ISP Technologies Decimator ProRack G Reviews 
5 / 5 based on 1 reviewsLike many guitarists I use effects pedals. quite appart from the many advantages of using equipment like this there is of course the important and persistant question of noise. In my search for the ultimate noise reduction unit for my rig I must have read a hundred reviews many of which expressed negative views of items I was researching at the time. Then I came across one single review of this unit, the ISP DECIMATOR ProRacKG. This chap raved about the quality and effectivness of the unit so I decided to visit ISP Technologies web site and read about it further. The decision was easy but no where in the UK could I find a retailer so I contacted ISP direct and pleaded. My enquiry was answered right away and from the inventor and owner of ISP himself!! Buck Waller is a man who knows how to run a company, his helpfulness seems to know no bounds. After he helped me deduce if the unit would work with the kind of FX loop on my Mesa dual rectifier (looking at schematics of the amp in order to assist me and describing a test I could perform to make sure... what other owner of a company would do that???) needless to say I purchased the unit direct from ISP. The sum paid was (including shipping) £225.
The unit is quite simply the BEST NOISE REDUCTION SYSTEM you can buy... PERIOD!
Read the simple instructions fiddle about with the settings for a bit and then no matter what sound you are using, clean, crunchy or wild gain the DECIMATOR will not require any further adjustments... sound good? Then go get one.
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING is at fault with this excellent piece of kit.
A word of advise to people like me (a bit slow!!). If you have pedals that are battery powered (most of my units aren't but my Keeley modded Boss DS-1 ULTRA is at the moment) then you might be prone to unplug the input lead to the pedal when you pop your amp on standby to have a rest from playing in order to save battery life. If you do, then switch off the DECIMATOR ProRackG aswell. I learned quite quickly that if you don't the unit seems to 'forget' the signal it's dealing with and a noticable drop in gain occurrs. This is in NO WAY a fault or problem. In the first place why are your pedals battery powered... are you rich?? and secondlly just switch the DECIMATOR off and back on again when you return to playing. I was soooo confused when I returned the first time and plugged the DS-1 back in... then again I am a guitarist not an engineer, as Buck from ISP surely knows!!... eh Buck! ;O)
The unit is of sturdy construction, it's a dual channel noise reduction system (NOT a crappy gate!) designed specifically for high gain guitar amplifiers. It provides two channels of single ended noise reduction configured for guitar applications allowing one channel to drive the front end of the guitar amplifier and a second channel that tracks the guitar signal directly from within the effects loop of the amplifier. Sound complicated? Well the operation of the unit certainly isn't. Each channel has a threshold control and then there is a single knob which adjusts the dynamically controlled, low-pass filter's tracking. 'Cos this unit isn't a gate nor is it just a low-level downward expander it incorporates low-level downward expansion AND dynamically controlled low-pass filtering with an invention of Buck's called 'Time Vector Processing' in order to quite down (DECIMATE!!) even the most insane amounts of noise with any amplifier incorporating a series effects loop. It won't chop off your sustain and even staccato notes jump out of the amp choppy and clean.
Every guitarist who is concerned about noise from passing taxis, other studio equipment, foreign radio stations of simply from high gain settings or noisey pedals MUST HAVE ONE OF THESE. If you don't have the money either find it, slam it on ya credit card or go for their DECIMATOR PEDAL which is cheaper and from reviews I have read is truly excellent also. Finally I can't go without thanking Buck and his lovely wife Shelley for their unbridled help, kindness, patience and humour. Thank you ISP for excellent service and for making a truly excellent unit.
Don't just trust me, go and see for yourself at:
www.isptechnologies.com - they will blow you away!
For anyone who cares my rig is: Ibanez JS1000 or one of two 1990's Jackson custom shop soloists or a limited edition Yamaha SG3000S into ISP Decimator ProRackG, Keeley compressor, Morley 'Bad Horsie' wah, Keeley modded Boss DS-1 ULTRA, Digitech Whammy then into a Mesa/Boogie 100W Dual Rectifier head through a Marshall JCM 900 Lead - 1960 4x12 cabinet.
Rage rated this unit
on
2005-04-26.
