About the role of a compressor

Velokki said:
This is a topic that I've got a little internal struggle with.

I've never really used compressors on any of my patches, and kinda considered them "cheating". I know - this sounds superbly idiotic, but we all have our weird paradigms :D

I've been hesitant to use them, so I wouldn't grow to rely on them. So that my skills would be "pure". Let me explain; I used to play a Line 6 Spider III before I got the Axe FX II back in 2013. When I started to use the Axe 2, my playing sounded much worse than it did through the Spider. The Spider was one of the most forgiving amps because it compressed the shit out the signal and made riffing easy. I got a real kick in my ass when I started to mess with much lower gain realistic amp models with the Axe 2, and it revealed to me just how much I sucked.

Now fast forward 10 years, I've transformed myself as a player, and can play much better. But a lot of times I might find myself fighting the amp a bit, when such struggle would not be needed if there was a compressor. I fell in love with an Andy Timmons patch, and I figured out it was because of the compressor in the chain. It just feels effortless and lovely to play!

I guess I'm not getting anywhere logical with this - I just needed some people to echo these thoughts with :D

Do you use a compressor always or just sometimes? Do you have any "rules" or recommendations on how to implement them? I've seriously almost never used them, but now starting to think it might be a good idea.
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Good post.
I went from a kemper where id often use a noise gate and compressor (mainly for cleans and leads) to the afx 2 mk 2 and my playing was instantly dog shit. The tones out of the ax2 felt alot more lo fi but more amp like than the kemper so probably more realistic.
I moved to the 3 which i find to have all the good bits of the kemper and the 2 and my playing adjusted. I dont currently use a compressor on the 3 because i cant work out all the different types lol
 
Feflicker said:
It's art, there are no rules. Rules are for sports. Guitar players who see playing as sport are the worst in my book...
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While I agree with the sentiment, OP may be in a I'd rather learn it than use crutches mindset. Can't imagine cheating in the sense of competition against other players.
 
everything in the electric guitar tone could be consider a "cheat". The electric guitar was born to have more volume in a instrument that naturally doesn't have... distortion is something you get if you saturate the input and the output of an amplifier and it can't handle it (an amplifier by definition should amplify a signal and should not change it).
So compression is something can be in natural way but reproducing it electronically (or digitally) changes its behavior in a way you can't have naturally.
Compressing a signal means let it be more audible in the final result (alone or with other instruments), so, yes, it's cheating, and no, it's not cheating if your final target is have a kind of sound and you find a way to abtain in
 
Joshua_L said:
I really miss something with modelers, I don’t know exactly, the attack response maybe.
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Hamsworld said:
When the Axe FX is missing something, it is the compression that comes when you play a loud tube amp, and sometimes the mysterious tube compression
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The answer to this might be under Dynamics tab of the Amp block as Gain Enhancer
It mimics the missing guitar-amp-guitar feedback loop
 
Admin M@ said:
Life is too short to struggle with self imposed rules. Try it both ways and see what you like.
Like, er... MC Hammer said (sort of):
Do what you wanna do, say what you wanna say
Live how you wanna live, play how you wanna play
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Totally off topic, but I love that quote. Just so disappointed that it’s from MC Hammer. 😂
 
I only use a subtle compressor for cleans to bring it a bit more upfront...

I mainly use the studio compressors in the AxeFx and try not to get a pumping squashing sounds.
I always compare it back and front with the compressor off and on to get to the point where it's just a tiny bit more in the face than without
 
Velokki said:
I'm going to start experimenting with a compressor a lot so I can hear it more easily - you know, in the coming weeks, turn it on and off a few hundred times while listening for changes, and experiment with different setting. The more familiar I am with it, the better I'll be able to use it in different contexts.
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This is the path to enlightenment. :cool:
 
JWDubois said:
Do you actually mean 0.22-0.32 ms, or 22 to 32 ms?

I just went and checked, it was news to me that the attack time could actually be set to sub-millisecond times. I'll play around with that some after the wife gets up.
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No; you are correct … move the decimal point

Not thinking while typing

dunce GIF
 
Joshua_L said:
I love some subtle compression on clean tones.
It Makes the sound more alive.

But I’m still trying to find a use for lead tone, like said above, I really miss something with modelers, I don’t know exactly, the attack response maybe.
I’m a legato player and on amps I never had to put as much gain as i have to on digital modelers. It just does not respond the same. And it’s a lot harder for phrasing.

I first switched to digital two years ago with a kemper, it was a f***** nightmare, sold it before I I would throw it outside the window.

The feel is waaaayyyyy better with fractal, I was really amazed by the feel.
But I still miss something and I don’t know how it can be solved.

Maybe a compressor would help.

Anyone feel the same and use a compressor?

Any tricks from the captains here?
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Try playing with the speaker tab in the amp block, along with the dynamics tab.

In the speaker tab play with speaker thump and compression along with the speaker stiffness/break in setting (I can't remember it's name right now). I usually turn thump to 0.5 - 0.9 and compression to about 1.5 - 2.0 and the speaker break in one to about 60% - 70%.

Then in the dynamics section I take about 0.5 off on the input and take about 1.0 - 1.5 (max) off on the output side. Then you want to crank the clarity to 6 or higher.

Either with a PEQ or the air in the cab block turn up 5k until you get the pick scratch.

All of these are how I get things super close to my real amps.

I also had a Kemper but I had issues with that weird mid bump that was on everything and you couldn't dial it out. I had it for 8 years and toured with it, I was able to to profile my rig, but never got it close enough. It was about 85% IMO. The AX3 sounds exactly like all of my recorded tones from the last 40 years (once dialed in).
 
It isn’t cheating, but I definitely had the same experience moving from a line 6 (pre helix) to a tube amp / axe fx. All the sloppy technique was on display.
When practicing and trying to level up my chops, I don’t use a compressor. Live, I will use it, I want to have a good time playing.
If I need a lot of dynamics, again I bypass compression.

Also look at output compression (gain enhancer), a touch of that is usually enough to get rid of the feeling of fighting strings.
 
jamesmarshall said:
Try playing with the speaker tab in the amp block, along with the dynamics tab.

In the speaker tab play with speaker thump and compression along with the speaker stiffness/break in setting (I can't remember it's name right now). I usually turn thump to 0.5 - 0.9 and compression to about 1.5 - 2.0 and the speaker break in one to about 60% - 70%.

Then in the dynamics section I take about 0.5 off on the input and take about 1.0 - 1.5 (max) off on the output side. Then you want to crank the clarity to 6 or higher.

Either with a PEQ or the air in the cab block turn up 5k until you get the pick scratch.

All of these are how I get things super close to my real amps.

I also had a Kemper but I had issues with that weird mid bump that was on everything and you couldn't dial it out. I had it for 8 years and toured with it, I was able to to profile my rig, but never got it close enough. It was about 85% IMO. The AX3 sounds exactly like all of my recorded tones from the last 40 years (once dialed in).
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I tried your advices today and they helped a lot!

I may be not sure of the parameters you described, but that was really helpful.

The air trick at 5k also really brings a lot of life in the tone.

I know it’s silly but coming from the kemper, there so many things that I avoided to tweak because it ruined the tone (pure cab, direct mix) etc. That I’m like afraid to tweak some parameters lol.

Thanks again!
 
Joshua_L said:
I tried your advices today and they helped a lot!

I may be not sure of the parameters you described, but that was really helpful.

The air trick at 5k also really brings a lot of life in the tone.

I know it’s silly but coming from the kemper, there so many things that I avoided to tweak because it ruined the tone (pure cab, direct mix) etc. That I’m like afraid to tweak some parameters lol.

Thanks again!
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Glad it worked out for you!

Yeah, the Kemper wasn't made to be tweaked. If you need to change more than a couple of DB or more in any of the BMT controls, it will start to sound off.

The AX3 is meant to be tweaked to make things sound how you need them. Don't be afraid to play with everything. Just save to a new preset location before completely turning knobs. Also check out Yek's guide to see what everything does.

The settings I gave you are basically how the speaker emulates the speaker attack, compression and the low end thump. The dynamics are more like pushing the natural compression an amp makes and tweaking that to your needs. The air in the cab block mixes in a small amount of direct signal at 5k to get that pick attack or thwack, back.

Yek's guide is really a great resource to figure things out quickly or to deep dive and get more into things.

https://wiki.fractalaudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Yeks_Guide_to_the_Fractal_Audio_Amp_Models
 
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