Tell me the compressor secrets

[NealVossy]

I bought a Dynacomp a while back, I liked what it did for me, but I hated the volume cut. I know that its what compression is, its going to cut my volume some. Whats the secret of the pros and semi-pros to keep loud in the mix and still have a compressed tone?

[callaway]

Lots of compressors have an output level control. The technical term is "make-up gain", because it's making-up for the gain lost in the compression stage.

[Tim Armstrong]

I used a compressor for a while with my bass, until the day the battery died at a gig and I discovered I liked my bass better without it!

So my secret is that I sold it!

Tim

[guit30]

First,
Tim,
You guys are good, like your nice simple sound, some people try to get too fancy.(your group)
- As for compressors, I love them, the Dynacomp really sucks tone, because it is not true bypass so you have to turn the volume up to match the volume of the uneffected sound, then maybe louder and then turn the comp up knob up higher than the level, The 76 reissue of that pedal sounds great, but it is real noisey on my rig. I use A Wampler Ego compressor, it is a Ross Clone, like a Keeley, but I like the sound better than the Keeley, plus it is cheaper. A good inexpensive one is the Guyatone ST2, I also use a Hartman compressor, which is A Dan Armstrong clone, it is more subtle ,but you can get a boost from it.
Jim

[Pinball_Wizard]

the guyatone ST-2 is a nice simple compressor. can do that funky cluck well. and then you can mix the original signal back in some for some unsquashed sound, but why have a compressor unless you want to reshape the attack?

I like that squashed piercing horn type sound you can get, otherwise its not all too useful, can bring pinch harmonics forth and clean up rhythm playing. Make excessive high end unobtrusive.

Compressors for guitar have those subtle uses.

[guit30]

I love my Wampler cause it makes the tone better, plus I can get some good chicken pickin compression!!!!!
JIm

[Tim Bowen]

Depends on where within your signal chain that it's placed, and with what all it's utilized with, what sort of gain is being pushed from your amp/system, et al.

I like compression early, but I'm never thinking about using it as a boost. I set for minimal squish, and set the pedal's master at or slightly above *perceived* unity gain, level of which is WAY different in a live environment than when playing at home. The more I encounter any sort of perceived volume drop, the further down I back the squish, and *maybe* up the pedal's master a tad. The natural question might be, "well then, why bother?", and the natural answer would be "because a little bit goes a long way". IF you place a compressor early in the chain: while it's a totally different beast than an overdrive, fuzz, or any other variety of gainer, with its output set above unity, it starts to clip, saturate, and further compress circuits that follow it.

The aforementioned Guyatone really is a good inexpensive comp. For the most part, I've never been able to make MXR Dynacomps and BOSS comps and such work for me live, but plenty of working players have, and do. I like comps with lots of headroom, and the ones I've hung onto are Menatone J.A.C., Analog Man Mini-BiComp, and Keeley two-knobber. The only pedal comp that I've ever had success in using as a boost late in the chain is the Menatone J.A.C., which is based on the venerable Urei LA-2A, which behaves more like a limiter with a master volume than it does as a squeezer.

Anymore, I'm not going to engage a comp of any sort unless it's in tandem with a low gain boosted signal toward the end of the chain. Generally, if I'm kicking in compression, I've still got some headroom to spare within my rig, and I'm probably riding 60-70% of the instrument's volume knob, tops.

[guit30]

BTW ,Guyatone has a new comp out, one of their mighty micros, it has added features like attack and they say it is a Ross type using a 3080 chip. Tunnelvision has it for 136, you could not go wrong there, made in Japan, not China
J