Will a compressor do the job?

[badboy1984]

I'm a finger style player and like mid on my tone when I play live/band rehearsal etc. I use compressor to tighten/round things up on my tone.

Here's the problem, on one of the song we trying to play the bass line is pretty funky but play with finger style but one some part of the riff it changes to a few slap and pop thing. The problem I'm getting is the volume on the slap/pop thing is loud because of my tone setting.

I just want a even volume when doing things like that, will a compressor do the job?

Edited May 28, 2014 by badboy1984

[tonyquipment]

A limiter will restrict the dynamics a bit

Compressor does more or less the same thing

Check out YouTube for the boss lmb3

That might shed some light and open some eyes and or ears to what you are trying to find

[badboy1984]

I have a Boss Compressor Sustainer which have been modded to sound and suit better on bass. It does act abit like a limiter when i turn the "sustain" knob anti clockwise and more sustain note if I turn it clockwise. It work great for my finger style playing. I think I need to mess around with my current pedal first to see what I need.

Funny enough I use to own a Boss LMB3 but never got on with it and end up selling it. Maybe a volume pedal will do the trick.

Edited May 28, 2014 by badboy1984

[tonyquipment]

Use the volume pot as the threshold and put the sustain up

The sustain will boost the quieter parts and volume pot will limit the overall output giving u a squashed / contained signal

[ambient]

Just practice the part until both have the same dynamics.

[skidder652003]

A compressor will do just what you need, evens the volume out, prevents spikes.

[51m0n]

[quote name='skidder652003' timestamp='1401281167' post='2461974']
A compressor will do just what you need, evens the volume out, prevents spikes.
[/quote]

Hmmmm, yes and no.

A compressor or a limiter or both together may well be able to tame the peaks and general volume increse when you move to slapping a certain degree, however there are side effects to your tone, and even more so the dynamic feel of playing with compression, that you may find you dont like.

Typically pedal compressors are limited in their controls and metering and make it very hard to judge how much actual compression is going on, so you may well find you are struggling to get a balance right. This is alwya exacerbated by the fact that it is very very hard to hear subtle compression happening and people almost universally underestimate the amount they are compressingtheir signal unless there is really good metering to help them. The result is too heavy handed compression which tends to leave them thinking that compression is no good. It can be but setting them up is a reasonably challenging skill to achieve.

[badboy1984]

Thanks guys, I think part of my problem is to do with the heavy right hand technique because I'm mainly a finger style player, so when it comes to slap and pop my right hand strike and pop heavily. Watching too much Flea I guess lol.

[51m0n]

Check out alain caron fir the other end of the spectrum

[Cameronj279]

This was my reason for buying an MXR Compressor. I feel it does help but not entirely. Although it is a pain in the hole I agree with Ambient. Practice the part until dynamics are as close as can be. Although me being lazy (and not very good) does use the compressor.

[Miker400]

I slap a lot, probably more than I should (I even slap Zeps Black Dog!).. If you slap, you need compression to tighten the attack of the pops and thumps. Just make sure you work on the input and output levels to get the right effect out of the compressor.. I use 3 compressors in my chain; 1 on a boss ME50 pedal board,, 1 on a line 6 racked bass pod and 1 on board my tc staccato head.. They're set differently and programmed for different tracks,, but it's about getting the balance of your levels right.. I have a limiter but it's set at a constant level for everything I do and so is of limited use just for slapping on its own.