Building A Noise Gate

[mattdowney]

hello i would like to try to make a noise gate pedal. i have heard it is a fairly easy project to do and was wondering if anyone know how or has any diargrams or knows where i could find some.

thanks, matt

[Steve Vai]

You could try this:

[lovekraft]

That one will work, but building a noise gate with 741s is almost like hiring drunks to guard your liquor stash.

Actually, building a gate is pretty simple - it's building one that's transparent and adjustable enough to be musically useful that gets tricky! A simple gate like that MXR might work for you, provided you pay attention to low noise component choices and layout practices, and tailor the release characteristics to avoid adding audible artifacts during gating, but when you can buy a HUSH® for about $75.00, why go to the trouble of building something that's going to cost nearly as much and will most likely never work as well?

If you still want to build one, at least go to Tonepad, and build it with their attack and release adjustment mods! And use a TL072, a 5532, a RC4558 or an OPA2604 in place of the pair of 741s, and upgrade the caps in the signal path while you're at it. I don't know if if it'll be any cheaper than buying a gate, but at least you'll know that it sounds about as good as that design possibly could.

[Steve Vai]

What would you recommend for an enclosure for a distortion or something? I'd like something similar to MXR boxes, and I've seen a few aluminum project boxes, but what would be the best?

[lovekraft]

Google Hammond 1590B - that's where MXR gets 'em.