Pedal compressor - uses, settings?

[Mr.Grumpy]

Re-re-re-doing my pedalboard again. I had room (and power) to put a compressor pedal in my chain, and thought I might like it for clean leads and fills and stuff. The compressor pedal in question is an Aria CP-10,it's a 3 knob compressor (attack, level, sustain). I'm almost certain it uses a compressor chip (transconductance amplifier?) and not optoisolators. I tried fiddling with it, and I just don't like it. Yes, I know it's supposed to "squish" the dynamics and it certainly does that. But it seems to dull the tone too, makes things sound dark and flat. This is playing solo, at home of course. Maybe it'll sound better in a band context?

 

So I'm open to suggestions on how you use and set a pedal compressor. Since you're going to ask, our band plays punk-flavored rock, two guitars, bass, drums... Mostly two crunch guits for rhythm, and myself and the other guitarists take turns on leads. Maybe a compressor isn't for me, but I wanted something to make my guitar stick out a little more for melodic fills and stuff so I'm not always just doubling the rhythm guitar, and not always playing with the tubescreamer on.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Re-re-re-doing my pedalboard again. I had room (and power) to put a compressor pedal in my chain' date=' and thought I might like it for clean leads and fills and stuff. The compressor pedal in question is an Aria CP-10,it's a 3 knob compressor (attack, level, sustain). I'm almost certain it uses a compressor chip (transconductance amplifier?) and not optoisolators.[/quote']

 

I've never played through one of those, so I have no idea what they sound like or even good settings to suggest, but I suspect you're probably correct insofar as it not being an opto-compressor.

 

I tried fiddling with it, and I just don't like it. Yes, I know it's supposed to "squish" the dynamics and it certainly does that. But it seems to dull the tone too, makes things sound dark and flat. This is playing solo, at home of course. Maybe it'll sound better in a band context?

 

Or maybe not. "Dulling" of high frequencies is not an uncommon side effect of some compressor designs.

 

So I'm open to suggestions on how you use and set a pedal compressor. Since you're going to ask, our band plays punk-flavored rock, two guitars, bass, drums... Mostly two crunch guits for rhythm, and myself and the other guitarists take turns on leads. Maybe a compressor isn't for me, but I wanted something to make my guitar stick out a little more for melodic fills and stuff so I'm not always just doubling the rhythm guitar, and not always playing with the tubescreamer on.

 

My suggestion would be to go down to the nearest music store and try some other compressors and see if you like any of them better than the Aria.

 

In the meantime, try using as little "Sustain" as you can. That's most likely the "compression" knob; think of it as an Amount control. The Attack control should adjust how quickly the compressor kicks in, and how much of the note's attack sneaks past it before the compressor clamps down. Again, a slower attack time may help some of those initial note transients to pop out, giving you the impression of a brighter sound. Adjust the Level control last, after fiddling around with the other two knobs. Typically you'd want it set for unity gain vs the bypassed sound, or possibly for a bit of a level boost when the compressor is kicked on.

 

[WRGKMC]

Different compressors have different character for sure. I have four or 5 including an MXR, Marshall, Boss, and an old Rolland. I have dozens of rack versions and comps in multi effects as well. No two seem to be the same.

 

I don't know how good the Aria is. It looks to be one of those budget builds and the pricing on them seem to suggest that.

 

It just may not be a very good design, but even then, I find compressors like The boss to be overkill and neuters the transients too much for me. Its also creates the effects you mentioned. The MXR is very boosty in the upper frequencies and can wind up being very noisy.

 

I keep coming back to using the Marshall, which was rated very high in a shootout a couple of years ago. Its fairly mild and it has minimum coloration. It has a tone knob as well which lets you adjust which frequencies get compressed the most. You can tweak it to comp the highs and leave the lows alone a bit more, or you can comp the lows and let the highs come through. Half the time I don't even realize its running until I turn it off and its like holy cow where did my sound go.

 

I'd do as Phil suggests however. Try as many as you can out till you find one that does what you want. Even then it takes some time to get used to it, and you may have to tweak your other pedals to work well with it.

[Mr.Grumpy]

Thanks for the thoughtful replies, gentlemen. Yes, I tried Phil's "duh!" solution and turned down the sustain knob, around 9 to 10 o'clock or so...doesn't sound as squished but still helps appegios ring out cleanly and evenly. Much better! I've read about a simple mod to brighten up a 'dark' compressor pedal, it involves putting a capacitor in parallel with the 20k ohm output resistor, and I'll probably do that too.

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

Grumpy, please let me know what you think if you do the capacitor modification! Before and after clips with the same knob settings would really rock...

 

[WRGKMC]

You might be able to use a treble bleed cap like you do on a guitar volume knob, or use a band pass cap to filter out a little bass.

 

If you got enough extra room in there to install a mini pot let us know. I can whip you up an easy generic schematic that should do the trick. The extra pot will allow you to dial up how much bass reduction/treble boost you get, like I do with my Marshall pedal.

[Danhedonia]

There's something else that is nagging at me as I mull this over: you have two guitars playing 'crunch' sounds (which suggests lots of chord phrasing or more simply that the guitars occupy a significant breadth of the sonic spectrum). Sure, compression alters your sounds (and nothing really to add here from my perspective) but have you considered that your leads are just getting 'lost' in the mix because they're smushed in with a of other sounds?

 

 

[Mr.Grumpy]

... have you considered that your leads are just getting 'lost' in the mix because they're smushed in with a of other sounds?

 

Sure, we're a sonic mess! That's one reason I'm exploring something that will let me out of the always-on Tubescreamer tone. My bandmate always plays with distortion too, we're supposed to be punk rock.

 

 

[nocigarus]

I don't recall anyone saying anything about signal chain. Typically your compressor should be first in line (after the tuner of course)... but it's sometimes fun moving pedals around to hear what different sounds can be made. If you still need something to stand out for leads think about a simple volume boost pedal... or just crank the level(volume) knob on another pedal such as your compressor and dial the settings back or off completely (whatever makes it sound good and especially louder when you turn it on).

 

[WRGKMC]

I use a Volume/wah pedal before a compressor. If you use a Phasor it might sound better before the comp too. The coloration and sustain makes these pedals operate very differently when placed after a compressor, but you'll have to decide what works best for you. Comps tend to produce a certain amount of automated volume so when its idle you have maximum gain.

 

I like using the comp before my drive pedals and use it to add additional sustain playing leads. Placed after gain pedals it amplifies the ambient noise those pedals generate. They don't react as well either. Drive pedals limit dynamics and clip peaks. The compressor relies in dynamics to function and the more signal loss there is before you hit the pedal the weaker its ability to control those dynamics.

[Phil O'Keefe]

There's something else that is nagging at me as I mull this over: you have two guitars playing 'crunch' sounds (which suggests lots of chord phrasing or more simply that the guitars occupy a significant breadth of the sonic spectrum). Sure, compression alters your sounds (and nothing really to add here from my perspective) but have you considered that your leads are just getting 'lost' in the mix because they're smushed in with a of other sounds?

 

 

Frequency masking can be a real issue, and engineers spend a fair amount of mixing time carving out areas of the frequency spectrum so you can hear the individual elements simultaneously. You can do the same thing with your band (even on stage) by using different types of dirt boxes on both guitars, using different types of guitars / pickups, EQing them differently, etc.

[Danhedonia]

Or, you can use one of Phil's favorite 'secret weapons,' the ultra-affordable Danelectro Fish N' Chips. Talk about punk rock - a $25 EQ pedal oughta steamroll any accusations of closet boutique-ry.

[Chris Loeffler]

A friend told me he was running a compressor (Pigtronix Philosopher's Tone, I believe) in the FX loop of his Mesa Boogie and at first I thought that was heresy. After thinking about it for a few minutes, I realized how that could make sense... let the preamp do all of its magic and then just roll it down a bit.

[defaultusername]

 

 

 

Or maybe not. "Dulling" of high frequencies is not an uncommon side effect of some compressor designs.

 

 

 

 

One really cool compressore pedal is the TC Electronic hypergravity.

now it's (don't lynch me folks) digital (which I like b/c of the noise a compressor can add) but one really cool thing, well 2 actually

 

Is that it can be set up multiband (you can use a PC to interface with it and set the bands up the way you want) so you can really tune it to add a little presence.

 

The other thing I like about it is the blend control so you can get sort of upward compression.

 

There's a very detailed video on it