Michael Klein Audio Designs Ball Gag Noise Gate Pedal

Overview
Ball Gag is a high-headroom noise gate tuned to allow for a great deal of flexibility in its use. While the signal routing and the gate itself were designed primarily for "4-cable method", it also excels as a transparent, low-noise, high-speed noise gate in the front of an amplifier.

The main goal in my design was to not color the dry tone whatsoever - not only in terms of signal strength but in frequency and transient response as well. It was very important to feel like Ball Gag wasn't in the signal path, except for its silence. By utilizing a high-headroom internal power supply, careful signal design, and component selection, I believe I have achieved that goal.

CONSTRUCTION
The construction uses precision metal film resistors for the lowest noise floor possible, WIMA polyester film caps, Lumberg DC jacks, tight tolerance MLCC caps, and audio-grade Nichicon Fine Gold electrolytic caps. This is all in an effort to maintain your tone as neutral as possible, in as low a noise floor possible. It also uses sealed Alpha pots, which help keep the pots from getting noisy from dust or humidity on the carbon track.