Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

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triviani
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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by triviani » Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:59 pm

Not that I play with compressor all the time but sometimes, and depending on the style you play, it can make a huge difference! For bass, I liked a lot the Mad professor green forest, which also added some nice sustain to guitar, and the Pigtronix Bass compressor was great too. I have now the Keeley Bassist on the way..

This is like the bible of compressors for the talkbass crew: http://www.ovnilab.com I have tried a few compressors and his reviews were spot on. Check his top picks list.
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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by shinealight » Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:10 pm

I'd never used a compressor until recently when I picked up a CS-3 - lately I've been playing with it 'always on' but I've also experimented with it as a boost. I've also used it to get a trebly funk sound on bass. I'm still getting my head around the best ways to use it, though.

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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by repoman » Fri Sep 25, 2015 8:10 pm

I leave the compressor I have right now on all the time if I'm using my Jag. I just got a Reverend with a P90 and a Humbucker though and I kinda dig it more with no compression.

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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by Oig » Sat Sep 26, 2015 3:10 am

Know you've already decided which way to go, but my regular old Dynacomp is always on and I use my drives and a volume pedal for dynamics.

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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by eggwheat » Sat Sep 26, 2015 3:24 am

Altar wrote:I use the Fairfield accountant, it just makes everything sound better, and better balanced.
I liked this one response and attack etc..shame it adds distortion from what I've seen of the demo.

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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by 017493816 » Sat Sep 26, 2015 7:03 am

There's the slightest, tiny bit of clipping on the top end, but it's extremely pleasant. The distortion you heard was probably caused by the amp, being boosted by the pedal, if I'm right.

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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by rustywire » Sat Sep 26, 2015 8:37 am

First tried a Dyna, then a CS-3, Custom Comp & finally the Effectrode which I've now had since 2012.
Discovered I generally don't care for compression on guitar unless it's a 12 string, which I don't own (or play heh).
I do have a fretless 4 Jazz Bass; and if I'm playing or tracking it...there's an Effectrode PC2A first in the chain and always-on, unless I want to use a 'reverse' v6 Muff which occasionally gets the one-to-rule-them-all treatment.
kkehoe11 wrote:I am saving right now for one of these two compressors. I Haven't decided which one yet. I think I'd probably end up leaving these on all the time.

http://proguitarshop.com/video-reviews/ ... r#?type=56

or

http://proguitarshop.com/video-reviews/ ... r#?type=56

What do you guys think?
In Jan of this year I had major Cali76 GAS, it was bad. I wanted to get one primarily for use with samplers & drum machines, synths & vox. Did lots of research as there are several different options and all of them sound good...for a premium. They were hard to come by at that time; all the best models were sold out. The (deluxe) Cali76 I wanted was already like $700, which lead me over to ebay where I somehow lucked into scoring a legit $2000 Universal Audio 1176LN for only $200 more than the pedal. No buyer's remorse here. Any of them are going to sound good; although I would probably get the Slide Rig only if I played slide guitar...or there was a deal of the century to be had.
The hunt is on, and on and on...

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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by kkehoe11 » Sat Sep 26, 2015 7:28 pm

rustywire wrote:First tried a Dyna, then a CS-3, Custom Comp & finally the Effectrode which I've now had since 2012.
Discovered I generally don't care for compression on guitar unless it's a 12 string, which I don't own (or play heh).
I do have a fretless 4 Jazz Bass; and if I'm playing or tracking it...there's an Effectrode PC2A first in the chain and always-on, unless I want to use a 'reverse' v6 Muff which occasionally gets the one-to-rule-them-all treatment.
kkehoe11 wrote:I am saving right now for one of these two compressors. I Haven't decided which one yet. I think I'd probably end up leaving these on all the time.

http://proguitarshop.com/video-reviews/ ... r#?type=56

or

http://proguitarshop.com/video-reviews/ ... r#?type=56

What do you guys think?



In Jan of this year I had major Cali76 GAS, it was bad. I wanted to get one primarily for use with samplers & drum machines, synths & vox. Did lots of research as there are several different options and all of them sound good...for a premium. They were hard to come by at that time; all the best models were sold out. The (deluxe) Cali76 I wanted was already like $700, which lead me over to ebay where I somehow lucked into scoring a legit $2000 Universal Audio 1176LN for only $200 more than the pedal. No buyer's remorse here. Any of them are going to sound good; although I would probably get the Slide Rig only if I played slide guitar...or there was a deal of the century to be had.


I started looking at the Universal now, maybe I'll try for the same for studio use. Makes more sense probably. Thanks. New GAS, haha.
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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by rustywire » Sun Sep 27, 2015 7:46 am

Haha sorry about that. For me it was easy to justify spending more to get more; the 1176 has some features the pedals just cant match.
45dB of gain (15dB more than the pedal iirc)
Input and output transformers, both of which can saturate together or independently.
"All button ratio mode" which creates a unique variable bias distortion (the pedal has *more in-between ratios* but they are always fixed in nature)
"Attack off mode" which disables the compression and allows use as a Class A line-amp; so you can get color/overdrive from the circuit, use as an attenuator etc without touching the transients.

Finding actual UA units under $1000 is uncommon, but here's your next best (equally excellent?) option:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may14/a" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... o_wa76.htm

These can be had for $600 (around 500 secondhand) and by all accounts I've read, happen to be outstanding units that stack up to the real deal.
The hunt is on, and on and on...

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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by 017493816 » Sun Sep 27, 2015 8:19 am

I mean obviously, once you get into studio comps, an 1176 is a fantastic option. I'd grab one in a second if I could currently justify it.

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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by johnnyfive » Tue Oct 06, 2015 10:45 am

For years I used a POD (and Digitech mutieffects before that) and the compressor was always on, as well as the noise gate. So then a year ago when I actually listened to a tube amp and my life changed, I couldn't get used to the feel of playing without a compressor. I built a DIY ross clone, but it wasn't quite right for me. I picked up a Monoprice knockoff of the Mooer Yellow Comp, (itself a knockoff of the Diamond) and I have it on all the time, set to about 3:00, with the EQ knob adjusted based on the guitar I'm playing.

To address the dynamics issue, I have a Fuzz Face first, then the compressor, then a Maestro Boomer 2 wah/volume afterwards. So I use my guitar volume to dial in the level of fuzz, the compressor evens out the playing, and the volume mode of the Boomer dials in the amount of gain going into the pedal and amp drives. Then if I need to do volume swells, I have a patch on my Mobius that lets me use the expression pedal to fade everything in the amp's effects loop so the tone doesn't change, just the volume. I mostly have everything all at 10 and heavy, or pulled way back and clean, and it's nice to be able to do that quickly.

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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by bgalizio » Tue Oct 06, 2015 11:14 am

johnnyfive wrote:For years I used a POD (and Digitech mutieffects before that) and the compressor was always on, as well as the noise gate. So then a year ago when I actually listened to a tube amp and my life changed, I couldn't get used to the feel of playing without a compressor. I built a DIY ross clone, but it wasn't quite right for me. I picked up a Monoprice knockoff of the Mooer Yellow Comp, (itself a knockoff of the Diamond) and I have it on all the time, set to about 3:00, with the EQ knob adjusted based on the guitar I'm playing.

To address the dynamics issue, I have a Fuzz Face first, then the compressor, then a Maestro Boomer 2 wah/volume afterwards. So I use my guitar volume to dial in the level of fuzz, the compressor evens out the playing, and the volume mode of the Boomer dials in the amount of gain going into the pedal and amp drives. Then if I need to do volume swells, I have a patch on my Mobius that lets me use the expression pedal to fade everything in the amp's effects loop so the tone doesn't change, just the volume. I mostly have everything all at 10 and heavy, or pulled way back and clean, and it's nice to be able to do that quickly.
Were you also using your Ross-style compressor after your fuzz? I've been thinking about trying an optical style compressor (like the Monoprice). Right now I use a Ross-style compressor after all my drive pedals so I can control the dynamics of the drive through guitar volume, picking attack, etc. but a more transparent compressor is interesting to me.

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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by johnnyfive » Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:22 pm

bgalizio wrote:Were you also using your Ross-style compressor after your fuzz? I've been thinking about trying an optical style compressor (like the Monoprice). Right now I use a Ross-style compressor after all my drive pedals so I can control the dynamics of the drive through guitar volume, picking attack, etc. but a more transparent compressor is interesting to me.
Yes the fuzz (fuzz face and DIY) never sounded right unless it was directly after the guitar, as I'm told it is designed to be. Then I had the compressor after my wah until I tried the volume mode trick. I think I didn't get the compressor biased quite right when I built it, so I never was able to dial it in right on the actual knobs, so it probably wasn't that the ross style is bad, but my own fault. The ross style is the model I used in the POD, though that's not terribly relevant, but that's why I choose it.

The optical compressor in my Joe Meek preamp is fantastic, so when I was looking to replace the pedal I went looking for an optical as well. I choose the cheapest and smallest to try out, but ended up really liking it.

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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by burntumber » Tue Oct 06, 2015 10:21 pm

Been playing 23 years and I avoided getting both a compressor and a tuner until last year.

No one I knew had a comp, and I never really understood what it did.
Watching youtube demos don't do them justice, you have to hear the difference in person.

I got a DOD Milkbox in a cheap trade and now it's the 1st box I stomp on after I turn my amp on.
Don't like it with my BassVI though, but everything else sounds so much better.

It's like a final clear coat to make the colours of a painting more vibrant.

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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by pj » Thu Oct 08, 2015 1:47 am

soggy mittens wrote:I use an xotic SP, parallel comp that (70% effect) is always on and don't really use my volume knob. I like the slight plucky/percussive edge to dirt that it gives me, good for delay and reverb decay as well. Dynamics? I use three dirt pedals, all is good.
Had a look at the accountant, meh, unless it is cheap then maybe.

I have one of these too. Have it in the "Lo" position with volume at about 12:00 and the "Blend" at about 2:00. I never really liked compression until I got it a few years ago.

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