ShortScale.org

Recommendations for a compressor please guys - and why? Cheers.

Either the blue or yellow Mooer ones.

The blue is based on a Boss CS-2, I owned one years ago and it was great. They're held in a much more favourable light than the CS-3.

The yellow one is a Diamond Compressor (as used by Johnny Marr). Meant to be a good low noise comp.

I liked the demo I saw of the MXR Custom Comp but was put off by the price. Same with the Janglebox.

I never saw the need for one because of a few reasons.. one is i can't even use half the shit i already have.. second i don't totally understand them

Thanks Noirie - helpful, will check them out. Thanks Brandon - insightful.

Another budget option is the Dr J Aerolite.
I'm not a super huge fan of compressors that don't have blend knobs. I think it's really useful parameter to have control of.

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brandonwinmill wrote:i don't totally understand them

The basic idea is that a compressor squashes the dynamic range of your playing (i.e. the louder parts are quieter, the quieter parts are louder) so that everything seems louder overall. There are various potential applications for it. Personally, I've never seen much use for it in a live context, but I use it an awful lot when recording.

Personally I've always felt uncomfortable when playing through a compressor, the guitar reacts differently in a way I don't like. I can see that they could be useful for evening out certain passages but at least for the style of music I play I don't like them.

However I've heard nothing but good things about the Mooer Yellow Comp.

Freddy V-C wrote:

brandonwinmill wrote:i don't totally understand them

The basic idea is that a compressor squashes the dynamic range of your playing (i.e. the louder parts are quieter, the quieter parts are louder) so that everything seems louder overall. There are various potential applications for it. Personally, I've never seen much use for it in a live context, but I use it an awful lot when recording.

That makes me not like them based on that description, I love dynamics in my playing.

Do love using compressors up against fuzzes and distortion to get massive feedback though. That's about all I use em for.

I like them for the added sustain.

I like them for soloing . I put my compressor before my overdrive or distortion . Also nice for clean and crunch by the way . When playing clean for example it smoothes out the ugly sharp peaks . There is Marshall cmpressor for a reasonable price . The interesting thing about it is that you can set the frequency on which the compresoor is active .

So you can choose to let the lower frequencies unattached . I do not know how well this feature works cause I have never tried one myself so it is a good idea tot test it yourself first

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Thom, I got the behringer one a few weeks back. It's essentially the boss one. You're welcome to try it out or borrow it for a few days to see how it gets on with your gear.

Freddy V-C wrote:

brandonwinmill wrote:i don't totally understand them

The basic idea is that a compressor squashes the dynamic range of your playing (i.e. the louder parts are quieter, the quieter parts are louder) so that everything seems louder overall. There are various potential applications for it. Personally, I've never seen much use for it in a live context, but I use it an awful lot when recording.

thanks freddy.. so when they say brickwalled, it's a similar concept ?

Yeah, brickwalling is usually just very harsh compression!

Freddy V-C wrote:Yeah, brickwalling is usually just very harsh compression!

thanks again.. i now know i don't want one.

I use a DOD FX80B compressor and I have it on all the time. I only use a very slight amount of compression to even out the strings and to fill the sound out a bit and this pedal works great for that. I hate really noticeable compression (like a Dyna Comp), like when you whack your strings a whimper of a sound comes out - although this can do that as well. This compressor is also very transparent, it doesn't noticeably affect the tone - which I also like a lot. They don't make them anymore but they can be found cheap on ebay.

Bacchus wrote:Thom, I got the behringer one a few weeks back. It's essentially the boss one. You're welcome to try it out or borrow it for a few days to see how it gets on with your gear.

Thanks Paul, appreciate it. My mate just so happened to lend me his boss compressor today so will give that a go for a few days.

I use an Xotic SP Compressor - I don't squeeze the crap oit of my signal but I do use it to give a bit more sustain. I meave it on all the time. I find it adds a bit of life to my sound.

I use the Marshall Ed, probably very badly. I bought it from johnnyseven.