MXR Noise Gate

[craigmillard]

Hi Guys!

I have recently built the MXR noise gate from tonepad and have a semi working effect! The only issue I have is that the sensitivity pot only works for the last 10% of the pot rotation!? I have seen the build reports on tonepad and the various threads regarding issues with this build on here but nothing seems to make a difference. I have played around with the RA value and also the IC feedback loop but nothing seems to extend the pot sensitivity.
Am I missing something here? What parts do i need to change to increase the sensitivity of the effect?

What i am actually after is for the noise gate to cut into the notes played a bit to allow for a gated sort of sound, at the moment the sensitivity pot only cuts the background hiss down?

Any ideas?

Cheers
Craig

[CurtisWCole]

What about the taper and value of the sensitivity pot?

Curtis

[craigmillard]

Im currently using a linear taper 500k pot, did try a 1m pot but only made the area smaller for selection. Will give a log pot a go tonight though.

Its odd because the sensitivity pot kicks in and then no change for the rest of the travel!

Anyone think that the 1M resistor that everyone talks about for the volume drop may be worth changing?

Craig

[Govmnt_Lacky]

The build DOES call for a 500K Log pot 

[craigmillard]

Lol how did i miss that! Thanks Govmnt_Lacky!

[craigmillard]

Any ideas on how to boost the sensitivity of the pedal so that it gates into the playing notes? like a mis-biased fuzz?

[Fender3D]

Any ideas on how to boost the sensitivity of the pedal so that it gates into the playing notes? like a mis-biased fuzz?

You won't boost the sensitivity, since the higher the signal the lower the attenuation in this pedal...
You may lower the 1M feedback resistor on IC1a thus obtaining a lower signal driving Q2, but this eventually will work passing the signal peaks and gating the lower signal tail...

If your looking for a "random" gate effect you might hook a S/H circuit to FET...
Though I guess you'd better mod a Maestro FSH swapping VCFs with VCAs

[craigmillard]

Hi Guys,

Im still having issues with this noise gate:(

It works well apart from the sensitivity control only works in the last 10%, i have put a log pot on it and has made no difference.

Any other ideas?

Also I tried Fender3d's idea and it didn't make a huge difference to the aggressiveness of the gate. I was hoping to be able to make the gate a bit more aggressive!:(

What ya think?

[runmikeyrun]

Any ideas on how to boost the sensitivity of the pedal so that it gates into the playing notes? like a mis-biased fuzz?

you could try doug deepers Random Number Generator, it's a pretty simple build and sounds right about like that... fuzzy and splattery.  In my build the pot doesn't even do anything so you could just use an enclosure with a switch and LED!