Hey you Compression Experts...

GuyJames

Inspired
I'm learning so much about tone sculpting with the Fractal products. Recently I was revisiting some of my favorite presets to apply my new understanding of eq I've been learning to see how some of these presets are made but the one elephant in the room that still gets me is compression. I've always just used compression as a transparent effect in front of the amp which is probably the most common way but with Fractal having so many different types of compressors it took me a minute to research how to get even that basic transparent setting. With that said, one of my favorite presets is the Limelight preset and it uses a compressor after the amp and delay too. I experimented turning it on and off and it does a real nice job of smoothing out the tone but it doesn't darken or brighten, very cool!

I'm going to attach a few screenshots. Would anyone who has a great understanding of compression like to explain in plain English what's going on here and what parameters are creating this wonderful setting. I should dig into the manual on the compressor block in the meantime.

Limelight Preset:
Screenshot 2023-01-18 at 12.13.45 PM.png


My personal Settings for Comp before the amp as a transparent setting:
Screenshot 2023-01-18 at 12.12.21 PM.png
 
Hey great question! Compression is definitely one of my weak areas, so questions like this are a good way to dig in and learn something.

Anyway, I was doing some digging and the best answer, and most plausible, is that the compression at the end of the signal will accentuate your time-based effects (so for the scene you have pulled up, the chorus and delay). It could be a good way to really accentuate that chorus w/o overdoing the settings in the block itself.
 
Be aware of the advice in the wiki:
Putting the Compressor block after the Amp block makes it interfere less with the amp dynamics. When doing this, set its input to Line instead of Instrument (Axe-Fx III, FM9, FM3: n/a).

And I'm a bit confused because according to this wiki it should not be applicable to the FM3, but you clearly have the option in FM3-Edit (is that selectable?).
 
Not sure entirely what you are asking, so in general...

1. In both cases, using a fast attack time helps lower the attack (pick) transient of a signal. However, in screen shot 2, you are kinda "undoing" that my having the mix at 50% which is letting a dry signal through.

2. Release time is how fast after the compression kicks in that the signal returns to normal. anything under 100 is considered a quick/short release.

3. The ratio combined with the threshold determines how hard the comp attenuates the signal. In the first screenshot for every 4db over -17db the signal will only increase 1 db. The knee is how quick the comp clamps down after exceeding the threshold.

FWIW, the Limelight preset comp settings in that screenshot are more or less the go to compressor settings to apply on a guitar track when mixing.
 
Be aware of the advice in the wiki:
Putting the Compressor block after the Amp block makes it interfere less with the amp dynamics. When doing this, set its input to Line instead of Instrument (Axe-Fx III, FM9, FM3: n/a).

And I'm a bit confused because according to this wiki it should not be applicable to the FM3, but you clearly have the option in FM3-Edit (is that selectable?).
That must be a typo because you can do that in the FM3. All of my patches have an instrument-level compressor at the front (usually pedal or optical type) and a line-level compressor at the end (usually optical or tube).
 
The interesting thing about the preset compressor that you reference is that the release is extremely short (10ms) meaning it is basically just catching the transients briefly and then letting go. It is essentially a smoothing agent in that format. Any compressor that you are putting after the amp block is probably going to be very light and used as a tone shaping agent more than anything. Compressors before the amp block will impact both the tone and the feel since they will interact with the natural compression in the amp. Experimentation and doing some reading on ratios, attack, and release will help you determine what kind of compressor you need for a given scenario and how it will behave. The multiband compressor is a fantastic tone shaping tool for post-amp use, but it is a CPU hog. Good luck!
 
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Looking at your screenshot, I'd like to bring this issue: https://forum.fractalaudio.com/thre...-pick-attack-string-noise.189561/post-2376505
Doesn't directly relate to your question, but should also affect this particular preset with a parallel route on FM3.

This preset doesn't really have a parallel path, each path is mutually exclusive for a clean/dirty setup. What you are talking about is an inherent issue with any modeler which calculates latency on the fly.
 
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