This is absolutely the best Sentry Noise gate review I've seen. When someone reviews and actually explains how the product works you really get a better understanding of said product. Here's what's even more amazing about this video for me is the fact that I already own one and never understood the Damp and Decay knobs.Threshold I got as I owned a Boss NS-2 and was able to set that gate up to work well. The Sentry is a more natural gate but the added features of Damp and Decay I never knew how to set them up to take advantage of them. I set them at 12 o'clock and hoped for the best. Thank you so much for actually explaining how this damn thing works and I'm excited to dial it in better.
Hey, great video! I think you don't bring the whole point of the loop across, though. As I understand it, you can put pedals in the loop; let's say, your whole dirt section (the way I would use it). The Sentry then takes the input level it receives BEFORE the loop to determine if or if not to trigger the gate, but the gate itself is placed and shuts/opens AFTER the loop. This is extremely useful if you have noisy pedals (like fuzzes, high gain drives etc), but of course they're not always on, so you have different output levels before the gate at different times. The gate is assumed to be placed after the dirt pedals, as you want to gate put the hum and buzz. So, you would constantly need to readjust the threshold to account for every situation. With the loop, the gate is open when you play (= it receives signal from the guitar) and closed when you don't. Placing delays etc. out of the loop allows for trails in high gain mode, without additional hum. At least I think this is how it works...
I am little late to the party, but the 3 band toneprint is nothing short of perfection. It keeps feedback away and you can play clean and forget about it!! Best of both worlds.
I’m using mine in the FX loop of my GT 100. It works great after the preamps. I have to program every patch though. I wish there was a global way to program in the GT 100.
Why didn't you demo using the send/return function? Most noise come from other pedals, and most of us use multiple pedals which can get very noisy. I have used the Boss NS-2, the ISP Decimator, the TC Sentry and the Electro Harmonix Silencer and from my experience, the Electro Harmonix is the best value and works just as effective as the other three I've mentioned. The EHX Silencer sells for only $57 new and it also has the send/return function that cuts all excessive noise in your pedal chain.
Great review. I own this pedal on my bass pedal board. Never really knew it did so much. I'm now going to experiment with the return feature because I want to isolate my overdrive pedal only.
hi.. I am very new to tone prints... am I only allowed to store one tone print at a time on my sentry? if I can store more, how do I access the different ones on the pedal? thanks
Great video but you refer to the amplitude/volume as the frequency/higher tone which may cause confusion for some. The threshold reacts to the amplitude, or volume, of the signal. Keep the vids coming
Soooooo, if i crank my 50w head and put a clean boost infront of it to push it even more i would plug the send of this pedal into the return of the FX loop then the send of the fx loop into the return of the pedal? Keeping the tubescreamer/clean boost after the gate straight into the input of the amp? Sorry just trying to figure this out before i buy one. Any help much appreciated.
Is their a mode in the PC editor to use both modes? Would you need two pedals in order to control these modes if you wanted to use both? Is the try band a separate mode above and beyond the two modes?
Why would someone who owns an AXE-FX need this pedal? This is a question that I have in regards to pretty much all pedals really. If I own an AXE-FX do I really need any pedals? I mean, an Electro-Harmonix Mel9 (and others like it) would probably be the only exception. Do I need to spend MORE money if I already have such an expensive unit? I love your channel by the way! Keep up the great videos.
Thanks! I like having a few pedals because I don't carry my Axe everywhere. Sometimes it's nice to just bring a few pedals instead of the full rack. Thanks for the nice comments!
Why would someone who owns 'Pink Floyds - Greatest Hits' need to buy 'Wish You Were Here', 'Meddle' or 'Animals'? Options, flexibility, love, obsession, Experimentation... so many reasons I could think of. The Axe-FX is a great piece of kit, but sometimes you just want different stuff, or the ability to do things a little differently, or to play around and experiment with hardware//algorithms that aren't necessarily included in the standard package.
David - how do you feel about this for tele single coil country type playing? I keep buying noiseless pickups - but if i can get rid of the hum and use my favorite set of Duncans - I would.
Kevin Majka they make this new pickups where they are actually noiseless. They are two coils of opposite polarity. They are called humbuckers, but you’re gonna need a real guitar to fit one in there. Hell, might as well just give up on country while you’re at it
David, Perhaps its just a matter of experimentation and I haven't hit the right settings yet, but I'd like to ask anyway. I play a strat through a Fender Twin. I use a couple of different distortions. To put it mildly the 60 cycle hum is horrendously loud!!! I bought the TC Sentry to try to reduce this noise, but I'm fumbling in the dark trying to make it work the way I want. It cancels out so much of the sustain and tone when I try to get rid of that hum. Any insights? (besides getting humbuckers, which I don't consider to be an option). Thanks.
Michael Adams I'm not David but I would add a compressor to get back some of the sustain you loose and then use the the send and return to isolate it if the comp gives you noise. Hope this helps....
Hi Michael, does switching pickups decrease the hum for you at all? Some times, it's not the pedals themselves that are generating the 60Hz waveform, but it can often be the amplifiers themselves picking up the hum. Try running just your guitar straight into your Amp and Speaker... if you're still experiencing the loud 60Hz hum, then there's probably not much you can do about the issue as the 60Hz is being induced into your amplification device directly. Otherwise, what will sometimes work for me is moving the head-stock of my guitar into different angles or positions while I'm playing - a TC Sentry *might* help with the issue if you can pinpoint exactly where it's coming in as a noise-source... though 60Hz is a sub-harmonic of a LOT of the lower-end notes on a guitar, so you risk stripping out some of the guts of your performance :(
Daniel , yes changing pickups helps. Oddly enough, though, the thing that pretty much fixed the problem was when someone turned off the florecent lights in the room!!! Poof!
I found the same sort of thing with my single coil guitar. The dimmer switch on anything other than fully on or off in the room and my guitar picked up the good ol' mains power hum.
Michael Adams - Makes sense - Flouro lights are notorious for feedback of noise back into the power mains, they use ballasts to knock the 120/240 Volt mains down to a smaller voltage for the bulbs to use... they often start excessively humming when under heavy load, or if they are simply getting old. All that noise becomes audible in not only the ballast itself, but in the power line as harmonics are carried through the active/neutral.
Can you really edit the toneprint on iPhone? I haven't been able to find the editing app in the App Store, and the iOS link on the website doesn't work.
I take it that you are using the amps drive, use input - output in front of the amp and loop your preamp trough send/return on the pedal don't use it with only input/output as shown in the video, using the loop is the way to go with this pedal. It is even possible to loop an entire pedal board with it, it does not cut of delay while still cutting out unwanted noise when set correct, how many other noise gates can do just that?. Use the toneprint editor to only cut the noise out, the Sentry is a tri-band noise gate for a reason.
I had the ISP and hated it but a lot of people love it. To each their own I guess. I went right back to the Boss which had a much tighter gate to me. I still had the high squeal coming through when I stopped playing. This sentry seems good though.
an ISP decimator is a suppression NOT a bypass or a noise gate. I use both on my rig. A decimator works extremely well with a noise gate if you use distortion/overdrive since a noise gate will gate certain frequencies, but a decimator will compliment a gate extremely well by eliminating say, instant feedback if you set your decay high in order to have more drawn out licks IE: breakdowns, djent riffs that you want to have melodic, or if you're using reverb to help give that melodic draw out, a noise gate would hurt what youre aiming for, while a decimator is exactly what you want for that type of stuff. Pretty much, they're different and I recommend spotting both on your rig for a MUCH more solid/comprehensive sound.
The Sentry is a tri-band noise gate, it won't cut all frequency's evenly if you tell it not to, which makes it possible to cut noise when doing riffs while still being able to let notes ring out naturally. I can't really see a use for a suppressor when looping most of my board trough the send/return on the pedal, only pedals I avoid to have in the loop are a wah and a mimiq doubler. Heck, it even lets the delay ring out properly while still being able to get complete silence between power chords and even shaving off unwanted noise while the chord is heard.
The pedal is VERY noisy. I got one today and returned right after testing. Opening and closing of the gate is OK, toneprint works too but whenever the gate is open it introduces a surprising lot of hiss, like you would turn the gain of your amp like +6 db or something. Really disappointing.
@@Wallimann oh I’ve got it. It’s the same riff as the second one. And it’s the 6th string hit some fret. Meeeen! That wasn’t ez to figure out:D sorry for blaming, but it’s definitely a problem of a shot angle etc...
This pedal eats batteries alive. 2 hr of playing will deplete a 9v batttery completely. Plus, tc electronic has basically made it impossible to contact customer support. I regret buying their products.
This is absolutely the best Sentry Noise gate review I've seen. When someone reviews and actually explains how the product works you really get a better understanding of said product. Here's what's even more amazing about this video for me is the fact that I already own one and never understood the Damp and Decay knobs.Threshold I got as I owned a Boss NS-2 and was able to set that gate up to work well. The Sentry is a more natural gate but the added features of Damp and Decay I never knew how to set them up to take advantage of them. I set them at 12 o'clock and hoped for the best.
Thank you so much for actually explaining how this damn thing works and I'm excited to dial it in better.
Can't believe this video is 6 years old and still very useful in 2023. I'm buying this sentry pedal. thanks
Bought yesterday and awaiting delivery. 😊
Ordered mine today!
It's one of the best demonstration video of noise gate. Gonna buy one soon!
Hey, great video! I think you don't bring the whole point of the loop across, though. As I understand it, you can put pedals in the loop; let's say, your whole dirt section (the way I would use it). The Sentry then takes the input level it receives BEFORE the loop to determine if or if not to trigger the gate, but the gate itself is placed and shuts/opens AFTER the loop.
This is extremely useful if you have noisy pedals (like fuzzes, high gain drives etc), but of course they're not always on, so you have different output levels before the gate at different times. The gate is assumed to be placed after the dirt pedals, as you want to gate put the hum and buzz. So, you would constantly need to readjust the threshold to account for every situation. With the loop, the gate is open when you play (= it receives signal from the guitar) and closed when you don't. Placing delays etc. out of the loop allows for trails in high gain mode, without additional hum.
At least I think this is how it works...
I am little late to the party, but the 3 band toneprint is nothing short of perfection. It keeps feedback away and you can play clean and forget about it!! Best of both worlds.
Just bought one today. Amazing! I really couldn't be happier.
+Jarrod Goodman Congrats!!
My Sentry just arrived! gonna pick it up tomorrow, cant wait. thanks to you i ordered it btw, thanks!
Congrats!
Best explanation on the settings I’ve seen on RUclips so far! Thank you
Thanks David! Probably the best demonstration of this pedal. This is what sold me on the pedal.
This is the best review video for this pedal on youtube! I'm getting one of these soon. Thanks!
I’m using mine in the FX loop of my GT 100. It works great after the preamps. I have to program every patch though. I wish there was a global way to program in the GT 100.
Why didn't you demo using the send/return function? Most noise come from other pedals, and most of us use multiple pedals which can get very noisy. I have used the Boss NS-2, the ISP Decimator, the TC Sentry and the Electro Harmonix Silencer and from my experience, the Electro Harmonix is the best value and works just as effective as the other three I've mentioned. The EHX Silencer sells for only $57 new and it also has the send/return function that cuts all excessive noise in your pedal chain.
Great review. I own this pedal on my bass pedal board. Never really knew it did so much. I'm now going to experiment with the return feature because I want to isolate my overdrive pedal only.
Great video! Best explanation of the controls I've seen. Thank you.
Thank you for making this video!!! It’s so helpful and great, nice demo.
Thanks buddies. Set up some amzn links. I'm sold.
Thanks, I just bought it and your diagrams help me! 🙏👍🙏
Hi David, was wondering if I want to get musical with feedback like satriani or Hendrix , does the noise gate have to be turned off ?
I've seen folks use this gate with germanium transistors which I've heard sucks tone out of your signal. Have you found this to be true?
Awesome review! Really explains a lot about the pedal.
hi.. I am very new to tone prints... am I only allowed to store one tone print at a time on my sentry? if I can store more, how do I access the different ones on the pedal? thanks
Great video but you refer to the amplitude/volume as the frequency/higher tone which may cause confusion for some. The threshold reacts to the amplitude, or volume, of the signal. Keep the vids coming
I just bought one :)
great review and explanation. can you comment on signal paths pros and cons?
Soooooo, if i crank my 50w head and put a clean boost infront of it to push it even more i would plug the send of this pedal into the return of the FX loop then the send of the fx loop into the return of the pedal? Keeping the tubescreamer/clean boost after the gate straight into the input of the amp? Sorry just trying to figure this out before i buy one. Any help much appreciated.
Would like to see it work with a noisy single coil or P90 pickup. Otherwise, great review.
great in depth review. helps me a lot thank you so much
i could really use one of these. the noise is driving me nuts....somebody help me...lol. i must get one when i can... great video and demo.
Excellent review 👍
Thanx bro!
How does this compare to the Rocktron Hush pedal?
Is their a mode in the PC editor to use both modes? Would you need two pedals in order to control these modes if you wanted to use both? Is the try band a separate mode above and beyond the two modes?
Hello ! Have you tried if the sentry’s toneprint editer works with iphone? Thanks !
Is this still any good?
Also, dB is not frequency
Hy where you put this sentry in your pedal chain?
Why would someone who owns an AXE-FX need this pedal? This is a question that I have in regards to pretty much all pedals really. If I own an AXE-FX do I really need any pedals? I mean, an Electro-Harmonix Mel9 (and others like it) would probably be the only exception. Do I need to spend MORE money if I already have such an expensive unit? I love your channel by the way! Keep up the great videos.
Thanks! I like having a few pedals because I don't carry my Axe everywhere. Sometimes it's nice to just bring a few pedals instead of the full rack. Thanks for the nice comments!
Why would someone who owns 'Pink Floyds - Greatest Hits' need to buy 'Wish You Were Here', 'Meddle' or 'Animals'?
Options, flexibility, love, obsession, Experimentation... so many reasons I could think of.
The Axe-FX is a great piece of kit, but sometimes you just want different stuff, or the ability to do things a little differently, or to play around and experiment with hardware//algorithms that aren't necessarily included in the standard package.
I own the ax8 and sometimes i feel like i would like to stop some noise. The tc sentry it was conected in the fx loop of the axe fx?
David - how do you feel about this for tele single coil country type playing? I keep buying noiseless pickups - but if i can get rid of the hum and use my favorite set of Duncans - I would.
Kevin Majka they make this new pickups where they are actually noiseless. They are two coils of opposite polarity. They are called humbuckers, but you’re gonna need a real guitar to fit one in there. Hell, might as well just give up on country while you’re at it
David, Perhaps its just a matter of experimentation and I haven't hit the right settings yet, but I'd like to ask anyway. I play a strat through a Fender Twin. I use a couple of different distortions. To put it mildly the 60 cycle hum is horrendously loud!!! I bought the TC Sentry to try to reduce this noise, but I'm fumbling in the dark trying to make it work the way I want. It cancels out so much of the sustain and tone when I try to get rid of that hum. Any insights? (besides getting humbuckers, which I don't consider to be an option). Thanks.
Michael Adams I'm not David but I would add a compressor to get back some of the sustain you loose and then use the the send and return to isolate it if the comp gives you noise. Hope this helps....
Hi Michael, does switching pickups decrease the hum for you at all? Some times, it's not the pedals themselves that are generating the 60Hz waveform, but it can often be the amplifiers themselves picking up the hum.
Try running just your guitar straight into your Amp and Speaker... if you're still experiencing the loud 60Hz hum, then there's probably not much you can do about the issue as the 60Hz is being induced into your amplification device directly.
Otherwise, what will sometimes work for me is moving the head-stock of my guitar into different angles or positions while I'm playing - a TC Sentry *might* help with the issue if you can pinpoint exactly where it's coming in as a noise-source... though 60Hz is a sub-harmonic of a LOT of the lower-end notes on a guitar, so you risk stripping out some of the guts of your performance :(
Daniel , yes changing pickups helps. Oddly enough, though, the thing that pretty much fixed the problem was when someone turned off the florecent lights in the room!!! Poof!
I found the same sort of thing with my single coil guitar. The dimmer switch on anything other than fully on or off in the room and my guitar picked up the good ol' mains power hum.
Michael Adams - Makes sense - Flouro lights are notorious for feedback of noise back into the power mains, they use ballasts to knock the 120/240 Volt mains down to a smaller voltage for the bulbs to use... they often start excessively humming when under heavy load, or if they are simply getting old. All that noise becomes audible in not only the ballast itself, but in the power line as harmonics are carried through the active/neutral.
Thanks for doing a great job explaining that. :) I have one and wasn't really sure.
I'm going to buy a noise gate, and I was wondering if you have tried the ISP Decimator? And if you have, is the sentry the better choice?
I haven't tried it, but I'm sure it's great! My favorite so far is the Sentry though! :)
I would say the sentry is a better choice because you can tweak it on the pedal and you can use the app to tweak every tiny little thing!
Can it remove the constant distortion/drive hum that is present while playing?
Yes it can, but you most probably need to use the loop and dig into the toneprint editor to cut out exactly the frequency's that sound annoying.
Can you really edit the toneprint on iPhone? I haven't been able to find the editing app in the App Store, and the iOS link on the website doesn't work.
Thomas Jeffrey only iPad, not iPhone.
hello nice video!!!
i just bought one and the evh 5150.
which is the best way to connect to this very high noisy amp???
I take it that you are using the amps drive, use input - output in front of the amp and loop your preamp trough send/return on the pedal don't use it with only input/output as shown in the video, using the loop is the way to go with this pedal.
It is even possible to loop an entire pedal board with it, it does not cut of delay while still cutting out unwanted noise when set correct, how many other noise gates can do just that?.
Use the toneprint editor to only cut the noise out, the Sentry is a tri-band noise gate for a reason.
tnx a lot my friend you helped me a lot :)
have a nice day buddy
You like this more than the Silencer?
I haven’t tried the silencer. :)
is it better than ISP decimator because I think otherwise.
I haven't tried the ISP, will check it out!
I had the ISP and hated it but a lot of people love it. To each their own I guess. I went right back to the Boss which had a much tighter gate to me. I still had the high squeal coming through when I stopped playing. This sentry seems good though.
an ISP decimator is a suppression NOT a bypass or a noise gate.
I use both on my rig. A decimator works extremely well with a noise gate if you use distortion/overdrive since a noise gate will gate certain frequencies, but a decimator will compliment a gate extremely well by eliminating say, instant feedback if you set your decay high in order to have more drawn out licks IE: breakdowns, djent riffs that you want to have melodic, or if you're using reverb to help give that melodic draw out, a noise gate would hurt what youre aiming for, while a decimator is exactly what you want for that type of stuff.
Pretty much, they're different and I recommend spotting both on your rig for a MUCH more solid/comprehensive sound.
MrStangus 1 Which Boss are you using?
The Sentry is a tri-band noise gate, it won't cut all frequency's evenly if you tell it not to, which makes it possible to cut noise when doing riffs while still being able to let notes ring out naturally.
I can't really see a use for a suppressor when looping most of my board trough the send/return on the pedal, only pedals I avoid to have in the loop are a wah and a mimiq doubler.
Heck, it even lets the delay ring out properly while still being able to get complete silence between power chords and even shaving off unwanted noise while the chord is heard.
The pedal is VERY noisy. I got one today and returned right after testing. Opening and closing of the gate is OK, toneprint works too but whenever the gate is open it introduces a surprising lot of hiss, like you would turn the gain of your amp like +6 db or something. Really disappointing.
Bought a pedal, but it adds a lot of noise when turn it on and distorts the sound
Why always that frown?
👍👍👍👍👍👍from🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🤓
2:04 you are definitely not playing what you showing. So how can I trust your review now?
I checked again and I am I feed playing there. That additional high note at the end is my palm sitting on the bridge.
@@Wallimann and the second high? And it doesn’t match by the rhythm
@@Wallimann oh I’ve got it. It’s the same riff as the second one. And it’s the 6th string hit some fret. Meeeen! That wasn’t ez to figure out:D sorry for blaming, but it’s definitely a problem of a shot angle etc...
This pedal eats batteries alive. 2 hr of playing will deplete a 9v batttery completely. Plus, tc electronic has basically made it impossible to contact customer support. I regret buying their products.
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