Explain some things about a noise gate, please

[The Magic Hoof]

Alright. I've honestly never used a noise gate before, but it may be necessary now. I'm running directly into my quad+50/50 from my guitar, so nothing is in between. As far as I know, a noise gate silences all of the humming etc, but I'm still unclear on some things:

1 - my Quad has some humming coming from it, but I'm not running into any pedals (in other words no pedals are making hum, it's the Quad+50/50). So, does that mean a noise gate would even help my problem?

2 - instead of running a noise gate pedal between my guitar and Quad, couldn't I just run one through the FX loop on the back of it?

3 - a noise gate can be applied after I record my guitar stuff (Cubase has a noise gate), but I'm going to take it here that that won't be nearly as effective as using a noise gate pedal. Am I correct?

4 - can a noise gate actually clean up some of the finger noises, string noise, etc when playing guitar? Or is a noise gate really for just getting rid of the 'bulk' of the noise such as humming?

 

[SonOfIAm]

1. It is possible a noise gate may help you. I can't speak with confidence to your specific issue but my noise gate works for the higher gain noise/hiss I get on my Lonestar. I have read a lot of other posts and info regarding noise gates in various applications and most seem to be satisfied with the results of using one.
2. If the noise is from your preamp, you would need to put it in the effects loop for it to be effective.
3. I don't have much experience in this area but I would imagine a digital gate would be effective on a recording but would not be able to do anything for you if you played live.
4. A noise gate will not remove any extraneous noise. Once it's open, all sound gets through. A noise gate operates based upon the level of sound that is being applied. By raising the threshold of the gate, the more sound it will take to open it but again, once it is open all sound above the threshold will get through. When the sound reduces back to the level of the threshold, the gate closes. This is why they tend to choke sustain on clean signals because the signal is not strong enough for a long enough period of time to keep it open. Look at it as an adjustable dam with the sound being water: More sound = More water pressure. You can't select which sounds/noises you want to let through or keep out.

As far as a suggestion for a noise gate, I really like my ISP Decimator. It does a great job for me. Hope this helps.

 

[MrMarkIII]

Do you get the hum if you record from the Quad, without the 50/50? Could there be a ground loop between the pre-amp (Quad) and the power amp (50/50)?
Another source of noise and hum is single coil pickups near a computer monitor. Sometimes even humbuckers, too.
It seems like you could or should be able to put a gate between the guitar/amp and the recording track. I don't know Cubase.
The basic idea is find the noise source and put the gate after that. It could a combination of all three: the guitar, Quad, and 50/50. Then put the gate between the 50/50 and the input of the recording track.