Compressor Pedal Review

[NegativeEase]

I use the two knob Keeley for guitar (attack and gain are controlled by internal pots).
I used to use the 4 knob for bass, but found that I didn't need it with active pickups. But I have seen that they have a studio grade that allows selection between hard and soft knee, and was curious.
I think that hard knee would be perfect for the bass tone that I look for.

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I think with a Keely, you'd want to set it above a 10:1 compression ratio (try high compression settings -even infinity to create that hard knee wall) and try fast and slower attack probably to hear the varius hard knee effects

first set the blend to full (not clean) so you only hear the compressor.

-fast attack will reduce the attack of the pick and staccato effect of playing metal -making the sound fat and smoother.

slow attack will preserve the the front end for a more aggressive sound but with a high ratio 10:1 have the fattening of a hard knee effect....

once you get what you like -play with the release times to see how a longer sustain interacts with your picking...

and be checking the compressor sound with the natural sounds using the blend knob to preserve enough of the original guitar with the compression effect.


oh also, you can do a fast attack to get the fat smooth sound but recover your metal pick attack into you overall tone by alternately blending in more of the natural clean sound of the guitar with the blend knob -basically mixing in together the 2 extremes of fat and smooth with attacky and bright with the blend knob.

I think I used to call using the blend to mix maximum high ratio fat with raw guitar the "Natty Fat" tone 3 decades ago.

 

[Demanic]

You're getting way ahead of what I have with the "blend" thing. I only have the old school Keeleys. Not one of the studios. Yet.
So with a 4 knob, I should be turning the knob more to the right for a slower attack, then I'm thinking turn the sustain to the left, level should be at least at unity and the gain should be fairly far to the right.
Right?

 

[NegativeEase]

You're getting way ahead of what I have with the "blend" thing. I only have the old school Keeleys. Not one of the studios. Yet.
So with a 4 knob, I should be turning the knob more to the right for a slower attack, then I'm thinking turn the sustain to the left, level should be at least at unity and the gain should be fairly far to the right.
Right?

Which exact model do you have?

 

[Demanic]

This one.

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[NegativeEase]

This one.

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OK, so no blend -so I would preserve more of the pick attack (since you play metal) by trying the attack slower like 1 to 5 oclock (especially if you are using single coils) and make the sustain slower too like 2-5 ocklock to get the sustain benefits. The clipping is just input gain -if you jack it up, the compressor will compress more or even distort -if you are using high output humbuckers you probably can get all kinds of compressed drive by jacking it and the level is the output gain for balancing the level on the output (use as unity a cut or boost)

 

[ErikH]

Wow, that's the old 4-knob. Haven't seen one of those in a long time. I have the latest one. The controls are sustain, level, blend, tone. Plus it has a humbucker/single-coil switch.

 

[Demanic]

OK, so no blend -so I would preserve more of the pick attack (since you play metal) by trying the attack slower like 1 to 5 oclock (especially if you are using single coils) and make the sustain slower too like 2-5 ocklock to get the sustain benefits. The clipping is just input gain -if you jack it up, the compressor will compress more or even distort -if you are using high output humbuckers you probably can get all kinds of compressed drive by jacking it and the level is the output gain for balancing the level on the output (use as unity a cut or boost)

So I have it set fairly close and really just need to increase the sustain. Thanks.

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[NegativeEase]

So I have it set fairly close and really just need to increase the sustain. Thanks.

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No prob -I bet that pedal is pretty killer -Keeley doesn't make any junk.

 

[Aceman]

On my acoustic, I have the Attack set to ~10 o'clock, because I want everything leveled regardless of my picking strength differences, and I have the sustain set to 10 also. I don't need any sustain for the acoustic. Gain is parity, and the Tone is a little on the bright side, to add resonant peak highs clipped off by the compression itself.

Monte Allums modded CS3....