Compressor Question

[Monsoon]

Ok, here's a newbie question. Though I'm not a newbie to the guitar, I have had a compression/sustainer pedal in my drawer for about, oh, 15 years. Never used it because, honestly, I have no idea what to do with it. Can anyone suggest useful applications and uses of a compression pedal with a guitar and/or with a bass?

 

[arnorhs]

With bass

Definately use it on the bass... To get long punchy bass notes. Also good to make punchy guitar solos if you don't want an overdrive sound, just even notes. Many many more uses, just try.

 

[Farview]

It can make it so you can get sustain on your solos without having to really overdrive the amp.

 

[Niimo]

i've found that my compressor pedal helps with volume control. i play alot of metal and i keep my gain cranked at all times. i wasn't satisfied with the fact that switching from my gain packed distortion to my clean channel always messed with my levels. so i use my compressor pedal to beef up my clean channel and sort of raise to volume to match my distortion.

 

[Bassman Brad]

Don't know many people that use them for guitar, but a compressor is definitely useful on bass. It's already been mentioned that this can help keep your levels in check, and that's one use for it. However, I would also like to point out that it can also be used to affect the tone of the bass in a positive way. I don't know quite how to explain this, but if you use very mild compression settings, it can make the bass more "punchy" - in a very good way.

Be aware that the use of compressors, especially the cheap stomp box type compressors, also increases your noise level. You will generally want to ALSO use some type of noise reduction along with the compressor.

As always, experiment as much as possible and find what works best for you. YMMV.

Brad

 

[Outlaws]

Ok, here's a newbie question. Though I'm not a newbie to the guitar, I have had a compression/sustainer pedal in my drawer for about, oh, 15 years. Never used it because, honestly, I have no idea what to do with it. Can anyone suggest useful applications and uses of a compression pedal with a guitar and/or with a bass?

I use it to even out the volume of notes. Very minor amount of compression can go a long ways.

I usually don't switch it on/off ever, it just gets turned on and left that way. I don't know about other people, but I have it so it just effects the signal enough to fatten it a bit and even things, and once its on, if I turn it off everything sounds dull to me.

Once in a while though I will use it as a OD pedal.

 

[ggunn]

Ok, here's a newbie question. Though I'm not a newbie to the guitar, I have had a compression/sustainer pedal in my drawer for about, oh, 15 years. Never used it because, honestly, I have no idea what to do with it. Can anyone suggest useful applications and uses of a compression pedal with a guitar and/or with a bass?

What a compressor does, basically, is turn up the volume as a note decays. Most of them also put a "ceiling" on your volume (limiting). The effect is to increase sustain but they can also add noise as the signal from your intrument decays into the noise floor. They also tend to make every note or chord you play the same volume no matter how you strike the string(s).

The controls on a compressor range from the simple (compression rate and volume) to the complex, with adjustable threshold, attack time, release time, etc. I use compressors occasionally on both bass and guitar. Some of the cheaper units don't have great low frequency response, so they are not that good for bass.

The best way, of course, to see what it does is to hook it up, play through it, and twiddle the knobs.

 

[Tadpui]

I use my compressor/sustainer pedal every time I play. I don't use it in an "always on" capacity, but I use it for soloing. Any time I want more sustain but not more distortion.

Excellent for use with a tube amp where you've got it set to just break up while you're playing, then use the compressor to hold the signal in the breakup range of the amp.

 

[Farview]

What a compressor does, basically, is turn up the volume as a note decays. Most of them also put a "ceiling" on your volume (limiting). The effect is to increase sustain but they can also add noise as the signal from your intrument decays into the noise floor. They also tend to make every note or chord you play the same volume no matter how you strike the string(s).

It actually turns down the loud stuff, not raise the volume of the low stuff.

 

[ggunn]

It actually turns down the loud stuff, not raise the volume of the low stuff.

Not so. Simply modeled, a compressor is a VCA (voltage controlled amplifier) whose control voltage is generated from rectifying the input signal and then inverting the sense of it, so that as the magnitude of the input signal falls, the control voltage and therefore the output of the VCA goes up. The output of the VCA can be either louder or softer than the input signal, but at the tail end of the waveform, the compressor is virtually always adding gain.

The term "compression" refers to the reduction of dynamic range, which can be a result of amplifying the quiet stuff, muting the loud stuff, or both. The way I use it with my Strat, it is always adding gain at a high ratio, i.e., it is always turning up the signal, and it turns up the quiet stuff a lot more than it turns up the loud stuff.

 

[Tadpui]

It actually turns down the loud stuff, not raise the volume of the low stuff.

True for a normal compressor. But a compressor/sustainer, like the guitar pedals, actually do both.

 

[ggunn]

True for a normal compressor. But a compressor/sustainer, like the guitar pedals, actually do both.

Yes. The subject at hand is a guitar stomp box compressor. A rack compressor is a different animule.

 

[Farview]

Sorry, flaked out on the pedal part. Outside of the pedal arena, the makup gain control is the only thing that adds gain.

 

[acidrock]

A compressor will give you a "clucky" chicken' pickin' kind of sound that you hear on country leads.
Also it really helps out if you play slide.