Noise is a demon that plagues all high gain distortion pedals. It’s a fact of life that there’s just no escape from… or is there?

Before we begin lets take a moment to define the word ‘noise’ as we use it in this article. When we use the word noise we’re referring to the hum & hiss you hear when you are notplaying. The moment you strike a note, the noise is ‘gone’, but in reality it is simply overcome by the note having been played. The note is passing trough the distortion circuit and being amplified in the same way the noise is, but being that the note is intentional and, as such, a much louder source than whatever is causing the noise in the first place. As the struck note decays the noise slowly becomes more apparent until it overcomes the decaying note, as the noise never left, it was simply overpowered by the note.

Why are distortion pedals noisy?

Many distortion pedals use cascading gain stages to create their sound. While this creates some great distorted tones, each gain stage also amplifies all background noise.

Not all distortion pedals use this design, but the long and short of it is that a distortion pedal will amplify and distort any signal it is fed;even if you can not hear the noise causing signal source before activating the pedal.

What could be causing the noise?

Many times, the noise accentuated by distortion pedals can be tracked to environmental issues. This iswhy professional recording studios are so expensive to design and construct. Painstaking measures are taken to ensure that every power source is pristine, ever power line is shielded and kept far from physical audio paths, all of the walls are shielded against stray radio frequencies, and so on.

That being said; let’s take a quick look at what might be causing your noise and a few things you can do to clean up your signal.

Power

The first thing to look at is how you’re powering the unit. Batteries will deliver a quieter performance, as they are not subject to some of the issues that affect AC power, but they have a downside as well. Batteries will steal your tone as they die, at such a subtle rate, you might not notice until your tone is truly not the same anymore.

AC power eliminates the gradual tone theft caused by dying batteries but they open the door to other noise causing possibilities. AC power directly from the wall is wrought with noise. The power is not delivered in a conditioned or filtered manner which is perfectly acceptable for most worldly applications, but not in the audio realm. If you rely heavily on pedals of any kind to create your tone, we highly recommend investing in a good power supply for them. Here in our shop we use the PA9 power supply from Godlyke, but there are many others on the market.

Another power distribution possibility could be that you have too many pedals on your power supply’s chain. Noise occurs when you overload your power supply’s capacity. The rated output of your powersupply might indicate it can handle 4 or 5 pedals (after doing the math of course), and in fact it can- it just can’t handle it well. That output rate is there to tell you where the failure point would be, not where the optimum operating level is. To keep your pedal board sounding clean stay well under your power supply’s rated output. Some pros suggest you cut the rated output in halve and use that as your load guide. I say use your ears. If you hear degradation, even while within the specs of your power supply, ease back on its load.  

Next time we'll dig into cables, your pedal board signal chain, and body cavities.

Be well,

Dennis