate at 7 - 8, which I don't like because it begins to take out some of the guitar attack and definition. Sure I can manage to find an intermediate point, no complain. I was just wanting to know if other users had the same behaviour with low palm mutes :) .