What happened here that worked? Compressor thread.

[klokker]

Last night at the gig, after the 1st set a few people were saying that my bass tone was pretty muddy. On stage the mix was muddy as well. This usually doesn't happen. I play through a Shuttle 6.2 into a Neox212t.

Well, here's what did happen. I flipped my Boss BC-1X compressor on, set everything to noon and matched volume as best I could with just a couple of minutes to work with.

Cleaned it right up, and I could hear in the mix. My "critics" were happy too.

Any theories on why this worked? The difference in tone with the compressor on and off didn't seem that different, but in the mix it was a lot different.

What happened? What does compression do that has this effect of cleaning up the mud? Thanks for any insight.

 

[lomo]

I suggest recording some passages with your band with & without the comp. Perhaps your volume level varies too widely and some stuff is getting lost? Could be your low end is too deep & wide unless it's compressed? It could have been something unique to the room you were playing in as well. Sooooo many moving parts.....

 

[HelpImaRock]

The BOSS BC-1x is a digital multiband compressor. I find it has a baked in tone that makes everything sound a little more "brilliant". Mine is always on.

 

[Phe]

I used to have a rehearsal space that had standing bass waves that would suffocate everything. My solution before acquiring a HPF was to have a Bad Monkey on. That cut most of the offensive frequencies, thus removing a lot of the mud. Don't know if it's the same situation here.

 

[wolffire99]

Bass boost via compression = mid cut = less muddy