Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

[Steve Mavronis]

I've been watching some videos about pedal order and their effects. I have DOD Bi-FET Boost 410, DOD 250/Gray Clone, MXR Custom Comp/Dyna Comp Clone pedals. I've never had much love for compressors which seem a little inconsistent with the volume sustain ramping. I've just been using my boost pedal just for that to boost the signal when needed into low watt tube amps. But these videos, particularly this one have me rethinking everything. I'm not sold on the compressor order effects but a boost before an overdrive sounds interesting to explore. The 410 clean boost does have a tone control as well. What do you think about this?

 

[Demanic]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

I usually run compression before of or distortion and a clean boost after.

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[Liam1963]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

I usually run compression before of or distortion and a clean boost after.

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Completely agree!

 

[Demanic]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

I find that the compressor actually can open up the really hot pickups that I use, bringing out more character. And the clean boost at the end just takes the already distorted tone and makes it louder for leads.

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[NegativeEase]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

Some really good compressors have a make up gain circuit that can replace a clean boost if you keep the clean boost on always for gain structure purposes after -example would be an Origin Cali76 or Greer Lamplighter -also Klon style boosts sound good after a compressor.

I'll run an MXR OD in front and a Klon after a compressor often

 

[Demanic]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

Some really good compressors have a make up gain circuit that can replace a clean boost if you keep the clean boost on always for gain structure purposes after -example would be an Origin Cali76 or Greer Lamplighter -also Klon style boosts sound good after a compressor.

I'll run an MXR OD in front and a Klon after a compressor often

Do you have an opinion on the Keeley's?

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[NegativeEase]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

Do you have an opinion on the Keeley's?

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I dont, I have heard really good things of them -that company is no joke.

the key is an output gain circuit thats not noisy once you exceed the normal unity makeup gain.... and that usually requires a pretty good one.

I imagine anything Keely puts out falls into that category.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

Just wondering. I heard about them about 15 years ago. I have a 4 knob and a 2 knob compressor, same circuit but the 4 knob has all the pots accessible from the outside. They definitely get the job done. They also retain more low end than my old Boss CS-3, which is still a good pedal for the price.

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[NegativeEase]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

Just wondering. I heard about them about 15 years ago. I have a 4 knob and a 2 knob compressor, same circuit but the 4 knob has all the pots accessible from the outside. They definitely get the job done. They also retain more low end than my old Boss CS-3, which is still a good pedal for the price.

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The Boss is of course a classic and sounds great -I've used the Boss' compressors for 30 years -but as you probably know -it gets noisy once you start adding a bunch of make up gain over unity. so with a Boss I would use a downstream OD instead of cranking the compressor output past using it like the compressor likes.

Man, just looked -that Keely is priced nice!

 

[Coma]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

Do you have an opinion on the Keeley's?

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I have the Keeley Comp Plus. Bought it just for cleans but ended up using it as an always-on. It adds a lot of sparkle to everything.

Odd thing though, I've set it up for playing a neck single coil clean, but with the switch set to humbucker profile. Works and sounds so much better than the single coil profile, for some reason.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

I always run a com pressor before anything else. That said, I never use compression with distortion. I also rarely use Overdrive, but I would not compress that either.

So Guitar > comp > Clean

or Guitar > Distortion

But hey - do what you want or what sounds good / works for you.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

And why no compression before distortion?

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[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

I used to use my CS-3 before my distortion years ago ..mostly in a death metal context for those sweet Obituary-type tones I love, but had'nt done a thing with it for years until I recently pulled it from the mothballs again & jammed some solo's with it in front of my Brutus Live head (reverb/delay in the loop) ...tones were sweet & downright awesome (CS-5 -> Boost/overdrive -> amp) :bigthumb:

 

[Demanic]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

I originally bought my CS-3 for bass.

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[Ascension]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

Thanks for this. Been chasing a particular smooth fluid OD tone and normally do not run a OD. Compressor into the Keeler Push I have through my clean channel got me there after watching this.
Here is an example of what I was trying to find in the smooth jazzy fills in this song.

 

[Ascension]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

For reference this is what I had been running high compression only through the clean and it just wasn't cutting it.

Running lighter compression into the OD then my clean made a HUGE difference!

 

[Steve Mavronis]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

I was experimenting with putting my clean boost before my overdrive and it has a more saturated tone. I tried my compressor too into my overdrive but that was too noisy.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

I always use the compressor before the overdrive. Granted, I don't use any overdrive more saturated than a Tube Screamer, but it works for me.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

I usually run compression before of or distortion and a clean boost after.

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That's my preferred method too.

You can use the boost to boost volume this way, and use the compressor to make the distortion sound smoother. Or you can crank the volume of the compressor to get a very thick distortion with a different character.

Boost works well before an OD, where you get a light and heavy distortion thing happening . . . but compression after distortion has never really worked for me.

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Boost and Compressor Before and After Overdrive

I originally bought my CS-3 for bass.

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I always used a BOSS CS for bass gigs until I got super overkill and started using a rack mount Joe Meek for a couple years (way overkill BTW)

I love the way the bass doesn't "get away" from you on certain notes below Low A with a compressor