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Where should I put my compressor?


colin100
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I am waiting on getting a markbass compressore pedal which I am going to use at the same time as a multieffect pedal. My question is this.... would it be better to put it in before the other effect pedal or after it? I suspect it is basically personal preference but what do most people do? Im sure I remember reading a similar question that somebody asked and I cant find thread and I cant remember what the answer was so sorry if this has already been discussed.

Cheers

Colin

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Thanks for all your input. I'll try it before and after a few times. Doddy's reply confirmed what I was sort of thinking and it will even out things after any effects. I had a little go of it earlier and I think I will probably end up with it at the start of the chain. Its a nice compressor :D

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[quote name='Doddy' timestamp='1359585940' post='1957273']
I put mine at the end of my effects chain,purely to balance things out a bit when I have
multiple pedals going at once. If I'm using one of my multi effects,or no effects at all,I don't
use a compressor.
[/quote]

I'm with Doddy on this one, i do the exact same thing for the same reasons.

I use the EBS Multicomp because it smoothens the peaks without loosing dynamics, that's why, for me, it works better at the end but if i was using one to keep my signal constant (boosting and cutting volume to keep the sound ot the same level) i would probably try it on top of the chain first.

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Put it at the front of the chain or at the end depending upon application. Front of chain is no good if you are using effects that rely on triggering dynamics e.g. envelope filters - but a compressor after the envelope filter reigns in the peaks so it's more friendly on your ear and speakers. (Anybody who has owned a funk a duck knows what I mean). Front of chain is good for reigning in the dyanmic range so you can boost your signal without peaking out...

What are you trying to achieve with the compressor?

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I have an EBS compressor which I put before my zoom b2.1u multi effects. I use a fairly moderate compression setting which I find helps to make the bass sound punchier without squishing the life out of it. The only reason I got a separate pedal was because I didn't like the compressor setting on the multi- effects. The zoom gives me enough control over the relative volumes of the patches, hence to my mind it makes more sense to compress first.

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[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1359721075' post='1959283']
Put it at the front of the chain or at the end depending upon application. Front of chain is no good if you are using effects that rely on triggering dynamics e.g. envelope filters - but a compressor after the envelope filter reigns in the peaks so it's more friendly on your ear and speakers. (Anybody who has owned a funk a duck knows what I mean). Front of chain is good for reigning in the dyanmic range so you can boost your signal without peaking out...

What are you trying to achieve with the compressor?
[/quote]

Im not planning on using an envelop filter at the moment. I swap a lot between normal playing and slappy stuff so im really just looking to level out the peaks that I get when I slap. Also when I go to lower notes on the 5th string it can get a lot louder and would just like to tame that a bit. Any effects I use are pretty subtle so I dont see them giving me any problems if I put it at the front. Am I right in thinking that for me it doesn't really matter as it will compress the signal either way?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have mine as the very first pedal, so that it evens out the levels of my playing when I use different techniques. It also means that when I turn on any gain or boost type effects I can get more output if I want it. I don't use envelope filters or anything that relies on dynamics so I'm not missing out on that.

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Mines now at the beginning rather then the end. Just bought a sansamp bass driver and its sorta compresses he signal as well so having that then compressor at the end really killed the sound of the effects pedals.

Now it sounds bloody brilliant!

Aguilar compressor > mxr bass octave > bass big muff > enigma q balls > tuner > sansamp

Real clean sound and actually less signal disturbance in the chain now

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