Really enjoyed the video! I definitely learned something new.
Cool, thanks biskitboy! I hope it works for you.
I for one would be more appreciative then you'll ever know. I have the roadster, and if it's not kranking, the sound just isn't there, I did read awhile back an artical on how to look at your compression, and proper adjustment,damn I wish i could find that now. i remember it mentioning to be sublte with it. You could over do things very quickly. And if you wouldn't mind jotting some of the more important peramaters went along in your I like to call it, Five Layer Chocolate Cake if you will LOL! Just wondering how the exact setup would sound. Anyway thanks again, I'm going to try and locate that damn artical on controlling the compression.
Walt: no problem, glad it helped. Yeah, some amps just need to be jacked. Quick story as to why I don't like those types of amps as much. When I was using my old plexi's years ago, I had 100 watters. (I had as 200 too...may still have it somewhere lol) I used to take out two tubes in the center or one tube out of each end position to make it into a 50 and jack it. I got a great tone out of it...but man, it was so loud it was just sickening. It was a GOOD loud though...not piercing and abrasive. But I'll never forget...one night at a club, this new manager took over. He kept on telling us to turn down, turn down. I knew if I turned down, I'd lose my tone. So I'd act like I was turning down. Well, this dude wasn't anyone to play with. He launched a wet napkin at me from the bar while I was singing and it stuck right to my face. LMAO!!!
We had a laugh about it and he was actually cool when we talked. He understood my situation and I understood his. I didn't realize how loud I was until I jumped down off the stage. So them we move into power soaks and power brakes etc...and your nice amps wind up going to the shop all the time. That was it for me and plexi's. I really hate loud volume to be honest. I make my living partially from my albums I've released, but the majority these days comes from my ears. I can hear two gnats screwing in another room....so thankfully, I was smart enough at an early age to stop with the loud stuff.
As for the compression articles....be careful what you read. Some of them are VERY misleading. The toughest thing about a compressor is...there is no "proper adjustment". The reasons being:
1. Each compressor has different characteristics, ways it reacts, and most importantly, how subtle it reacts with a knob turn. Others, you need to jump on them to hear a difference.
2. Source material. A sound loaded with bass is going to trip a compressor that is set for a lower reaction point while a sound with less bass will need more threshold to get to the same amount of gain removal, understand?
So the circumstances and situations are always going to have loads of variables. We can set a Behringer compressor one way and a dBX compressor the same way and get two different reactions. So picking the right compressor is another animal altogether. Factor in that most of this discussion in this tread has been about enhancing a driven signal, and we're really not compressing much at all. When I look at my wave forms created by my AxeFxII, they look lightly comped...which is a good thing. But there are still some sharp edges and inconsistencies. For me personally....when recording, I will run the AxeFx into my Tascam DM-4800 where I have an outboard comp lightly conditioning it to disc. I use something different just about all the time just to experiment. But it's either a Drawmer, a DBX or (don't laugh) a Behringer. The Behringer is good because it's an awesome conditioning compressor. Meaning, I don't use much. I may remove -2dB of gain using a 2:1 ratio. All this does is make my wave form look pretty with no chance of an over.
I like to record at -6dB peak at 24/48, so the conditioning aspect here is good practice. You never want to use too much going in...because everything you do there would be "destructive" meaning...once you do it, if you use too much, you need to redo the track. So I just use a little bit.
Important parameters are everything in a compressor. The reason being, they all work off of each other. The ratio is how much compression you will actually hear when you crank up the threshold. So if you have a higher ratio number, you will start hearing the compressor as soon as you start to pull up the threshold. The attack and release take care of how the compressor attacks and when it releases and retriggers. So if we use a 0 attack, the compressor is going to kick in immediately based on how much threshold you are using, which is feeding off of the ratio you are using. 0 attack gives you 0 transients...meaning, if you were to pop and slap a bass, the pop and slap would be severely curbed/cut down, understand? The release...if too short allows things to sustain because the compressor is constantly retriggering....which is based off of how much attack, which is connected to how much compression you want to hear based on how much threshold, which is living off of how big or small your ratio is....get it now?
With the attack set longer...you get more transient/percussive attack...which would make that bass MORE percussive. If a dude plays a bass with a heavy pick....the more attack you allow, the more you hear his pick. Less attack, the more it curbs the percussive attack. Longer release times allow the compressor to breathe longer before it retriggers...but they all walk hand in hand as you can see. I know my way of explaining it is a bit weird...but that's the best way I can explain it without losing you.
Danny thanks for the vid. Please do more. Your help is appreciated here, and I dig your playing.
Thanks randolpho! I'll see what I can do.
isn't the 20dB boost of the compressor adding 20dB of "guitar gain" to the amp, therefore increasing the sustain since it hits the front end of the amp harder?
how much does that affect the sustain and tone vs the compression part of the compressor?
i'm just curious as i've never turned up a block all the way to 20 dB before an amp other than a filter block or something for more gain.
Chris: Yeah it probably is. However, if you notice, when I turn down the drive pedal, we're still left with sustain. The tone changes a bit as well because it's so squashed at that point ramming the amp. Whatever it's doing, it's definitely adding good sustain to the sound in my opinion. I did this exact same thing with my 2101 which is why I started doing it here. Whatever is going on...good or bad, it definitely stops my tone from dying out and gives me a nice note hold without having to go super loud. Also, I'm getting very little noise and still get a decent sort of clean sound when I dial my volume knob down. Hiss is barely audible with my gate at 90%. So the whole thing I'm doing may be a no no...but it sure does appear to be making a difference for the better for me at this time.
Killer video Danny, thanks for that! Really feel like I learned something. I know I ask this a lot, but it would be cool if you could share the patch(es) so that we could play it and see how you are building your compression/drive/amp/cab chain and how the parts interact.
Anyway, thanks so much! Great work and very helpful at least to the compression ignorant such as myself.
Hi sam: I'll see what I can do on the patches. I wanted to get things a little better and feel more confident before sharing those. I gotta tell you, I never in a million years expected this sort of response from this forum. I knew everyone was super cool and helpful etc, but I was super intimidated to even post here to be honest. I know how many great players and tone mongers we have....I just want to fit in and not step on anyone's toes. But for sure, I'll share some patches as soon as I test them enough and make sure I'm confident with sharing.
Glad you got a little something from this.
Thanks everyone....you guys are awesome.
