How do you set up your Compressor block?

frankenbeans

Experienced
I’ve never used a compressor before the Axe-Fx, so I’m still trying to learn how to dial it in. I’ve read the manual and understand what each control does for the most part, but I’m trying to determine the best way to walk through and set the controls.


What I want is (what I understand to be) a pretty mild compression—just something to calm the higher transients, not necessarily to squash my playing or unify the dynamics completely. So here’s how I went about dialing it in:

1. Set up a blank, straight-through preset.

2. Strum casually though weakest-output pickup setup and determine average output

2a. For me, that’s the coil-split bridge and neck combo

2b. I saw an average output of -15dB on the on-board output monitor (just eye-balling it)

3. Set the compressor threshold slightly lower than the above number

3a. I set it at -18dB again just to calm some of the higher transients that popup from using a louder pickup or stronger strumming pattern

4. Set the ratio to yank down those higher transients in a way that feels best

4a. I bounce between 2 & 4 (though 4 does feel a bit strong at times)

5. Adjust the output of the compressor to match the output from the straight-through preset above

5a. I had to add 4dB to bring the output of the compressor back up to the -15dB neighborhood


So how do you set up your compressor? Setting recommendations are welcome, but I’m also interested in the process you used to arrive at those settings. Thanks!
 
I set the threshold to an extreme setting so every other parameters adjustment is obvious, set my attack and release (generally 15-30 and 50-100 respectively), make up gain, adjust my look ahead, and then back it off til it sounds right to me. I also set it to peak+rms as well

Interesting. That’s a very different approach then I took, so I’ll have to try that. Thanks!
 
Change the default RMS value to PEAK for higher gain and RMS+PEAK for cleans. I prefer these settings ... see if you like them.

Edit - on the Studio Compressor.


Good tip, thanks! I haven’t played with any of those settings, but I’ll probably get to that tonight.
 
Here are my magic, always-on, compressor settings. Provides some subtle smoothing out between low and high power signals in the chain. As you can see, I run it post-drive blocks. These settings were arrived at many, many years ago when I was matching the compressor block to my two-knob Analogman CompROSSor pedal.

Screen Shot 2018-06-14 at 8.25.43 AM.png
 
Here are my magic, always-on, compressor settings. Provides some subtle smoothing out between low and high power signals in the chain. As you can see, I run it post-drive blocks. These settings were arrived at many, many years ago when I was matching the compressor block to my two-knob Analogman CompROSSor pedal.

View attachment 47475
Any reason you're picking the pedal comp over the studio?
 
Here are my magic, always-on, compressor settings. Provides some subtle smoothing out between low and high power signals in the chain. As you can see, I run it post-drive blocks. These settings were arrived at many, many years ago when I was matching the compressor block to my two-knob Analogman CompROSSor pedal.

View attachment 47475

I do miss the orange squeeze side at times. Especially on my 335. Do you have a block that approximates that?
 
Just checking back in to say I've tried all of the suggestions in here--great stuff! It's definitely helpful to get different perspectives/workflows on how to set these up.
 
Here are my magic, always-on, compressor settings. Provides some subtle smoothing out between low and high power signals in the chain. As you can see, I run it post-drive blocks. These settings were arrived at many, many years ago when I was matching the compressor block to my two-knob Analogman CompROSSor pedal.

View attachment 47475
Yeah, I'd like to know some of your Delay settings too! :) (Thanks for share)
 
just something to calm the higher transients,
Don't forget about the Character and Dynamic Presence parameters in the Amp block. The Character parameter has become a very useful tool for me when putting the final touches on presets. Discovered this in @Admin M@ 's Tech Notes: https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/my-secret-formula.85426/
Reducing the Character Amount seems to cut the 'presence', increasing adds some along with a touch more "gain".
The Dynamic Presence seems to affect the tone after picking more than the core tone.
 
Don't forget about the Character and Dynamic Presence parameters in the Amp block. The Character parameter has become a very useful tool for me when putting the final touches on presets. Discovered this in @Admin M@ 's Tech Notes: https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/my-secret-formula.85426/
Reducing the Character Amount seems to cut the 'presence', increasing adds some along with a touch more "gain".
The Dynamic Presence seems to affect the tone after picking more than the core tone.

I’ll have to play with these this weekend. I’ve never touched these before. Thanks for the suggestion and link!
 
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