How to tame excessive "hiss" from a series of pedals?

Chrisk-K · #1 02-25-2011, 07:15 PM

My signal chain is Bass > Pitchblack > LMB-3 > OC-3 > Para Driver > BEF > CE5 > DD3 > Amp.

Those 7 pedals do add a noticeable amount of "hiss" to the signal even when unactivated and even when the bass is unplugged.

Can the ISP Decimator reduce this line noise when I actually play? If not, is there a way to tame the excessive hiss?

waleross · #2 02-25-2011, 08:03 PM

I have been trying out pedals and I took out the ones I found to be hissing. I have the Ibanez PD7 (distortion) and just used a compressor pedal (Bass Squeeze ) by itself. I went on Youtube and found a few videos on the subject. It was suggested to go Bass>WahPedal>Comp>Overdrive>Dist and then in special effects loop the reverb >Chorus>EQ....I have a hiss noise eliminator pedal (never used) as well but it seems for bass its better to keep it to just a few pedals at a time ...
Here is the YOuTube link, it might help
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t80uF_GJPR4

bongomania · #3 02-25-2011, 08:08 PM

The Decimator is designed to help with hiss, but really and truly the best thing is to get pedals that don't hiss.

Chrisk-K · #4 02-25-2011, 08:37 PM

I did some test. Individually my pedals are quiet. I don't hear hiss when the bass signal goes through 2 or 3 pedals. However, going through 7 pedals degrades the bass signal, resulting in hiss.

sunbeast · #5 02-25-2011, 09:03 PM

The Decimator only cuts the hiss when your signal gets below the decibel level of the hiss in the signal- this means that the hiss will still be in the signal when you are actually playing, it just won't be there when you stop playing. Depending on how bad the hiss is, it may work fine for you. If the hiss is noticeable when you are actually playing, or if you like to let notes ring out and decay naturally, then it might not be ideal...

wshines1892 · #6 02-25-2011, 09:14 PM

check you power source? Try getting the Furman power strip. I've had pedals give me a stupid amount of hiss in some situations because of dirty power sources.

bongomania · #7 02-25-2011, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrisk-K

going through 7 pedals degrades the bass signal, resulting in hiss.

In order for that to make sense, you have to try to understand what is actually being degraded, and how. "Degrading" does not inherently have anything to do with "hiss"--you have to connect them somehow. For example, perhaps each of the pedals adds a little bit of hiss, and cumulatively it's too much. Or perhaps the signal gets weaker as it goes, causing you to turn up the gain, and the cheap gain stages increase the noise. Or both of those.

Just for reference, there are lots of pedals that don't have these problems.

sillyfabe · #8 02-25-2011, 09:44 PM

i had the same problem before i got a boss ls-2. I had about 14 pedals all in series and it killed my tone and dampened my sound,(the Dunlop 105Q really kills it) turned up the gain to compensate and it added hiss. I got a LS-2 (line selector) and now run all my fuzz in loop A and my tuner in B. I now have 6 pedals in series and it sounds WAY better. Also the ones out of the loop are mostly true bypass. It goes:

Boss OC-2 (buffered bypass)
EHX POG-2 (true bypass)
Boss LS-2 (buffered bypass)
3-Leaf GR-1 (true bypass)
Strymon El Capistan (true bypass)
Tech 21 VT Bass (true bypass)

Chrisk-K · #9 02-25-2011, 10:01 PM

Thanks gentlemen. I have a Furman Power Conditioner somewhere at home (haven't used it for years). I'll try it. If that doesn't reduce the amount of hiss, I'll look into the LS-2.

Ric5 · #10 02-25-2011, 10:04 PM

Check cables.

Ric5 · #11 02-25-2011, 10:11 PM

I run my effects parallel. I split the signal into several distinct signal chains and recombine them and send the signal into what ever amp I playing through. I got the parallel idea from Geddy Lee. On my pedal board the longest series of pedals is 3.

http://www.3dentourage.com/425/effects.htm

Running 7 pedals series has got to cause problems. There has to be signal loss with that many connections. Also if you have a hot distortion pedal it will overwhelm the other pdeals in the chain.

Eric Scholz · #12 02-26-2011, 10:37 AM

honestly the problem is probably that you have a lot of boss pedals. they have built in buffers, and when you use a lot of them you get some high end noise. i'm not trying to be a boss basher, as i use a few myself... try using a true bypass looper. boss ls-2 works great, or check out www.loop-master.com

cheapbasslovin · #13 02-26-2011, 01:48 PM

Have you gone through and pulled them one at a time? There may be just one or two culprits that you haven't identified. Pull them one by one, and see if there are any that cut the noise when removed more than the rest. Then do it again if you still have an unacceptable level of noise.

AFAIK the Korg is TBP, and I generally hear good things about tech21 bypass, but the rest are a mystery to me.

RCCollins · #14 02-26-2011, 03:48 PM

I'm not sure why folks are assuming that a pedal or pedals is to blame for the hiss here. Seems much more likely to me that a daisy chain is causing interference. I'd look into a different power supply. a strategically-placed looper or loopers could help... or it could compound the problem with more power supply demands

edit: just noticed you mentioned you'll try using your power conditioner. i'd still look into something with isolated outputs but it's worth a shot

**kenstee** · #15 02-26-2011, 05:49 PM

You don't say anything about how you power your pedals. Do you use a power brick system with isolated outputs like the PP2+?

NortyFiner · #16 02-26-2011, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric Scholz

honestly the problem is probably that you have a lot of boss pedals. they have built in buffers, and when you use a lot of them you get some high end noise. i'm not trying to be a boss basher, as i use a few myself... try using a true bypass looper. boss ls-2 works great, or check out www.loop-master.com

This. Boss (and similar) pedals tend to gang up on you when it comes to hiss. They are usually fine individually, but when you string a bunch of them together, look out.

fdeck · #17 02-26-2011, 09:09 PM

The reason why people are assuming that it's not the power supplies is that the OP is describing "hiss." That's more likely to be caused by the internals of the pedal circuits, than by any external interference.

The conventional wisdom about reducing hiss in systems such as PA and studio applications is to use appropriate gain staging, which usually means having a preamp with a fair amount of gain as the first item in the signal chain. The rationale is to boost the signal well above the inherent noise level of subsequent circuits. Unfortunately, a chain of pedals isn't always easy to set up in this way.

Chrisk-K · #18 02-26-2011, 09:18 PM

I use a single One Spot. The addition of a Furman Power Conditioner didn't reduce hiss. I did another test, though. I think the culprit is the Boss pedals. 3 non-Boss pedals in series don't result in noticeable hiss, whereas 3 Boss pedals in series do result in noticeable hiss. Now I understand why some people buy more expensive pedals!

Dumps · #19 02-26-2011, 09:29 PM

Boss Pedals hiss... Try a power conditioner, an isolated power supply(voodoo labs,Mod Tone, ect) and quality cables(Really makes a difference, George L's, Lava, Monster, Planet Waves ect)

seanm · #20 02-26-2011, 09:59 PM

Loooper seems to be back in business. If you don't use all the pedals at once, you could put them in one or more loops so they aren't always in your signal chain. The advantage of the loooper over the LS2 is that the LS2 will add a bit of hiss but the looopers are true bypass.