Vishwas R.
Love it! Reduced the background noise from my high gain distortion pedal.
David M.
It took a bit to understand how best to use it I was thinking I wanted cable methods and I might try it again but just setting the it between my compressor near the front of my guitar chain and before any Preamp or overdrive this does as fantastic job getting the guitar quiet when I stop. In active pickups+ high gain settings equals a lot of extra squeel. Anxious to try at fill band practice soon. So far it holds up to high praise in YouTube reviewer feedback
Jacob E.
Was looking for an affordable quality noise gate and heard the soph gate from a tiktok, did some research and made the purchase and was not disappointed, also bought a 2nd hand power supply and dinner has quickly jumped into my heart as a reliable company that makes quality products
Jered C.
Perfect! I was looking for something that you could dial in the fastest gate possible for 7-string and 8-string djent sounds without spending too much money. This does that perfectly. It also does the normal noise gate for basic cleanup while retaining sustain.
Scott S.
I am very happy with the Sophgate pedal! It is a great, useful tool.
STANLEY S.
Works like a boss! I use it to tame my bass. I roll with a higher gain sound (using the Tech21 dUg Pinnick pedal) for a serious grind, so this pedal cleans up the spaces quite nicely. The price was great as well. Other pedals doing the same can cost 3 times as much for the same build. Can't go wrong with this one.
dram56
Don't know if it's actually simulating a Dumbal sound or not. But it is a fantastic overdrive pedal. Very transparent sounding. The select-able Clipping is great. But it's BEST feature is it's separate Bass and Treble controls. They may not be for for everyone because unlike most EQ controls on pedals that are subtractive (meaning you can only take away some bass or treble, on this pedal, the Bass and Treble are "flat" at 12:00, and you can actually add more Bass and Treble when turned up beyond that. This causes them to to be "interactive" with the Gain and Vol controls. For me, that's great. I can add some Bass or Treble and reduce the Gain to compensate. So, you can get "Amp" like additive EQ, and adjust Gain and Vol Controls accordingly. Again, this is not for everyone's taste. But I love the way this pedal can sound. Someone said it's a Timmy clone. Well not quite, but for $50, it comes close to that type of OD sound. I would classify this OD pedal in the "Mild OD" category that has a very transparent sound. Somewhat like a Klon Centaur, but with better EQ controls. Great for an Always On pedal in the front of your chain, and works great when "stacked" with other OD or Distortion pedals. Donner has a real winner with this pedal.
ODGD
The Donner Vintaverb has a lot going for it - starting with seven reverb types: Room, Studio, Hall, Plate, Spring, Modulation, and Distortion.
The classic types hold up very well in comparison to other digital reverb units. The spring reverb, while ok, is not going to make me want to choose it over my amp's (real) spring, but not a surprise there. (I use a stereo rig through two Peavey Classic tube amps.)
With so many options (including short/long pre-delay and delay control), there are a lot of sounds you can make and they are not all equally wonderful -- it is possible to wind up in some very over-digital and over-modulated places. But to appreciate what is actually on offer here, start with the suggested settings of mix, delay, and tone that they suggest as best for each reverb type, and you'll find that you have a great palette / starting place for sonic fiddling. These reference points actually A/B pretty well to my ears with reverbs costing twice as much. (The modulation and distortion reverb are somewhat in a category by themselves, and may or may not suit your musical ear.)
The "Freeze" function (not sure if that is the best name for it) brings a whole other performance angle into it, as activating it with the footswitch causes the effect to swell. It seems (with Freeze activated) that the signal has a feedback loop as well, as it can start to sound like a locomotive coming at you pretty quickly! Use lightly, and I think it will inspire further fine-tuning.
The package itself seems pretty solid and features a "silent" on/off switch that requires a mere foot tap (also functions with hold as "freeze" switch"). The stereo through aspect, for those who (like me) roll that way, is a great value for the money. Running it through the F/X loop seems to give it a cleaner sound, although not to imply that it is otherwise muddy.
If this is anywhere near your price point, you will be getting good value either side of it.
Ian Black
I played with this pedal for a couple hours when I received it today. I went through all the settings and did 3 different connection configurations. I have a Peavey Valve King 100 amp and I used my modded Ibanez RG8 guitar. Normally, these two together make plenty of noise. Hissing, feedback, static, etc. The Soph Gate took care of that problem! It took some knob turning and manual reading, but I found a setting that I really like, it lets all the good stuff through and keeps the riff raff out, like a burly bouncer at a bar in a rough neighborhood. I like stacking fuzz and distortion pedals with the amp distortion and this usually causes a lot of unwanted and uncontrolled noise, but this gate stopped all of that. It feels well made too, and I really like the graphic on top, it reminds me of some more expensive boutique pedals, but for considerably less money. I like that there are more than one option for how to connect it. It can be used by itself, or with a whole board full of pedals, and it still gets the job done. It also came with optional rubber feet, which is cool because I usually take feet off of pedals in favor of velcro, but this time, I didn't have to. Ok, long story short, this pedal is an amazing value, it does what it's supposed to, and does it for a very affordable price. I definitely recommend it!
Adam
Connecting this 4 cable style will NOT let you keep your high gain/pre amp tone when bypassed, aka it bypasses your preamp when bypassed. I was hoping for its surgical style settings plus the benefit of using the fx loop so its barely more useful than the $25 behringer gate (which keeps your high gain tone when connected 4 cable style). Its a very nice pedal but didnt do what I expected.
Justin
You guys and girls made the Sophgate the perfect noisegate pedal
Justin
I’ve tried just about every gate on the market.
This is the absolute best of them all and purchased at a fraction of the price of ‘big’ name brands.
Works as well if not better.
Money well spent! ✌️
Kozel
I get to say that and actually mean it lol. This pedal can do the really hard gated choppy djent staccato chuggs and idk how else to describe them lol. It actually does it better than my other white box 4 cable gate I don't need to name, welcome to 2021. Lots of flexibility when routing, obviously can 4 cable. It comes with diagrams for different setups and sound settings which is suuuuuper helpful. It does also function as a normal gate I suppose, with lots of tweakability, a bit too much if you just want a set and forget simple gate, which donner also makes for less $ and that one fills that purpose nicely, I run both and use this one as an effect for some seriously brutal syncopated (theres the word) rhythm parts.
Jeff P.
Exactly what I needed. Just tweak till you find your touch and tone and no more hum or noise
ignacio l.
I lub dis gate I can get so detailed and the exact amount Of responsiveness I need
Wesley
It's unbelievably quick, silent, and doesn't color the tone, just silences the noise
Sammy H.
Fantastic product it holds up to the hype
Mackenzie
Versatile pedal with my favorite artwork on any of my 14 Donner pedals!
Dave
I bought this pedal because I had a Behringer Noise Gate and although that worked OK, it wasn't flexible enough for what I wanted and as such the addition of something like this with more adaptable elements to it means I can adjust the Gate for various scenarios better.
This Gate has a click less Foot switch and true bypass, there seems to be no tone killing going on. The attack function changes the speed at which the Threshold works and allows High gain signals to be brought in slowly, I found it useful to keep it relatively Low, especially when trying cleaner signals. The threshold pretty much cuts out everything after the 3 O Clock position although it is dependent on Signal strength. I found the Release and Hold functions provide some ability to control decay which means you can maintain sustain with pretty high signals, although if your using this for pedals alone it might not stop a feedback loop. However at High gain you might want a feedback loop for that extra wild feel! Overall the pedal is well made pressed steel, solid sockets for jacks and power and the knobs are solid in terms of turn and feel.
Plus you get reasonable packaging, good instructions with slightly amusing English, diagrams included and Stickers!
It needs a bit of a tweak for various scenarios, so as long as you know what all the knobs are doing you can make it work for you.
If you using the Send and Return for effects, it might pay to remember time based effects get damaged going through a Noise gate and can be cut off. So if your chain contains Delay or Reverb Tremolo or Chorus and its got this gate on the end, you'll find you need to isolate those effects out through the side loop or put them through the Amps effects look instead.
I've isolated out all my time based effects through the Amp loop so the gate only affects the signal chain for the guitar type effects.
Bradley F.
This works so well with my hi gain guitar solos. I don’t have to worry about feedback at all. That’s just one of the benefits as I am still experimenting with the loop feature and how I want to configure it.
This is one of the best boxes I’ve used in a long time..
JN
Great pedal to help tame my array of distortion & fuzz! Also, use the FX loop of noisy Crate amp into send/receive. helpful controls to dial in just the right amount of noise control and release to let sound ring out.
Uncle Ernie
for once a noise gate that opens and closes without chopping off notes. I put it after my drives and before everything else. works great once I got it set to my taste. I will say that with super noisy drives like a big muff, I have to adjust it and it can show it's limits but I'm really trying to find them so...
Anthony R.
Really great pedal for the price. It takes a bit of experimenting with to get it just right, but it is worth the time. I switched amps and had to recalibrate bit, but it was a mild tweak. And I was back to not hearing noise. This is a great addition to my pedal board.
David B.
This pedal is really great. I love the return knob control of the gate "close." I've had trouble in the past with flickering gates and I have no issues with this one! Keep in mind it does require 200mA so if you're using a power supply make sure you have an open port. Easily fixes my single coil j bass buzz and my noisy drive pedal. 10/10
Spencer B.
This noise gate really does the trick. The instructions are great at explaining the use of each knob and a great recommended process of dialing in just the perfect amount of noise gate. Within a couple minutes of tweaking, it provided the perfect amount of gate for my taste. Totally quiet with a fuzz and dist pedal on without a sacrifice in tone or much sustain. The effects loop setup is really great at this price point. Can be very useful to activate a dist chain with a single button push. The construction is solid. I’m not concerned with this busting.
Alec
The way it messes with the sidechain loop function is my only problem
Matthew Smits
Notes gate easy to use
Anthony Stewart
Picked this one up because i was getting a lot of hiss off of my fuzz and distortion pedals, and this pedal cleared that up. Solid build and affordable.
Karate Nipples
Great pedal for the money
Taylor
I was in the market for a standalone noise gate because I have an SSS guitar setup and the hum sometimes gets to me when I'm practicing and pausing between playing. At the same time, it's kind of expensive to just get a noise gate to stop an annoyance so I was pleased when looking through the options to see one that had a bit more than just a threshold dial as I could get some more versatile use out of it. I've been pretty pleased with this (obviously, you do sacrifice size, but I don't have many pedals overall and generally play at home, so hasn't been an issue to me). The look is nice overall (weird typo on "Input" notwithstanding) and it's a solid, metal pedal. Knobs feel good, has an indicator light for power, input/output as well as separately send and return for looping. In addition to the standard function, you get more control over the sound, which the instruction manual gives some helpful guidance on if you're wondering how they work. But basically it modifies different aspects of how the noise gate works (such as how abruptly it cuts off at the threshold, how often it can proc in a short span, etc.) so that you can modify it for your particular situation. Especially if you're using this in a scenario with less overall hum and where you are just trying to shape the sound a bit, those additional dials will increase the usefulness significantly. Even just in my case, it's been helpful to focus in on the hum and avoid any unnecessary cutoff of played tones, so it's not wasted on me either.
Kirby rodriguez
Serves its purpose adequately for any level of musician. Good build quality however it can be kind of glitchy. Occasionally when I plug in my pedalboard, the noise gate clicks on but won’t turn off. All you gotta do is disconnect the pedal and plug it back in again and it works fine, no big deal just kinda annoying.
Justin
I have tried almost every noise gate on the market.
The Soft-Gate is hands down the best of them all.
Effective, easy to use (however still learning it a bit) very well built & reasonably priced.
Donner knocked it out of the park with this one..!!!!
Well done Donner!!!
Shelbie Barker
Love it. It did exactly what I wanted it to do.
Chad Adams
Took awhile to figure out how to use correctly, but works well.
David A.
The point of a noise gate pedal with an effects loop is that it uses your clean tone as the reference point for when to open and close the gate and applies the gate after the pedals in the loop. This is useful for noisy overdrive and distortion pedals that produce feedback, buzz, etc. loud enough to make it nearly impossible for a standard noise gate to differentiate from signal. This pedal performs that function. Turning this pedal off bypasses everything in the loop, which is a nice added bonus for anyone who wants to turn two or more pedals on and off simultaneously.
The one big problem I encountered with this pedal is that the gate would kick in too soon and cut off sounds I didn't want it to even when I had the threshold knob turned all the way left. I was able to correct this by placing a boost between this pedal and the guitar to ensure my signal was always elevated by a few decibels. It was an easy enough problem to address, but I feel like a noise gate pedal should have a much lower threshold floor out of the box. I have a separate noise gate (without a loop obviously) that I did not have this problem with, and I imagine it might be an annoying thing to encounter for someone who doesn't happen to have a spare boost pedal lying around.
A smaller problem I encountered was that the gate did not close as quickly as I would have liked even with the "Hold" switch flipped to "quick."
This pedal comes priced at about half the cost of pedals from other brands with similar functionality. The pedal fills such a specific function, that I'm surprised to see an affordable pedal brand bother to manufacture it. The build quality is really nice, and the artwork is light-years better than you would typically expect on a budget pedal. It's a good value if you need it for what it does.
Customer
It was okay! I thought it was a looper pedal but it was not!
LP
It works pretty well. Have to play with it more but it cancels out most of the noise. Recommend it if you need a budget pedal worth the dollars.
Brandon Moore
Above and beyond what i was expecting.killed my tube amp and OD stomp box noise .its built like a tank and great price
Shivam Gupta
I was debating between this pedal and the $30 budget pedals, and for just a little bit more money this pedal is worth it. Having the extra controls gives more flexibility to your sound, which is useful especially when you start stacking dirt pedals. I'm a bedroom player and I'm not sure how great this would be for gigging, as the gate is a bit choppy, but for the price it does it's job. I've never used the higher end gates so can't compare to those, but for those on a budget this work well.
Annie
I have noise in my pedalboard that I have trying to eliminate. Purchased this pedal it does eliminate the noise, but also destroyed and the sustain. So not using currently this was my first noise gate so not totally sure if this is normal response when using one.
Tanya Douglas
Not a bad little pedal for the money. Solid metal case.
Javier T.
the product works great for canceling out the static from my amplifier. It also takes away unwanted hand noise. I would definitely recommend this product for the price
andrew wilson
This is the first noise gate pedal I have had. It took only a few moments to figure out how to get the noise cancellation to work. If the led is red it is still letting some 60 cycle hun through and or hum from fuzz pedal, adjust settings while playing when light turns blue the noise gate is fully working. I haven’t figured out the loop yet but that’s not why I bought it. The pedal is light compared to boss or ehx but it is built pretty sturdy.
chris
It does what is supposed to do, but there's a lot to dial in. Once you find what sounds good with your setup, you'll wonder how you went without it.
Stephanie Wissing
Admittedly, I don’t have much experience with noise gates so there was a slight learning curve here. I like that it has a true bypass when I’m not using distortion and fuzz pedals. I think the value is pretty incredible. After going back through the manual today I really got it dialed in and I’m liking it the more I use it. Initially I wasn’t in love with it, but to be honest, I think that’s because it’s more advanced in its capacity. Once I learned how to properly set up the release, threshold, attack and return to my liking I began to really see how it can shine. The pedal looks really as well... it’s pretty cool looking. I usually don’t buy budget items, but after being INCREDIBLY impressed with some Donner cables I decided to try their pedals as well... The packaging is stellar and they really make absolutely solid and NICE products.
Roy Pugh
Just got my sops gate today and was more than blown away at first I found the gate very sensitive by running my drive and compressor through the soph gates fix loop and found I could not access those pedals without the soph gate being on so I ran my guitar straight to my compressor to my drive and ending my pedal chain at the gate was able to access my pedals without the gate being on the gate was less temperamental to get where I wanted and my lord my tone was completely untouched i love this pedal it’s replaced my boss ns2 and my isp Decimator g string 2 amazing bang for the buck fraction of the price couldn’t recommend more especially for fellow high gain players #itdjents
Middle-aged Bi Guy
This absolutely FIXED my buzz and hiss issue between my Schecter Hellraiser and Marshall half stack.. love it!!
David Armitage
The point of a noise gate pedal with an effects loop is that it uses your clean tone as the reference point for when to open and close the gate and applies the gate after the pedals in the loop. This is useful for noisy overdrive and distortion pedals that produce feedback, buzz, etc. loud enough to make it nearly impossible for a standard noise gate to differentiate from signal. This pedal performs that function. Turning this pedal off bypasses everything in the loop, which is a nice added bonus for anyone who wants to turn two or more pedals on and off simultaneously. The one big problem I encountered with this pedal is that the gate would kick in too soon and cut off sounds I didn't want it to even when I had the threshold knob turned all the way left. I was able to correct this by placing a boost between this pedal and the guitar to ensure my signal was always elevated by a few decibels. It was an easy enough problem to address, but I feel like a noise gate pedal should have a much lower threshold floor out of the box. I have a separate noise gate (without a loop obviously) that I did not have this problem with, and I imagine it might be an annoying thing to encounter for someone who doesn't happen to have a spare boost pedal lying around. A smaller problem I encountered was that the gate did not close as quickly as I would have liked even with the "Hold" switch flipped to "quick." This pedal comes priced at about half the cost of pedals from other brands with similar functionality. The pedal fills such a specific function, that I'm surprised to see an affordable pedal brand bother to manufacture it. The build quality is really nice, and the artwork is light-years better than you would typically expect on a budget pedal. It's a good value if you need it for what it does.
Chattapoppy
It works In front of the amp and through the effects loop or you can run an overdrive pedal through an individual loop on the pedal. Musicians love it.
David & Shannon Thomas
Experimenting with my new Soph Gate pedal! This thing is not just beautiful but will clean up you signal nicely. Such an amazing value and a great addition to this budget board I've been building!
Jesse Hernandez
Your browser does not support HTML5 video. This noise gate combo really surprised me. You know the annoying feed back you get when playing acoustic with distortion. Well this baby really eliminates that, depending on your settings to this gate it can be really aggressive or could be a very light fade out. Really worth it to have it in your collection.
Carlos
As the name says, Soph Gate brings you to a gate of sounds. It’s really good if you are trying to find the perfect effect or a nice loop, you get a good value for money with this pedal. Very thick sound and versatile, once again Donner pedals are a great option for budged friendly musicians.
xnailsx
I'll start by saying I know noise gates exist in pedal form. The problem is they always seemed overpriced for what you get. I've even considered making my own but that all changes now. Donner has created a powerful little gate that you can not only use in series with your pedals or in your effect loop, but it also has its OWN effects loop. Unbelievable. I also really like the attack feature, which helps me really dial in my sound and tighten how this affects my sustain, which can be an issue with noise gates. Some are a little too stringent with their features to offer the flexibility I'm looking for. At this price point, you really can't beat what you get. It's a B-sized enclosure with a nice matte finish and great graphics, and it comes with some rubber feet and stickers (I don't care about the stickers, but nice touch) in a sturdy, yet unsuspecting box that actually downplays what's inside. If you're not doing a lot of high-gain/distortion playing or suffering from other noise/feedback, either from your rig or other pedals, then it may not be necessary for you to have one of these. However, if you like to get heavy with your playing like I do, then it can be quite essential to have one of these. I was using a rack-mount Hush-C for my half stack, but this is going to be running my combo amp for sure. Hell, it may even replace the Hush-C.
J. Honaker
I love this new Vivid Series that Donner has released. I have used several of their mini pedals and power supply so I know they make good stuff. These are a more full sized pedal with a beatiful boutique styling. Before this pedal I never used a noise gate, I never knew what I was missing. There is plenty of control for setting it up to your taste as well. I have it placed between overdrive/distortion and my modulation pedals. I have a relatively simple setup but this allows me to run those pedals without worrying about cutting the volume constantly on my quitar. While practicing especially, I tend to take pauses and look over material or just to think as I practice. In this case I tend not to hit that volume control. This pedal works great at controlling the noise in between. If your not aware of what a noise gate does, it cuts the signal when a threshold is reached. So you set it to the noise level your pedals create etc and it does a great job cutting signal and quickly reengaging. Donner tends to be a great value for pedals and accessories and thier support has been excellent as well. I would definitely recommend to anyone running pedals, especially distortion, or if you have a noisey guitar. You can place it in front of your pedals to reduce quitar noise or after any set of noisey pedals.
gifreak
Your browser does not support HTML5 video. I am currently a proud owner of several donner products - including several pedals, pedal board and power supplies. To-date, donner has been a great value for money and when they released this vivid series, I knew that it was a matter of time before I needed to get my hands on one, and good thing I needed a noise gate. You can see from the packaging that this is a massive upgrade, from the quality of the foam material, the quality of the instruction manual. This is a big step in the right direction. The build quality is great - I understand that there is always concern from the community about cheap xyz "knock-offs" or something to that effect, but objectively speaking, you hold this in your hand, and it doesn't feel any different than many of the other "boutique" type pedals people chase after (yours truly included). In terms of function, this pedal performed exactly as intended. I intentionally paired it up with a donner morpher gain pedal and used my Godin velocity (which has a single coil neck PU) to my Stage Right tube amp. As you can see, the threshold works just like any other single knob pedals, set it to whatever threshold you need it to based on your PU noise and it works. In terms of why I think this product deserves a spot in its price range - the LED is an extremely nice touch, and between its white and pinkish(?), you can tell whether the pedal is kicking in. I recently got a boutique compressor so I don't know if I was influenced by it but the attack/release knobs do seem to have an effect on the dynamics of the playing - I don't know if it is a good or bad thing yet, but it just is. I suspect some people may be annoyed by it but I am sure in time, I will find the right settings to make it work for me. I have not had the chance to use the threshold setting on the return path but I don't run any noisy effects through loops anyway so perhaps I will evaluate that in the future. All in all, with the vivid series, I think donner is introducing a more premium line of products which I think is a great step. Now, if I can just pace myself and get both the dumbal drive and the vintaverb ...
