To compress or not to compress?

[cheddatom]

In that case, I don't think a compressor is going to be interesting enough to solve your pedal GAS. If there's money burning a hole in your pocket, grab one of the zoom multi effects units, have hours of fun figuring out what effects you like, then you can lust after all the individual "stomp boxes" which also do this effect.

[njr911]

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1425994078' post='2713163']
In that case, I don't think a compressor is going to be interesting enough to solve your pedal GAS. If there's money burning a hole in your pocket, grab one of the zoom multi effects units, have hours of fun figuring out what effects you like, then you can lust after all the individual "stomp boxes" which also do this effect.
[/quote]

I have a zoom B3. I just have 3 dirt pedals on it all the time

[cheddatom]

Haha! Have you tried the compressors on it?

[njr911]

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1425996019' post='2713191']
Haha! Have you tried the compressors on it?
[/quote]

No, I should spend a bit of time with it but with two kids the only chance i get to play is in rehearsals once a week

[badboy1984]

I use compression. Is something I shouldn't hear a different in terms of my tone or playing. If I hear changes to my tone or volume drop then I'm definitely using it wrong for my purpose. Compression helps me clean up peaks when I striking the strings or certain effects that could potentially peaks.

[cheddatom]

[quote name='njr911' timestamp='1425997710' post='2713219']
No, I should spend a bit of time with it but with two kids the only chance i get to play is in rehearsals once a week
[/quote]

downer. OK, well, what's the behringer pedal?

[elephantgrey]

Compression is quite hard to set correctly without metering. Metering being either one LED (that changes brightness depending on how much the level of the signal is being lowered) or a line of LEDs (more LEDs lit = signal being lowered more).

[Guinness21]

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1415486148' post='2600908']
Depends which compressor and how it's set up.

Generally I don't like them much but I really rate the Diamond one (but it's big money). Very 'musical' and sounds nice without coming across as an 'effect'.

Paul Turner uses one and he really doesn't like compressors

Just bought a Demeter to try out as an alternative but haven't had time to really use it properly yet.
[/quote]

Do you use it with anything else? I hear people raving about this thing, but I'd be using it alongside an overdrive. Worth it?

[Bass Pedal Geek]

Yeah, compressors are tricky ones. I had an EBS Multicomp on my board for a while, but used it mostly as a 'kick-in' effect as opposed to being on all the time. Turned out I rarely did kick it in, though...

Have been over a few different compressor pedals, but have to admit that the one I used for the longest was actually a Focusrite rack unit (Tonefactory) that had a pretty nice optical compressor.

But now I may have found a pedal that gives me the same subtle and musical type of compression (also optical). I got myself the BBE Opti Comp that is very simple (2 knob design), but does a nice job smoothing out the peaks without messing too much with the fundamental tone. So far, I really like that one. One of the tests I always put compressors to is how they handle going directly from muted playing style to slap. It's the outer extremes, I know, but I actually do that sometimes :-)

I also did a review with some sound clips if you wanna check out what it sounds like.

[url="http://bass-pedals.com/Bass_Pedals/Reviews/Entries/2015/2/16_BBE_OC-5_-_OptiComp.html"]Sound clips here[/url]

Edited March 11, 2015 by Bass Pedal Geek

[Guest FretNoMore]

[quote name='hamfist' timestamp='1415523986' post='2601046']
After many, many trials of using compression and then not, and then back to compression etc etc. I have come to the conclusion that I like compression very much BUT ......... it needs to be an expensive, high quality compressor with pretty fine control, used VERY sparingly. I still get loads of dynamics but it all simply sounds nicer, punchier and more present.
Currently use the Empress comp.
[/quote]

What he said.

Empress - and I use it to get a more even and controlled response from pedals after the compressor, like dirt pedals right at the point of breakup and filters right at the point of opening. Reining in the dynamics and the string to string volume just a little bit - not really audible to the ear but very noticeable to dynamic pedals - just makes it easier to control the resulting effect.

I'm not a fan of squeezing the life out of the dynamics or a compressor that adds a lot of character though, hence the Empress at a very mild setting.

Edited March 11, 2015 by FretNoMore

[ColinB]

I built my own compressor, the [url="http://madbeanpedals.com/projects/index.html"]Madbean Afterlife[/url] and I really like it,..... and so does [url="http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/after.shtml"]Ovnilab[/url]. [size=3][i]...[color=#000000][font=verdana, sans-serif]so however you build or buy one it's a strong contender for "best micro compressor". [/font][/color][color=#000000][font=verdana, sans-serif]I recommend the Afterlife very, very highly for clean, basic compression.[/font][/color][/i][/size]

[size=3][i][color=#000000][font=verdana, sans-serif][/font][/color][/i][/size]

[Left Foot]

Am I right in thinking that a compressor with reduce a lot of noise and hiss coming through modulation / delayed effects?

[skej21]

Someone once described compression like this to me and it's how I always think of it. I'm sure someone can tell me if its right or not!

You make a sandwich with all the fillings, and then make another sandwich with all the fillings. You put the first one in your sandwich box but they won't both fit in together, so you put your hand on top of them both and squash (compress) them down so that they both fit into the box, without having to remove anything from each sandwich.

In compression, you squash each track's highest and lowest points so that the ratios in between are reduced. Therefore the relative distance between the highest and lowest note and highest and lowest dynamic peaks (attack, volume etc) stay the same but are plotted within a smaller space, allowing room for other tracks to sit alongside with less intrusion?

I'm still not sure if this is entirely correct or not but it's how I always think about it! Happy to be told otherwise :-)

Edited March 11, 2015 by skej21

[Guest FretNoMore]

[quote name='Left Foot' timestamp='1426088829' post='2714241']
Am I right in thinking that a compressor with reduce a lot of noise and hiss coming through modulation / delayed effects?
[/quote]

Not really, if anything a compressor might amplify noise when it reduces the dynamics since the quiter sounds become louder relative to the overall volume.

[elephantgrey]

[quote name='Left Foot' timestamp='1426088829' post='2714241']
Am I right in thinking that a compressor with reduce a lot of noise and hiss coming through modulation / delayed effects?
[/quote]
A noise gate might be your best bet here, it allows you to mute the signal as soon as it falls under a set volume. This helps you at least conceal the noise, as when you are playing a note that masks the noise, but when you are playing a rest the noise is silenced. EQing might also help reduce the noise when you are playing a note.
The best option, if you can, is to eliminate the problem that is causing the noise instead of covering it up afterwards.

[jazzyvee]

I've always preferred to control my dynamics myself. However, I did try a boss LMB3 - compressor a few years ago but I didn't like how it affected my sound so i sold it on. If my sound needs compression then I leave that to the FOH engineer who can do a better job with it than me.

[Lord Sausage]

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1424877889' post='2701484']
Sure, when you record to tape you set the recording level, just like in digital recording.

The difference is that whereas with digital you have a hard and absolute maximum level (0dBFs) which you cannot capture anything louder than at all (you just clip the input which sounds like arse) tape is truly analogue. As you raise the level on tape the peaks will encroach into an area above that which the tape can reproduce accurately, that is the maximum clean headroom of the medium. Instead of just crapping out at this point though you can keep pushing a bit more and rather tan sounding like arse the tape will saturate, there will be some distortion and a compression effect that sounds very very cool on a lot of sources, drums recorded hard onto tape is about as clasic a rock sound as you can imagine, but everyone in all pop genres used this technique.

There wasn't a compressor for every channel in and some more for groups, and yet more for the 2 buss back in the day, but everything went to tape and you could use that to help you out both when tracking and when mixing down to 2 track, in both cases pushing the tape a little (effectively recording too hot for the cleanest reproduction) sounded better than clean did, more exciting, fatter with more impact and punch.

Recording digitally you can not replicate this except with fx, unless you literally run your capture to tape and then run it back into your DAW (and yes there are studios that will do this for you if you send them your project file and wavs, its not cheap though because they'll be using big 2" 24 track machines and they cost a lot to maintain, not to mention the tape cost).

If you want to get close there are several tape saturation plugins out there to play with, none of them is exactly like any specific brand of tape on any specific machine, but many of them can still give a reasonable facsimile. You can also roll your own if you want by chaining good saturation and compression plugins with the right settings, but its still not ever quite as nice as that fat tape sound (the grass was always greener over yonder blah blah). Of course tape has a tonne of issues that make it less good than digital (crosstalk, wow, flutter, head wear, tape wear, frequency response, dynamic range, sheer cost) but that sound of a great kit being pushed hard into tape is glorious
[/quote]
A couple of friends and I used to do this a lot a college in the mid to late 90's. We we were bang in to heavy rock at the time. We'd also have super gain gtrs then do it. We got some good results. Then the college got EU grants and built some digital studios and kept one 16 track analogue tape studio. The newer studios had great rooms, booths and equipment. We used to plead to let us take the tape machine out of the 16 and put it into the digi'd and do what you mentioned but they never would let us. Bloody Facists! Well that's what we called em at 18 everyone was a facist. we were all like Rik in the young ones haha

[molan]

[quote name='Guinness21' timestamp='1426021282' post='2713593']
Do you use it with anything else? I hear people raving about this thing, but I'd be using it alongside an overdrive. Worth it?
[/quote]

I have one in a small board with an envelope filter and an octaver. It works fine with both of these and seems to help the octaver track a little better (but mine is an Aguilar which seems to track very well anyway).

Feels like both the Diamond and the Demeter warm things up a little and get a slightly fatter, richer, tone, especially on passive basses.

I don't ever set the compression really high though.

[Guinness21]

Thanks man. Well I was thinking of using it with my stingray, I'd like the sound to be a little warmer and richer. But then I think I'd be using something like a vt di for always-on light hair, and possibly heavier overdrive.

[VTypeV4]

I had a tinker with my LMB-3 this week..

I posted previously that I was never too hot on the feel of it's compression and it's lack of comprehensive controls to be a frustration however, I've had some truly excellent results especially with the Jazz bass. I put it in the FX loop on the Trace before the NE-1 which is also in loop and it seems to work great configured like this. With just a little tweak on the enhance allied to a low ratio (2.5:1 - I'm guessing as it's not labeled) and an intermediate threshold and I'm very happy with my sound.

It's funny how perceptiions change over time isn't it? I've never really struggled with 'my sound' and for around ten years or more, I percieve it to have been pretty much variatiions on a theme. I first had the LMB-3 when I was about 17 back in 2000(ish) I used it all the time and needed it to achieve that particular result up until about 2003-4 but it slowly fell out of favour and even at that point, only ever used it's enhance function having never really gotten on with it's compressor. I have barely used it at all since '06 until this week after a chat with Neil.

I think it's gonna once again become part of my frontline setup as with the particular config of Jazz, V4 and Goliath Jr, it's the right sound straight away. It works nicely with the Warwick too although that seems to need less compression possibly due to it's omni-present low-mid growl. I still use the compressor on the amp too as its super sweet and squashy as well as the pedal although I think it may be after the FX loop as I have to dig in a little harder to get it to kick in.

So in a change from my previous 'No, I don't normally use a compressor' I'll go to 'Yes I do, in fact, I use two'.. Super smooth and fat without being squashed to death.

[cheddatom]

Oh dear, I absolutely HATE the enhance knob on the LMB-3. I love it as a limiter though and always have it at the end of my pedals. The enhance just sounds so artificial! Maybe that's because of my basses?

[VTypeV4]

Hey Tom,

If I use it sparingly, it's great but much past 10 o'clock, it starts to get a bit harsh and fake. I have a cut around the 2 - 3 Khz on my EQ and as such tames the violent mechanical 'clank' which the enhancer can over-emphasize.. I might have a go at a sounsclip later..

Hope you're cool anyway dude.

[cheddatom]

all good, dead busy at the studio, Headsticks are out gigging a lot too

I did think we had one at the rigger coming up but it's been cancelled for some reason

[Coilte]

I'm not really into pedals, but have always been curious about compressors. Having read this thread and did other research I finally got me a [i]Carl Martin Opto Compressor.[/i]

I only have it a few days and have being doing some experimenting. So far I am liking it. It is very quiet and each control knob is very responsive.

I would not use it all the time, but I think it is safe to say that I'm converted.....at least to compressors.

I hope this is not the start of a pursuit of more pedals.


For anyone interested, here is a review of the Carl Martin Opto :

http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/cmclassic.shtml

[TheBadger]

I like and I dislike compression.

On one hand, it comes in great for the funk band I'm in. Great tone, and my slapping sounds infinitely better with more control. Feels like I'm cheating a bit.

On the other hand, the more rocky stuff I do, it smooths out the things I don't really want smoothing out. Sure, I could turn it off or fiddle with the settings, but that's going to mess with the sound I've spent some time to get.

I'm using a mid range compressor, budda chakra, and might upgrade to see if I can the best of both worlds :/

Cheers

Kieran