comps on electric guitars? Yes or no?

  • Thread starter Thread starter sdeyoung
  • Start date Start date
S

sdeyoung

New member
Just wondering what everyone else here likes to do. I know there are no rules but what instruments do you like to comp? Obvious ones to comp would be vocals, snare, bass guitar. Any tips would be appreciated..
thanks

BTW: the stuff i'm recording is Heavy Rock music.. (in the vein of STP, Velvet Revolver, Soundgarden..) I like things to sound as natural as possible but beefed up a little, obviously EQ plays a role in this also..
 
Whatever you think needs it.

Really, almost anything can benefit from some sort of dynamics control as long as it's used appropriately and tastefully.

I would say, however, that accoustic guitar, overdriven electric guitar, and piano are three things that almost always seem to go to the crapper as soon as I do anything other than very mild compression. In the case of overdriven electric, it really doesn't need it in most cases, as it's already so compressed to begin with. The exception being the solos, where you can certainly benefit from a long release time to help draw out the sustain of longer notes.

Piano and accoustic are tricky because for some reason it's just very easy to hear the pumping and breathing artifacts. And even if you can't, there's just something missing, to me, when I a/b a compressed version with uncompressed.
 
Yeah, I typically don't compress distorted guitar. As said above, it's already pretty flat going in. It will more than likely ultimately get compressed some with the rest of the mix on the master bus anyway, so I'd just leave it alone unless you're having trouble getting it to sit in the mix the way you want with EQ alone.
 
90% of the things i record end up with compression on them eventually....maybe not alot but everything gets alittle....!
 
cool, thanks for your opinions guys.. I'm just trying to find out as much as I can before I start mixing my project..
 
Like Cheesrock said....

Distorted guitars are usually very compressed as it is. Just take a look at a distorted guitars wave form and you will quickly see the compression is already there
 
true guitars are 2 x 4's coming in but that doesn't always excuse them from compression. I'm not saying I do it, but some people do. listen to tom lord-alge mixes--weezer or blink 182, the distorted guitars do have some compression to bring out the palm muting attack.
 
Yea, it really depends on what kind of distorted guitar you're talking about. Palm muting is totally dynamic, so a little creative compression can bring out some of the attack as Fenix mentions. Chug Chug Chug Chug Chug. :D

Any guitar solos that are dynamic, or that have long, sustaining notes almost have to have some sort of compression with extra long release times to bring out more sustain, and to keep the solo up front (assuming that's the goal).

I guess it just further illustrates that there are no hard rules or absolutes in recording. I mean one could certainly say that, as a general rule you don't need to comp heavy guitar, but that's just way too much of an oversimplification when you really look at it.
 
I use a floor compressor for my guitar (Before the amp), to emphasize the palm muting and solo stuff, but it is usually switched off otherwise.

Also use a little compression on my bass rig (Mostly just using the limiter section).
 
Back
Top