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Compressor Questions Ovnilab Please Help

jdwhitak

jdwhitak

Mar 20, 2012
407
79
Indianapolis, IN
#1
I have some questions about compressors and I'd like to get Ovnilab's help. I decided to post here instead of a PM because others might be interested in the answers to these questions. If anyone else know the answer to these feel free to chime in. First a little background.

I currently have two basses and they are both G&Ls. The first one is a passive LB-100 and the second is an active MJ-4. I have light touch when playing and I usually have to lower the threshold quite a bit to even get a compressor to activate. The questions are:

1) I know all hardware compressors amplify the noise floor. Are certain comp designs inherently better or worse at this?

2) I go between using plug-ins and hardware. Plug-in comps seem to be exceptionally quiet. Are software comps doing something that hardware comps don't to achieve this?

3) Aside from software the only hardware comps that I've owned were pedals. Would a true studio compressor be quieter?

4) Is there anything I can do to quiet down the noise in a comp like inserting a noise gate?

Thanks for any and all help.
 
#4
1) Yes, there are definitely some hardware comps that are less noisy than others. It's a factor of the quality of the circuit design, and the way that particular circuit handles high frequencies (where noise lives), and the intensity of compression that the circuit is designed for.

2) With software processing the sound is not affected by the physical circuit. I mean of course it needs a circuit to work at all--but all the gain and processing is just bits and bytes, which do not of themselves add noise. And how a software program handles high frequencies is written into the code.

3) It's a question of quality. There are good and bad, quiet and noisy, in both rack and pedal formats.

4) Noise gates are generally awful. It's best to just invest in gear that isn't noisy, and study up on how to avoid and mitigate ground loops.
 
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#5
bongomania said:
1) Yes, there are definitely some hardware comps that are less noisy than others. It's a factor of the quality of the circuit design, and the way that particular circuit handles high frequencies (where noise lives), and the intensity of compression that the circuit is designed for.

2) With software processing the sound is not affected by the physical circuit. I mean of course it needs a circuit to work at all--but all the gain and processing is just bits and bytes, which do not of themselves add noise. And how a software program handles high frequencies is written into the code.

3) It's a question of quality. There are good and bad, quiet and noisy, in both rack and pedal formats.

4) Noise gates are generally awful. It's best to just invest in gear that isn't noisy, and study up on how to avoid and mitigate ground loops.
Click to expand...

Good to see you Bongo
 
#7
I mean there's a time and place for noise gates; some people love them, and a high-gain guitarist can't live without one. But a lot of noise can be avoided in the first place, and gates usually have unpleasant side effects on the attack and decay of your notes, and they only work during rests between notes anyway.
 

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