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Compressor noise and noise gates


Painy
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I'm currently dabbling a bit with compression and really liking the effect I'm getting so far but unfortunately I am getting a fair bit of noise with it which, while it is to be expected to some extent, is obviously something I'd rather not have, so I've been thinking about adding a gate.
My question is, would it be better placed before the compressor to get rid of any noise in the signal before it gets to the compressor, or afterwards to clean up the noise which the compressor has already exaggerated?

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I think you'd put your noise gate after the compressor but it might be that you've got noise from using too high a setting for the makeup gain (which in turn might be because the ratio is set too high). The other thing I'd check is that you've got decent cables just in case there's any noise coming from those.

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At the moment I'm just using the compression in my EHX Metaphors (but planning to order something better this week) and to be honest it is a pretty squashy effect which could have something to do with it. Was planning to have a bit of a play with the trim pots inside later today anyway so maybe that will help a bit?
Also to be fair, the power supply I'm using for the time being isn't isolated either (it's really just a fancy daisy chain but with a couple of variable voltage outputs to be honest) but there's no noticeable noise at all without the compressor engaged. Would running the compressor off a separate PSU be likely to make any difference if it is still running of the same mains supply?

Edited by Painy
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Well compression makes the quiet bits louder, so usually when they add noise to a signal its noise that's already there but just too quiet to notice/care about. It could just be picking up any noise that comes before it. I would suggest an isolated power for most noise related problems, but with a compression.

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