Best noise suppressor / gate pedal combination

[totenkampf]

Hello all, and yes it’s yet another *&#$(* noise suppressor thread. I have done a good bit of reading online and the opinions on many boards are all over the place and many of them are somewhat dated so I am curious about new opinions about the subject in a group that I trust. A bro got an ISP Decimator Pro Rack-G and made me a deal on his pedals so I now have an ISP Decimator, MXR Smart Gate, and two Boss NS-2 units. I play high gain death / thrash metal and am getting quite a bit of feedback and some hum from the preamp so NOT trying these things out isn’t really an option. I am wanting to know what the best combination of pedals will get the desired result with the least loss of tone and what some good starting settings might be so that I can tweak in from there. It seems that using two pedals in combination, much like the Pro Rack-G, may result in the ability to use less aggressive settings for the pedals in both the pre-amp and fx loop positions individually. I have been leaning toward the MXR up front and the ISP in the loop but am not sure if this is best. The equipment I am using is passive SH-8b and SH-6n pickups through a Peavey Triple XXX head on the crunch channel to a Mesa-Boogie Oversized Recto Cab with its original V30s. I will introduce modulation pedals in the FX and possibly a CS-3 Phase-90, and/or TS type overdrive up front once I get this sorted out. TIA.

[markD]

just experiment. your plan (MXR up front and ISP in the loop) sounds decent to me. if that sucks, then try a different combo. with the 4 pedals you have, it seems that you have a ton of combos you could make.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

I use the boss ns-2 in X pattern with decent results.

[Twitch]

The gate Im using is a stereo rack mount comp/gate. I turn the comp off on both sides, use one gate between the guitar and amp and the other gate goes in the loop. The trick with this setup is to use the stereo link button so each side monitors the gate of the other, kind of like the G-String. I even get good sustain on the clean channel, longer than Id ever hold a clean note. It works pretty well, but if I dont engage the stereo link button, the gate even cuts off notes on the lead channel, but with it in, works great other than the loss of some sub-low overtones on my palm mutes.