Compressors: Who Uses One and What For?

Cadorman

Cadorman

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I have a compressor. Trying to decide if I should keep it on the board as I rarely use it. I guess the big problem is I'm not really sure what to do with it and it really amplifies noise. Evidently, guys with Tele Radios that play twangy stuff like them. I don't do that.

Is there a good use for them in rock, or should I pull it off the board?
 
Cadorman said:
I have a compressor. Trying to decide if I should keep it on the board as I rarely use it. I guess the big problem is I'm not really sure what to do with it and it really amplifies noise. Evidently, guys with Tele Radios that play twangy stuff like them. I don't do that.

Is there a good use for them in rock, or should I pull it off the board?
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Compression is an important part of a tube amp, it's part of the circuitry.
If you play an amp- like Marshall, Boogie, Freeman, etc....you have a lot of compression in the amp itself.

Compression is also very important for recording, to keep levels within a predetermined range.
Any recording you listen to, FM radio, TV, etc. is all compressed in the audio.

True, it does amplify noise. Which is why the original sound source needs to be as low noise as possible.
Which is why we are always crying about shielding the inside of the guitar...and using humbucking pickups.
 
Cadorman said:
I have a compressor. Trying to decide if I should keep it on the board as I rarely use it. I guess the big problem is I'm not really sure what to do with it and it really amplifies noise. Evidently, guys with Tele Radios that play twangy stuff like them. I don't do that.

Is there a good use for them in rock, or should I pull it off the board?
Click to expand...
Ive heard before that compressors shine best in clean tones to boost the softer notes and quiet down the harsher notes, giving you a balanced sound. This sometimes is counterproductive when playing rock, especially when you want to bang out a loud note, it hushes it depending on how much its set to. But it does have a place in rock and thats creating a nice sustain ( as most compressors are labeled as compressor/sustainer), it works real well in solos and certain metal acts use it when rolling back the volume to clean things up a bit in song parts.

Usually its placed near the front of a signal chain, before the overdrive to compress the clean tone. If its near the end of a signal chain, it will compress all of your fx ( delays, chorus, overdrive etc)

This explains it well

 
Cadorman said:
I have a compressor. Trying to decide if I should keep it on the board as I rarely use it. I guess the big problem is I'm not really sure what to do with it and it really amplifies noise. Evidently, guys with Tele Radios that play twangy stuff like them. I don't do that.

Is there a good use for them in rock, or should I pull it off the board?
Click to expand...

Mine runs 100% of the time.
 
My Quilter amp has a control they call the Limiter. It is mostly a compressor but it does something else as well, not sure what. It smooths out and tames the gain, gets rid of the fizziness. I usually have it on around 11:00 o'clock to 2:00 o'clock on the dial. I also use a compressor on my vocals when recording.
 
Yargnad said:
I use mine 90% of the time. I prefer compressors with single coils more, sometimes it's too much with humbuckers for me. It's a must have, nearly always-on effect.

I love the TrueTone Comp 66 most of all my compressors. It's one half of their Route 66 pedal, the other half being OD. It has a built in switchable noise gate that works prefectly for my usage.

View attachment 66687
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Everything on my board runs 100% of the time, except for the left EQ, which is activated as a solo level boost.

In this image, I am also now using a reverb pedal, which sits off to the side.

20210320_174553.jpg

I have a brand new bigger board graciously donated by @RobV , but I haven't started using it just yet.
 
Yargnad said:
I use mine 90% of the time. I prefer compressors with single coils more, sometimes it's too much with humbuckers for me. It's a must have, nearly always-on effect.

I love the TrueTone Comp 66 most of all my compressors. It's one half of their Route 66 pedal, the other half being OD. It has a built in switchable noise gate that works prefectly for my usage.

View attachment 66687
Click to expand...
I'm pretty much exclusively running humbuckers. What is the compressor doing for your sound? Is it sustain? I don't need any more of that.
 
Got one on my board. When I played my acoustic at church it was on pretty much all the time. I was fairly conservative with setting and used it more as a clean boost. It did make a difference on the signal I sent the board. It was the first box the guitar saw.

Edit: I should add theTonebone is an acoustic preamp/DI box. Had an effect loop and a separate inlet for the tuner. That’s be why it’s kinda an odd looking layout on the board.
1621201993112.jpeg
 
Cadorman said:
I was messing around with mine a little bit ago. Plugged it directly into my 1987 and started adjusting it. I couldn't get it to sound decent. The amp was always better without the compressor engaged. It is a TC Electronic Hyper Gravity. Even adding an overdrive didn't help. Meh.
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This is, often, the way of things...
I’m more of a fan of compression in post...
When used in a guitar amp set up, it is dependent upon the material/playing style.
 
Thatbastarddon said:
This is, often, the way of things...
I’m more of a fan of compression in post...
When used in a guitar amp set up, it is dependent upon the material/playing style.
Click to expand...

I rented out Primo Rehearsal Studios in Riverside for an entire day when I was setting up my pedalboard. I tried every combination and order (at max volume levels) until I arrived at my current setup.

Tuner ----> TS-9-----> EQ#1----> Comp----> NS-2------> Amp Input

Volume Pedal -----> Chorus-----> EQ#2 (solo boost only) -----> Delay -----> Reverb -----> FX Loop

Every combination was tried, including the 4 cable method. Nothing else worked. This was the only arrangement that didn't add gain when boosting a solo and didn't cut the tails off the delay...

20210320_174553.jpg
 
My Vox Tone Lab has a compression pedal on it, the only way I liked to use it was in conjunction with the Uvibe and Delay. For clean work, I have never tried it with heavy blues, or my form of metal.
It’s just not that big a deal to me, unless I want to try and sound like David Gillmore
 
Cadorman said:
I have a compressor. Trying to decide if I should keep it on the board as I rarely use it. I guess the big problem is I'm not really sure what to do with it and it really amplifies noise. Evidently, guys with Tele Radios that play twangy stuff like them. I don't do that.

Is there a good use for them in rock, or should I pull it off the board?
Click to expand...
you can use it for sustaining notes, man, I use it for my vocals when I record but I use plug-ins. it's useful to have part of your signal chain.
 
I just ordered a Wampler Mini Ego. For some reason my DOD FX80B started acting strange and turning on by itself occasionally when I switched on the LPB-1 that's after it in my signal chain. At first I thought I hit the pedal by accident but even with a foot of clearance around the boost pedal, it still happened. Supposedly the switch-on caused some sort of an electrical glitch that bounced on the switching circuitry in the FX-80B...

I use compressor with my clean tone for a couple of different reasons:
  • With a careful setting of the level / compression it's possible to both beef up the clean signal a bit and also prevent an amp that's mildly overdriven without the compressor engaded from distorting...
  • With compression after the echo, it's possible to control the echo dynamics with how loud you play. Play louder -> more compression -> echo becomes proportionally louder. This is very common around here because it's been popularized by the "rautalanka" guitar legend Esa Pulliainen (who says he got it from how studio compression was used on early Shadows albums). He's also the reason why I'm able to turn profit on each FX80B I buy. I've had 4 or something in the last year, the last one sold four double what I paid for it in about 5 minutes after posting the ad...
A lot of the OTA based compressors colour the tone a lot, the FX80-B has been good in that it's quite subtle. For example a Dyna Comp is fun for maybe 15 minutes but gets pretty tiring to listen to after a while. Hoping the Ego would be a reasonable alternative to the FX-80B with a smaller form factor and true bypass... Thing is I like some colour from the compressor, hence I haven't gone to using the optical ones yet.
 
This is my own opinion and experience, YMMV:

I tried hard to use compressors, but never really found any use for it. The tone I get from single coils through Fender amps is good and the compressors don't do anything I can't do by riding the tome knobs on the guitar and pedals (yes, I know a compressor works differently, it's not the same thing as to roll back tones, but you get the idea).

I still own one or two compressor pedals but they never go in my chain.
 
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