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Is a compressor the solution?


Blondino
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Hello!

I am currently facing a minor dilemma. I play in a loud 6-piece rock band in which I am required in a particular passage of music to switch instantly from flat-out heavy plucking (basically a heavy metal "chorus") to smooth two-handed legato tapping (the "ambient" interlude), without losing any of the volume. Despite spending hours working on my left-hand finger strength, I'm struggling to keep the volume even live (the tapping basically becomes inaudible against the rest of the band). I've been told that a compressor pedal might help me in this regard, but having listened to numerous online demos of people playing a bass through a compressor (badly), I find it hard to discern exactly what impact such a device would have in this situation. Is it the right tool for the job, or are there alternatives I should be considering (short of telling the rest of the band to play more quietly :))?

Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tom

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yeh a compressor is for taming peaks, not for boosting a signal. If you're happy with your tapping technique, it just needs to be louder, then a booster is exactly what you need.

Sometimes an EQ is more appropriate than a booster if you only want to boost certain frequencies.

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To be fair, many compressors have quite an active gain stage, such as the MultiComp, so you could use it as a boost as well.

Clean boosts will simply raise the overall volume of your signal. You can nicely overdrive your amp with them if you dig in, but really it should bring you back to the signal level and overall volume that you want. Be aware though that boosting your signal so heavily will amplify fret and bass noise, just as if you had turned on an overdrive.

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A compressor can definitely do this assuming it has a make-up gain stage that allows you to bring the level up after the compression.

I use a compressor for exactly this reason, set well they are almost inaudible, but make all the difference when it comes to getting that legato tapping bit to keep up with the band.

Better yet, you dont have to remember to kick it on, like you would a boost pedal, at the relevant moment, as well as moving your hands for the tapping part etc etc etc all in a millisecond whilst 'rocking out' with the band for the punters visual benefit.

Edited by 51m0n
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Well if you leave the compressor on all the time it will be effectively boosting the average gain overall and thats what you need in this case. Whether it has a circuit that automatically attempts to make up the difference between the amount of gain reduction it has added on average and the average input signal level or whether there is a manual knob to do it is irrelevant.

I like to have all the controls, a lot of people dont - its too fiddly, I may have to learn how to use it properly, not enough time, are the usual objections at the level of pedal compressors (ie often pretty average sounding circuits). I still maintina that i fyou learn how to use one a cheaper fully feature compressor will serve you better than a more expensive less fully featured compressor.

So recommendations from me would be:-
Markbass Compressore (vari-mu tube compressor - [url="http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/markbass.shtml"]review here[/url])
Joe Meek FloorQ (opto compressor)

Of interest if you cant face learning how to do this 'properly' as it were:-
Effectrode PC-2A is about as good as you could hope for, fairly heavily based on an LA2A, should do the trick ([url="http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/effectrode.shtml"]review here[/url]).

Edited by 51m0n
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