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Help with compressors


bowkore
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Hey ive never really delved to much in the world of compressors but I've got a touche style sound I want to try and get and wanted to use a compressor so that all notes come out evenly at the same volume from my left and right hand

 

What compressor and settings would help the most for the sound I want to achieve and can anyone clarify what the settings do in each one?

 

Sort of lost a little bit, thanks heaps

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Compression isn't hard to understand, but how it's implemented can be challenging.  Compressions just means bringing up low volume sounds and bringing down high volume sounds so that they're all even.  In that regard the Red Squeeze is the simplest to use.  Just turn up the Sensitivity and it brings the lows and highs closer together.  But it can have other sound artifacts such as "pumping" which you might not want.  You can control that sometimes using the Mix control.  But it may still not sound right to you.

 

The LA Compressor is a bit more discreet and is my compressor of choice 99% of the time.  The best way to use this compressor is to first adjust the gain control so that it sounds close to the output you have without the compressor on.  Just strum the guitar with the compressor off, then strum it with the compressor on and adjust the gain until you have roughly the same volume level.  Typically this ends up being fairly close to 50%.  Then you adjust the Peak Reduction to even out the highs and lows.  Generally around 80 or 90% is enough to get a good even sound.  The Emphasis control determines how much the high notes will trigger the compression.  At higher values picking action tends to get more accentuated due to compression.  In some cases this is good and in some cases it isn't depending on how clean or dirty your sound is.  Mine is normal set between 50 to 80 or 90% depending on what sound I'm going for.  The mix control determines the mix between the compressed and non-compressed signals.  Generally I have this set pretty close to the setting I have on the Peak Reduction control.  The volume control is just that..how many db you want the signal brought up or down.  I generally leave this at 0.0 db.

 

Placing the compressor at the beginning of the signal chain makes the compressor stand out more whereas after the amp it's less obvious.

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I'm only beginning to use compressors successfully lol. I like the Deluxe Compressor, drop the threshold a bunch, and raise the level until your signal levels match with the effect on and off while hitting the strings hard. Works for me!

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