So I play in a church group and we play in different venues from 5K to 30 people. That being said there's always one venue where it's open and when you play the bass it has a lot of echo that goes with it. Would a compressor be a help for these venues? Or it's all on the board?
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Do you use a compressor as part of your rig?
- Thread starter steve5224
- Start date
As far as room acoustics go, you're kind of out of luck. You can compensate for how your sound changes by being in a big room via EQ changes, etc., but there really isn't anything you can do about things like room echo short of physically applying sound absorbent panels on the wall of the room you're playing in.
Besides some minor tonal effects, all a compressor does is smooth out the dynamics of your playing to give you a more even volume, or at extreme settings can be used as a limiter to protect your power amp from clipping if you are really trying to squeeze as much power out of your amp as possible.
Besides some minor tonal effects, all a compressor does is smooth out the dynamics of your playing to give you a more even volume, or at extreme settings can be used as a limiter to protect your power amp from clipping if you are really trying to squeeze as much power out of your amp as possible.
^^THIS!
And you'd be surprised (or at least I was) at how many places that are used for live music DON'T have some sort of baffling either on the walls or hanging from the ceiling. I've been to concerts by major acts in venues that were essentially concrete bunkers. Let me tell you about SHRILL...if you've ever heard Van Halen in an indoor arena with no baffling (i.e. concrete bunker)...
The house (whatever if may be: hockey rink, rodeo stadium, church, etc.) is responsible for damping room acoustics.
To answer your title question: Yes, I use a compressor in my rig but I only use it to make the sound engineer's job easier. If I give him a tame signal, he doesn't have to stand back at the board looking like a rookie pilot trying to land a burning airplane just trying to manage the bass guitar channel. In my personal situation, I asked the sound engineer about his preferences before I brought in any effects. He said that he would find it helpful if I chose to use compression and EQ. We worked together to get a good, fat bass tone that's manageable in the room we play. I have the benefit of playing the same room every week. You travel so you have the burden of having different sound eng. of varying skill levels and knowledge. Still, if you get there earlier enough, you might be able to work with your SE on getting a tight, clean bass sound.
Yup. That being said, I do use a compressor in my rig. Two actually, so I can switch between them. (Plus it's a dual channel compressor so the second one'd just be sitting in my rack anyway.)
Compressors don't help acoustics of the room. Eq might help a little though. I only tend to use compressors in the studio and even then its very subtle. Over compressing sounds horrible and looses all the dynamics.
Room-boom is always a problem if you haven't noticed it before in almost every venue you'll play. That's why you need someone to listen to you run some scales during setup, and they should listen from as many places as the room has potential listeners during your event.
Actually it's a notch filter you should consider as it can go a long way to taming the boomer-notes.
So . a compressor/limiter isn't the right tool for your need.
Actually it's a notch filter you should consider as it can go a long way to taming the boomer-notes.
So . a compressor/limiter isn't the right tool for your need.
I use a compressor on gigs but as was mentioned a room with issues cannot be fixed by things you do to your sound. Harsh materials the room is made of have to be address to change the acoustics of the room itself padding on the walls rugs on floors are some solutions as suggested.
