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Compression: I’ve see the light!
- Thread starter kyral210
- Start date
It reduces your dynamic range. The time constants (how fast it responds to signals), and how much reduction is done are usually controllable. Some use compression for more sustain, some use it to limit peaks, some use it to keep their dynamics more stable - make their playing sound less sloppy.
Some folks swear by compression - it's always on. Some never use it.
^^^This.
Until one gets this concept into ones head, there will never be happiness. My board consists of a tuner, the Ovni FX, and a Broughton always on HPF.
I will add that I learned compression working with a racked DBX 160 from a guy who stressed that it wasn’t an effect but something to tighten up the groove.
on my pedal board that I take to church my always on are my Peterson tuner, Empress Bass Comp, and VTBassDI. I was debating between Keeley and Empress and went with empress. I just ordered a two pedal set up for quick plugin into my computer, this time I went with the Keeley comp and Laney Digbeth Pre (I love my Digbeth Head). Kinda sad now that I'm just finding out that Laney also makes a nice comp, but I know the Keeley is a great comp too, they should be arriving today.
Same here. Amazing how underrated that thing is.
I just received the Cali 76 today and I now concur about sauce.
You got a pretty good response already. I'll just add one of my use cases: sitting better in the mix. This is the same reason why compression is universally applied to studio recordings, and also to live performances by many sound techs. I don't often get the benefit of PA support when playing live, but I set compression subtly enough that I'm not at all worried if a sound tech does add it to my channel: my compressor simply means that the tech's won't have to work as hard.
I will add caveats: first, compression has the steepest learning curve of all effects IMO. Even intermediate users can find it difficult to find that Just Right amount of compression. Anyone can learn, so I'm not trying to dissuade you -- just setting expectations. Second: we bassists are lucky because so many great compressors are available for us these days. The downside to this is figuring out the best one for you. To do that, it helps to know what you want from compression (but it's OK if you're not sure -- many compressors are versatile). Also, whether you want one with a minimum of controls, or something full featured. Of course once you begin asking for recommendations, you should provide your budget.
P.S. Apologies for quibbling about semantics, but you might not need a compressor -- fact is, I don't always use one (and I definitely recommend against it for practicing at home). But I do like that bit of sumthin-sumthin it brings to the live mix: when I get the settings right, I "feel" it more than hear it.
This. Don't fool yourself. Work on those dynamics! (Says the guy who needs it..badly.
)
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In my case it is (also) being used to saturate things as much as possible for an SVTesque type of tone.
Well, for one, it smooths out your volume. If you play a note too loud, it will choke it down to some lesser level based on control settings. If you inadvertently play too soft, it will raise the signal level to some predetermined level. Good for folks with less than stellar picking/plucking/slapping techniques, helping to reduce unwanted level variability. This is the first base function, but it does more. Start digging!
For me, and I know I've said this before, compressors are a utility, and/or an effect.
As a utility, they smooth out the sound- a good example is if you slap and pop, or just hit the 1 extra hard, it will control the volume spike such that your levels stay more even - no loud parts causing amp/speaker/other pedals distortion.
As an effect, they can change the note envelope, bring out the subtleties, add tonal control and even distortion, etc. - a good example is the actual distortion ("grit") switch on a Pigtronix compressor, or the way an optical compressor (try the inexpensive white Ampeg) gets a little dirty when hit hard, or the way they change how an envelope filter or flanger or phaser sounds when placed before it. Can be good after those, or around an octave pedal, also.
Finally, some, like the MXR bass/studio compressor with its LED bar, or the older Ashdown with its meter, look purty.
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While those settings might be a bit extreme, I can attest to the fact that the MB Distorsore sounds really nice when pushed hard. Really, really nice!
It can be used to achieve a number of things, depending on what the bass player is looking for.
In may case: I play a lot of A) heavy reggae dub and B) stoner rock (a cross between Pink Floyd of the Ummagumma period and early Black Sabbath). My gear is a couple of Fender Pbasses, a Markbass LMV head and a Markbass 104HR cab. This setup has a tone on the warm side of clean, namely a neutral tone that is just shy of dry and clinical. Which means that when I play the aforementioned genres I have to somehow thicken/saturate my tone in order to nail the vibe of this kind of music. I achieve that by using a tube compressor set as shown in my post above. When I play funk or neo funk (say Jamiroquai), the use of the tube compressor with such extreme settings is not really necessary given that the head/cab combo just by itself produces a good tone (warmish clean) for funk.
@dalahorse
Well, in order to get close to the tone of either King Tuby dub tracks or Al Cisneros in Sleep or in OM, extreme settings are necessary, especially when not playing through a cranked SVT.
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I must be doing something wrong when I have tried compression as I seem to fail every time with getting anything "out of it". I tend to play with a "Jaco e" tone I don't know if compression would have a place in such a tone?
ah! I play mostly with a Jaco type tone would compression work with this kind of tone?
