Compressor, Yay or Nay?

[KingsXJJ]

Yup. The UA Pedals all blow.

The end.

There are way too many cool all-analog pedals out there (especially in dirt, drive, comp arenas).
I can't even fathom stacking a bunch of UA Pedals together in series and comprehending the
results of all that accumulated latency.

Fuck off UA!

Not even a little sorry.

Love it. This attitude really helps me out on pricing.

 

[Stone]

LA Studio Comp at the end of Every Chain

 

[Jazz Padd]

One of my top two favorite pedal types (the other being echo), this comp is always on:

Not using a Strat these days, but it brings my Teles alive and the tube warms them up and I prefer the Limit switch in up position.

But I mostly use pedals for solo guitar sets. I also stopped using a pick a while back. I found strings are more responsive to touch.

One of my first pedals ever was a 1970s Ross compressor, and I also had a Dyna.

The Mad Professor Forest Green has got the job done well in the more recent past.

And I recently picked up Gretsch Atkins Super Axe that has a built in compressor and might switch to that for the Sept set.

 

[James Freeman]

That's it, I will never make the mistake of buying digital gain/dynamics/filter pedals again, that includes overdrives, compressors, pre-eq, wah, modulation or anything that has AD/DA stages and goes early in the fx chain before the drive pedals, the amount of added noise is idiotic.
The only acceptable digital pedals (for me) from now on are time based effects like delay/reverb that go in the very end of the fx chain.
You live you learn.

 

[Sascha Franck]

or anything that has AD/DA stages and goes early in the fx chain before the drive pedals, the amount of added noise is idiotic.

Can't reproduce. My GT-1000 based system is almost dead silent.

 

[Richard_G]

I’m a big fan of my Origin Effects Cali76 pedals. I also like my Empress Compressor Mk I (less character/more transparant).

 

[JasonE]

I have a small collection of compressor pedals. I currently use a SA Atlas on my board. That one made the board due to the ability to save presets (6) on it and I can switch between two of those by holding the footswitch for 2 seconds. That makes it a valuable resource for live playing.n It also have different types of compression in it, which is really nice. It is essentially like having a very feature rich plugin in a pedal. It has all of the EQ, noise gating, routing options, compression types that you could ever want and more.

I have like 5 or 6 other compressor pedals as well. Another one I have been using quite a bit is the Woodshed from Suhr. The more I have used this pedal the more I like it.

Another one that is a fantastic pedal that was a real surprise for me is the one from Walrus Audio, the Mira. This thing is a great pedal. It may end up on my board soon for somethig different. The sidechain in it is a fantastic feature. I bought this thing on a blowout sale a year or two ago. They built way more of them than they were selling so the blew them out around $100. Once they were gone, they went back up to their normal price, which was somewhere around $260 and then they discontinued it. It is an optical compressor. I like it better than the one they are making now.

 

[James Freeman]

Got a Cali76 FET, tried it, next day sent it back.

 

[Eagle]

I like a bit of dynacomp for obvious compression and also subtle studio effect to clean up dynamics.
They are pretty different things though.

 

[KingsXJJ]

Compression is the shit. Knowing how and where to use it makes all the difference in the world.

Suggestion, don’t put a Dyna-Comp at the front of your chain, play gain tones and say compression sucks.

No, you’re just using it wrong. Or go with that if you like it Leonard. I wrote more about this on TOP so read it there if you want. But type of compressor as well as where it’s used and how it’s set all come in to play. Using them correctly is a type of art form to me. Ask any solid studio guy whatever his role is. Engineer, producer, etc. The mix it and make it sound awesome guy. I learned from them and put it to use in my chain.

I’m not a Line 6 guy but they have that trope about a LAX at the end of every chain or something like that anyway. That is a great start.

 

[la szum]

That's it, I will never make the mistake of buying digital gain/dynamics/filter pedals again, that includes overdrives, compressors, pre-eq, wah, modulation or anything that has AD/DA stages and goes early in the fx chain before the drive pedals, the amount of added noise is idiotic.
The only acceptable digital pedals (for me) from now on are time based effects like delay/reverb that go in the very end of the fx chain.
You live you learn.

This is what they call, "Wisdom."

 

[KingsXJJ]

That's it, I will never make the mistake of buying digital gain/dynamics/filter pedals again, that includes overdrives, compressors, pre-eq, wah, modulation or anything that has AD/DA stages and goes early in the fx chain before the drive pedals, the amount of added noise is idiotic.
The only acceptable digital pedals (for me) from now on are time based effects like delay/reverb that go in the very end of the fx chain.
You live you learn.

The Strymon Riverside and Sunset work just perfectly like this. They add about 1ms of latency each. The Riverside has a built in boost so there’s no need to stack them in one chain unless you want to. The Sunset is a versatile booster/dirt pedal that stacks on its own quite well. I’ve had none of the issues you describe with them. I was not a fan of the Source Audio L.A. Lady however. Compression is a different matter, I did like Source Audio Atlas. It sounded great but ultimately I went with analog compression because knobs.

 

[fr8_trane]

I really like a compressor as a solo boost into or after an Overdrive. Going into a low-med gain OD it adds gain, volume and sustain. Post OD it only adds volume and sustain for a cleaner lead tone that sustains as if you had more gain. For live playing I really like the added sustain without needing a shit ton of gain ala a distortion pedal or fuzz.

I also use it for 80's style clean tones. Those were super compressed.

 

[Jazz Padd]

I’m definitely in the “Yay” camp here, for certain kinds of music. When I do a solo set, a compressor is always on. I have and have had several, including many of those mentioned already, but my go to comp has been the Effectrode tube based PC-2A. I’ve also used the Mad Professor Forest Green.

Most recently, I picked up an old Gretsch Chet Atkins “Super Axe” with an onboard comp, and will use it for my next solo set.

But playing in a group setting, mostly at jazz jam sessions, I prefer not to use one. I like the dynamic range of straight into amp.

 

[the swede]

Yay for me to. I really like what my philosophers tone micro does for my tele, it evens out the “unbalance” in the strings and lifts the tone in a nice way without sounding like an effect. I especially enjoy it for cleans and it’s almost never turned off, even with some drive. I think much of it is because of the treble compensating knob and the blend knob. I have it set (from my understanding) 40% compression, 40% blend, a slight boost in treble to compensate and volume is unity with heavy attack, pedal on or off.

What I hear is a slight loss of dynamics when playing really soft, but it’s tiny, and there’s still plenty of room for dynamic playing (which I do a lot).

I am really happy with these results and consider it to be the base tone for me. Compression off is now very very boring and dull, and only ever switch it off if I’m using my fuzz and want all the range from whisper quiet to super loud.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

 

[holoholo]

 

[James Freeman]

I think I (currently) like the simpler Dyna Comp and CS-3 more than the studio grade compressors, I can hear the simple compressors 'work' and they have an 'effect' on the sound that I enjoy.
The studio grade compressors (Empress, CP-1X) are transparent and don't sound like a guitar effect they are more of a production tool than an effect, maybe that makes them less fun and/or they don't have enough character to fall in love with?
Ego is a basically a modern dyna comp with a mix control which is closer to a guitar effect than a studio compressor and also sounds very good.

If I only have to leave one on my board it would be the Script Dyna Comp, it sounds very pleasing to my ear with a Strat and also because I gravitate more towards classic gear these days.
With that being said, when I use the Empress I hear the character-less compression sound I hear all the time in music, which is also very nice and professional sounding but it's definitely not a "guitar effect".

EDIT:
I also have a UAD MAX which is digital and adds noise even in bypass and 3ms of measured latency but sounds good, the negatives outweigh the positives so it's in storage.
I tried the new Cali76 FET but found that it has zero headroom, basically with the lowest amount of Input Gain the compression was already extreme, maybe it was designed for very low output vintage Telecasters? I replaced the Cali76 FET with the Empress which has way better range and sounds equally good.

 

[James Freeman]

Michael Banfield has two great videos about the types of compressor pedals.
I've watched them many times.