Boss is back in the noise suppressor game for the first time since 1987's NS-2 with its new NS-1X, promising to offer appeal to, and well beyond, the kind of unwanted background high-gain metal guitar and bass players often have to battle.
Its Reduction, Gate and Mute modes should be able to cover a wide range of needs. The Reduction mode offers natural noise reduction for general needs; it retains your original response and sustain even when you're using it with low output pickups.
The Gate mode will be the first stop for the higher gain users; 'ultra-fast noise elimination for tapping, sweep picking, and heavy rhythm styles'. Mute mode is exactly what it sounds like; it mutes your signal when required. Beyond that, there's plenty of editing control…
While this X series pedal uses Multi-Dimensional Processing (MDP) technology to 'intelligently silence noise without affecting the natural tone and playing feel of a guitar or bass', players can dial in their own specific settings for optimum efficiency.
Threshold, Decay, and Damp controls will allow fine-tuning and there’s also a Reduction indicator on the pedal to display the current noise suppression status. The NS-1X also features an effects loop for focussing on your noisy distortion pedals.
The new NS-1X Noise Suppresor is available now for $199.99.
More info at Boss.
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I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.
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