Compressor - Drive or Drive - Compressor, or Compressor on its own 👍

[BassAdder60]

In front of amp where is best to place a compressor pedal ?

 

Before light drive pedal ( Spark Booster ) or after ? 

Edited November 29, 2021 by BassAdder27

[Greg Edwards69]

Personally I prefer drive into compressor. Overdrive is dynamic and responds to touch. Compressing first would reduce it's touch sensitivity.

[Doddy]

Switch the order around and see how they affect each other.  You'll get a reaction different depending on their position in your signal chain, so play around and see which you like best.

[Dood]

2 hours ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

Personally I prefer drive into compressor. Overdrive is dynamic and responds to touch. Compressing first would reduce it's touch sensitivity.

 

50 minutes ago, Doddy said:

Switch the order around and see how they affect each other.  You'll get a reaction different depending on their position in your signal chain, so play around and see which you like best.

 

Agree with both of the above! I like to use heavy compression before a drive if I want to have a consistent level of saturation - say, when providing almost "bowed" like sounds from my bass. Placing the compressor after the drive means that on low gain settings I can use the compressor to "turn up" the overall level when playing lightly. Digging in means I get the extra bite but the compressor evens the volume. 

I SO love bass gear! Even switching the order of pedals offers so many tonal opportunities! 

[Japhet]

I personally wouldn't put a compressor in front of anything that was sensitive to the dynamics of the playing. Digging in with drive or envelope filter is very expressive, but compress it and it all gets flattened out and you lose a load of character, in my opinion.

[krispn]

A compressor doesn’t have to kill

all dynamics and ultimately it will depend of how you want the bass to sound. Will the Spark be providing an always on sound and you want the comp to work a certain way with it for example push the amp a bit more with the compressors output gain or do you want to get a very even and consistent tone playing with a pick for example. Using the comp and Spark for gain staging could be fun too. 

 

Luckily you already have the pedals and it’s a simple cable swap to try it out. The Spark is a great wee pedal and while not all compression pedals are made equal you should be able to get a range of results between swapping them about and messing with the gain levels etc. 
 

I have a Spark and a comp on my pedal board but I’m trying out a different unit at rehearsal tonight otherwise I might have had a play with their order form my normal set up. 
 

Lets us know how you get on. 

[BassAdder60]

9 minutes ago, krispn said:

A compressor doesn’t have to kill

all dynamics and ultimately it will depend of how you want the bass to sound. Will the Spark be providing an always on sound and you want the comp to work a certain way with it for example push the amp a bit more with the compressors output gain or do you want to get a very even and consistent tone playing with a pick for example. Using the comp and Spark for gain staging could be fun too. 

 

Luckily you already have the pedals and it’s a simple cable swap to try it out. The Spark is a great wee pedal and while not all compression pedals are made equal you should be able to get a range of results between swapping them about and messing with the gain levels etc. 
 

I have a Spark and a comp on my pedal board but I’m trying out a different unit at rehearsal tonight otherwise I might have had a play with their order form my normal set up. 
 

Lets us know how you get on. 

I’m after a consistent level to the amp. 
I’ve tried it both ways and I think I prefer compressor first then Spark Booster.

The compressor is an always on and the plan is Spark Booster for occasion drive / grind for certain songs 

 

[krispn]

24 minutes ago, BassAdder27 said:

I’m after a consistent level to the amp. 
I’ve tried it both ways and I think I prefer compressor first then Spark Booster.

The compressor is an always on and the plan is Spark Booster for occasion drive / grind for certain songs 

 

Solid approach!

[Elfrasho]

I put a bit before and after!

[SumOne]

20 hours ago, Dood said:

 

 

I SO love bass gear! Even switching the order of pedals offers so many tonal opportunities! 

 

Yeah I agree with that.  I get that playing in a Blues band isn't going to require an envelope filter but I can't help but feel that players that don't use any pedals ever (home practice etc) are missing out on a lot of fun and it's a good way to gain understanding about sound - there's the fun of mucking about making lots of different sounds but also the challenge of learning how to play to make different pedals react in the best way, and it's a quite a straightforward way of learning about how sound works once you start looking a bit into things like what's happening to the sound to create distortion and what compression is doing and how the order of doing these things affects the sound. 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2021 by SumOne

[BassAdder60]

Ok tried it and compressor first is definitely a better sound for me 

 

In fact I like the compressor so much I may ditch the Spark Booster and just use the amp drive 

[BassAdder60]

Yep problem solved ditch the drive and use the compressor on its own 

 

Nice sound the Ampeg Opto Comp