Pedals/Effects compressor on a budget?
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mountain man
Still got the Blues!
You got me Steve! I use this thing called a floor pump to put air in my tires. And if I have to fix a flat while out on a bike riding trip? I use this thing called a hand pump!
JPsuff
Blackstar Artist
Though I love Blues (and this forum), my first love has always been Fusion Jazz and its derivatives.
I like modal stuff and intricate phrasings (think: Greg Howe, Steve Vai, Frank Gambale, etc.).
I like to play with a fair amount of distortion and I rely heavily on hammer-ons and pull-offs, especially with quick legato runs and phrasings.
(And yes, a great deal of that translates to Blues, but that's another topic)
Before I used a compressor, I relied on distortion pedals to create the sustain I needed for my type of playing.
But distortion alone tends to reduce articulation, particularly on lower notes and things can quickly begin to sound muddy. I wanted to be able to create the sustain and touch-sensitivity I was looking for without having to crank up the gain on a distortion pedal.
So I experimented with compressors and that did the trick.
A distortion pedal all by itself still allows for articulation when playing above the 12th fret because of the higher frequencies.
But it's when I get down around the 3rd fret (like if I'm playing something in D minor or B minor and want to add some bottom-end to it)) that the articulation begins to disappear because lower frequency notes take more time to develop and hang around longer and if played quickly with a lot of distortion, they often sound as if they're all jumbled together.
But with a compressor, now I can back off on the distortion (while keeping a good amount of the crunch I want) and still have the sustain and sensitivity to play the way I like but without the mud. A compressor also (more or less) evens out the high and low notes so that the clarity I get on the high end carries over to the low end as well.
And with less overall distortion those low notes sound much clearer and more individual - even if played quickly so that no matter where I am on the fretboard notes tend to flow together and sound more unified rather than sometimes sounding as if the highs and lows were played on two different guitars.
Eric,
To touch on your bass guitar comment, I think a compressor would work very well for a bass because it can help make short notes "pop" while still allowing the sustain most associated with a bass while evening out the differences between them. So I think it would afford you MORE subtlety and presence no matter how much noise the drummer is making.
To touch on your bass guitar comment, I think a compressor would work very well for a bass because it can help make short notes "pop" while still allowing the sustain most associated with a bass while evening out the differences between them. So I think it would afford you MORE subtlety and presence no matter how much noise the drummer is making.
Lastly, a compressor with all of the settings backed-off except "Volume" or "Level" can also serve as a boost to help overdrive the preamp which essentially eliminates the need for a separate boost pedal. And if the rest of the settings are judiciously applied, I get my compression and sustain too, so it's like having a dual-use pedal. So now if I use a lot of distortion it's because I want to rather than because I have to in order to get the sustain I want.
Win-win.
It takes a fair amount of experimentation to get things to sound just right and my advice for anyone is the same as the advice I got from other people about what to do with any new pedal: Start with all of the settings at 12 o'clock and go from there.
me too.
I hear ya JP, I'm quite schooled in Compression/Expansion/Limiters, even took courses and apprenticed with a sound engineer for a while, I guess I didn't quite make my inquiry clear. Let me ask another way.
After watching the video for the hypergravity I see a lot of tweaks and settings in the software that are normally done in studio level compressors and not normally done in guitar pedal compressors. Threshold and ratio are usually combined into one knob in a lot of guitar pedals, for example, but you can adjust both independently with the software. Additionally, my experience with compression in recording is to actually use the compression and my experience with guitarists is they want sustain (which is normally of function of the expander (circuit?) and not the compressor (circuit?)). So what I am asking, since you actually have one of the pedals is: how much tweaking do you do with it when playing in a band situation, do you set all the knobs, set the levels, thresholds, ratio's etc. in the software and upload it to the pedal and leave it, or do you mess with the knobs after you'e done the software updates? It seems to me that from what I can tell is the software defaults are probably good enough and tweaking the knobs should be good enough for live play.
As for the bass, snare and cymbals, I wasn't referring to using compression on them, I was referring to the compressor being used on the guitar signal and in a live band situation would I be able to hear all the tweaking that could be done in the software in the mix? I suspect, that the subtleties that studio compressors impart in recordings would be lost in a band mix because the energy in the bass guitar on the low end and the transients in the snare and the cymbals on the high end are likely to overpower any compression subtleties from the pedal. Which is why I'm thinking the default settings would be good enough for a band situation. I could be wrong since I don't have the pedal
Does the question make more sense?
Eric
After watching the video for the hypergravity I see a lot of tweaks and settings in the software that are normally done in studio level compressors and not normally done in guitar pedal compressors. Threshold and ratio are usually combined into one knob in a lot of guitar pedals, for example, but you can adjust both independently with the software. Additionally, my experience with compression in recording is to actually use the compression and my experience with guitarists is they want sustain (which is normally of function of the expander (circuit?) and not the compressor (circuit?)). So what I am asking, since you actually have one of the pedals is: how much tweaking do you do with it when playing in a band situation, do you set all the knobs, set the levels, thresholds, ratio's etc. in the software and upload it to the pedal and leave it, or do you mess with the knobs after you'e done the software updates? It seems to me that from what I can tell is the software defaults are probably good enough and tweaking the knobs should be good enough for live play.
As for the bass, snare and cymbals, I wasn't referring to using compression on them, I was referring to the compressor being used on the guitar signal and in a live band situation would I be able to hear all the tweaking that could be done in the software in the mix? I suspect, that the subtleties that studio compressors impart in recordings would be lost in a band mix because the energy in the bass guitar on the low end and the transients in the snare and the cymbals on the high end are likely to overpower any compression subtleties from the pedal. Which is why I'm thinking the default settings would be good enough for a band situation. I could be wrong since I don't have the pedal
Does the question make more sense?
Eric
JPsuff
Blackstar Artist
I hear ya JP, I'm quite schooled in Compression/Expansion/Limiters, even took courses and apprenticed with a sound engineer for a while, I guess I didn't quite make my inquiry clear. Let me ask another way.
After watching the video for the hypergravity I see a lot of tweaks and settings in the software that are normally done in studio level compressors and not normally done in guitar pedal compressors. Threshold and ratio are usually combined into one knob in a lot of guitar pedals, for example, but you can adjust both independently with the software. Additionally, my experience with compression in recording is to actually use the compression and my experience with guitarists is they want sustain (which is normally of function of the expander (circuit?) and not the compressor (circuit?)). So what I am asking, since you actually have one of the pedals is: how much tweaking do you do with it when playing in a band situation, do you set all the knobs, set the levels, thresholds, ratio's etc. in the software and upload it to the pedal and leave it, or do you mess with the knobs after you'e done the software updates? It seems to me that from what I can tell is the software defaults are probably good enough and tweaking the knobs should be good enough for live play.
As for the bass, snare and cymbals, I wasn't referring to using compression on them, I was referring to the compressor being used on the guitar signal and in a live band situation would I be able to hear all the tweaking that could be done in the software in the mix? I suspect, that the subtleties that studio compressors impart in recordings would be lost in a band mix because the energy in the bass guitar on the low end and the transients in the snare and the cymbals on the high end are likely to overpower any compression subtleties from the pedal. Which is why I'm thinking the default settings would be good enough for a band situation. I could be wrong since I don't have the pedal
Does the question make more sense?
Eric
As I've mentioned before on this forum, I'm a drummer by DNA and most of my band experience was as a drummer for many years and guitar is a relatively new thing for me (perhaps 2 to 3 years in any serious sense) and my band experience with guitar is quite limited. But even with having played just a few jams with some friends, I was quite satisfied in being able to hear and be heard over the rest of the band.
That said, I still know what I like to hear and I believe I've developed a sort of "signature sound" for myself that I tend to use as a "go-to" sound for most things and part of that is of course my Compressor which, for me, is an "On-All-The-Time" sort of thing.
My basic settings for the TC Hypergravity are:
Mode: "Spectra"
Sustain: about 10:30 - 11 o'clock
Attack: All the way up
Blend: 2 o'clock
Level: 12 o'clock (but that's variable).
Together, all of this creates a very full and satisfying tone that reminds me very much of an electric violin (think: Jean Luc Ponty).
Naturally I vary the overall effect by eliminating a pedal (or pedals) now and then or slightly changing their settings. Naturally, if I play through my Strat or even through a guitar with different humbuckers, then a few tweaks will be necessary. But overall and even if I decide to go mostly clean, I generally have the compressor on because I like the way it evens things out and keeps the strings "energized" (for lack of a better term) and I find that those settings generally work well for my setup and playing style almost across the board.
If I want a more funky or "chicken-picken'" type of sound, then I will switch to the "Vintage" setting and so far I have never felt the need to play around with any Toneprint settings, though I guess it couldn't hurt to give it a shot.
I really don't get into all the nuts and bolts of all this stuff but rather I just click things on and off as I feel necessary and then play with a few knobs until I like what I hear. That said, I AM a big believer in having gear set up in such a way that makes me feel comfortable and thus more confident which in turn allows me to forget about the technical stuff and just play.
That is what I was wondering. Thanks JP! I appreciate your thoughts.
I like playing with the knobs but I also really delve into the theory and programming. If I don’t know “why” something works like it does then I’m less inclined to use it. Just me. For a pedal this one seems up my alley.
Eric
jackderby52
Prehistoric blues knob (not newbie)
These are cheap...
steve w
Nottinghamshire, UK
This weeks That Pedal Show...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlrvMG9X8KU