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

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

Post by stevejamsecono » Thu Sep 08, 2016 11:51 am

Oh man, thread rez! Hysterically, I'm actually picking up a Dynacomp for cheap tomorrow afternoon from a guy on CL....
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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by The Dead Ranch Hands » Thu Sep 08, 2016 6:55 pm

I used to play with comp on all the time, then I ditched it for years. Recently good a Dynacomp clone. Really digging what it does to the tone. I kind of use it as a special effect right now, I don't even care about the leveling. I like the "squish" thing. It seems to cut a bit of the highs as well, and adds just a the barest hint of dirt.

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

Post by Embenny » Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:19 am

I used to use a Humphrey Audio modded Boss compressor, set for mild, transparent compression with a lot of attack. It just added a juiciness to the clean tone of my Fenders that I was addicted to.

I haven't used it since I switched to the Kemper, because all the amp profiles have a built in compression setting that can be tweaked to get that "juicy" feeling again. But I guess that means I still use compression on most of the time! A little goes a long way, kinda like reverb.
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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by StevenO » Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:36 am

All my compression comes from using a Tele, a Strat, and cranking my Princeton and champ-ish amps and using a Swart Night Lite. I miss the compression and "pop" when it's not there.

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

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:42 am

I picked up a DynaComp not so long ago too. I'm still yet to actually get it but I'm trying :)
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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by stevejamsecono » Mon Sep 12, 2016 3:44 pm

Yeah. For me it's always been one of those "But I'm supposed to have one...." versus "My playing is missing this..." pedals, something I've slowly been growing out of. I'm definitely holding onto it since it was cheap and who knows, the odd country gig might show up. Otherwise? Already off the board. Gotta learn a lesson someday.
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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by Jaguar018 » Thu Sep 15, 2016 9:52 am

stevejamsecono wrote:Yeah. For me it's always been one of those "But I'm supposed to have one...." versus "My playing is missing this..." pedals, something I've slowly been growing out of. I'm definitely holding onto it since it was cheap and who knows, the odd country gig might show up. Otherwise? Already off the board. Gotta learn a lesson someday.
Haha. This is me as well, except I sold the damn thing (a MXR). I think compression is a cool effect, but I never ever use it. Worse case scenario, I still have the effect in my Zoom BT-100-- a perfect pedal that holds a lot of non-standard effects I don't have to waste my money on. :shifty:

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

Post by HorseyBoy » Fri Sep 16, 2016 12:57 am

New "Big Payback" compressor looks very interesting (and the clips sound great): http://mrblackpedals.com/products/big-payback" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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

Post by DanyoSound » Sat Sep 24, 2016 12:51 am

I use Seymour Duncan Studio Bass for bass and Pigtronix Germanium Gold Philosopher's Tone for guitar.

The SD Studio Bass is great. I understand that it is nearly identical to SD Vice Grip. Maybe I'd like that for guitar. The Studio Bass really does a great job of evening out my sound. I prefer it to Wampler Ego Compressor, which I had for a few weeks.

For guitar I use the Philosopher's Tone. The initial attack after you turn the pedal on is often wacky. After than it works well. I use it often, and sometimes I keep it on the whole time. The "Grit" control is great for recording overdrive passages, but live I don't use it.

I'm considering a different compressor. Maybe the Vice Grip or the Earthquaker Warden.
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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by Leon » Thu Mar 29, 2018 2:17 pm

Pic of my comp collection a while back (Keeley & Duesenberg have since departed and the Foxpedals Refinery & Friedman Sir Comp-Pre joined the bunch):

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I use compressors all the time - with my surf band (where I play rhythm guitar mostly) where I use a Walrus Audio Deep Six; and my country band (where I mostly play solo guitar) where I use a T-Rex Comp Nova; Ffr solo acoustic work with singers I use either an Okko Coca Comp (super transparent and bouncy, gives the sound some punch) or Foxpedals Refinery (better suited for accompaniment or band situations).

Here's a sample of the Coca used on the acoustic fingerstyle guitar (though due to time restraints the guitar was recorded via DI so the acoustic tone itself is not up to usual standards): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NcgrtmgH3M
Solo guitar (which I recorded using Yamaha THR, single pass, first and only take :unsure: ) has some low software comp (added in post by the mixing guy)... not a fan of plugins though.

On my main studio board I use the Origin Effects Cali76 - spectacular for funk and fluid overdriven lines. I use the Suhr Koji for rock (mostly latin rock), but I've used it for clean pop funkiness a lot as well. I also used a Keeley C4 comp for quite a while on my main studio board. I also got a Friedman Sir Comp-Pre a month or so ago, which I haven't gotten around to fine tuning and figuring out yet.

Went through A LOT of em (Boss CS-3, MXR Dyna Comp, MXR Studio Comp, BBE Orange Squash, EHX Soul Preacher, Demeter Compulator, Xotic SP), before I finally settled on a few that blend with my playing the most.

My comps are mostly on all the time as I use different types for different applications - Coca Comp mostly works upwards and keeps the dynamics intact, same goes for the Comp Nova. The rest pretty much even things out and cut the volume off the top, but I try to keep the blend/mix pretty low wherever it is available to keep the playing a bit loose/dynamic and feel the guitar and amp respond.

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

Post by oid » Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:08 pm

I more often then not run through a DOD280, mostly use it to soften the attack and as a buffer for what ever may follow. The only time I use it for actual comtpression is when playing low volume, some compression before the amp does wonders for low volume tone.
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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by shoule79 » Sun Jun 03, 2018 4:24 pm

Just linked to this thread and can't believe the lack of Keeley in here.

The guy who got me into compression let me try his Keeley during a jam, and the next day I went out and bought the best compressor I could afford, a Boss CS-3. It wasn't bad, but it kept working its way off the board, and definitely wasn't always on. I did some experimenting with the Dynacomp through the years as well.

A few months ago I stumbled across a used 4 knob Keeley on Kijiji, and have barely turned it off since.

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

Post by Embenny » Sun Jun 03, 2018 8:05 pm

I have a Humphrey Audio-modded Boss compressor that used to live in perma-on mode at the start of my pedalboard for years. Low ratio, high attack. Just juiced things up enough for the perfect clean tone through a good tube amp. I moved away from using my pedalboard in recent years, but it served me well for a long time.
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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by 46346 » Thu Jun 07, 2018 12:19 am

yeah, these days i use it less, maybe 40% or less of a set. i've got a few more dynamics-driven effects, like fuzz, bit-crushing, dynamic delays and reverbs, that i can modulate by natural pick attack or guitar volume knob... but i still like to drive my OD's and MicroSynth for more sustain with the comp ON up front.
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Re: Anyone play with compression on most/all of the time?

Post by Mike S » Sun Jun 10, 2018 4:54 pm

Does anyone use the EHX Tube Black Finger? I feel like that's the only compressor I would consider owning.

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