Things to look for when trying out compressors

[beaubrummels]

Interesting. The only compression I have in my signal chain right now is from the amplifier, which I run pretty clean. In general how long are the extreme ends of an attack knob in ms? I've been turning the threshold way up and playing around with the attack knob while running a loop through it as a way to test it out. Perhaps attack makes a bigger difference at lower thresholds if it really is a ratio knob?

Don't know what amp you're using or the settings, but any distortion, or even tubes clean >> grit can compress a signal a little bit.

In that same manual you were referencing, it says
Attack Time: 6ms - 20ms
Compression Range: 35db

So threshold could actually be a decibel Threshold. Must have a fixed ratio then? (Which would be all the more reason to have a make-up gain Level control.)

[Mincer]

I sort of group compressors into: Compressor as an Effect and Compressor as a Sound Tool

The Dana Comp is definitely an Effect

Same here. They are really 2 different pedals, if you get what I mean).