What is the point of a compression sustainer?

[iylesia]

Hi,
Can anyone tell me what is the point of a compressor or compression sustainer in plain english? I know the technical side of this effect, however, what are it's real applications in guitar playing? The reason why I ask this is I treid one out at the store, a Boss CS-3, and the things sucked out a lot of volume and then kept cutting out when playing on the dirty channels. On clean it didn't seem too bright either as it sucked out some of the tone. So, what use is this?
Bob

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: What is the point of a compression sustainer?

It basically squashes all the peaks and valleys of your sound, thus increasing the sustain but decreasing the dynamics. Compression can be a wonderful thing if used sparingly.

I would like to add that there is probably not an album today that doesn't have some degree of outside compression added to the guitar.

 

[Falstaff]

Re: What is the point of a compression sustainer?

IMHO compression sounds best when used with a very clean tone. A lot of country guys use it to varying degrees, and Roger McGuinn of the Byrds used it to give his Ric his distinctive sound.

 

[jeremy]

Re: What is the point of a compression sustainer?

i use it most for fairly clean picking, keeps notes you dont nail quite as hard p in volume. i also use it for slide playing for basically the same reason

 

[some_dude]

Re: What is the point of a compression sustainer?

Can you use a compressor to cut the peaks in order to keep your guitar from overdriving the amp?

What's a good compressor (if any) for that purpose?

 

[jeremy]

Re: What is the point of a compression sustainer?

you could do that i suppose. almost any compressor or limiter will work, some change the tone more than others so try em out to see which tone you like. i have a rt66 that i use for compression

 

[Hellion]

Re: What is the point of a compression sustainer?

I run a DBX 163X (single channel easy-over) compressor as the first stage of my main rig. It's on all the time and just adds some grit to the system, so to speak. I like hearing it breath, myself, though I'm sure a lot of people (my drummer included) don't really like the tone. I've had good luck with Digitech compressors, too.

 

[Fatty]

Re: What is the point of a compression sustainer?

I use my compressor to even out and boost my signal to drive the amp a bit more. Very simple Alesis NanoCompressor.. gets the job done just fine.

 

[ankalar]

Re: What is the point of a compression sustainer?

I played with on at Sam Ash for about 5 minutes. It sucked so much tone and volume, I imagine I would have to play with the settings a bit though. Plus I was distracted by the super awesome Super Octave.

 

[Kent S.]

Re: What is the point of a compression sustainer?

Can you use a compressor to cut the peaks in order to keep your guitar from overdriving the amp?

What's a good compressor (if any) for that purpose?

Hit ebay and find a BOSS LM-2 Limiter, what you describe here is a limiter, BOSS doesn't make one anymore but you can still find them. You can also get by with turning down the sustain control on any of the CS series, but it doesn't work quite as well. Limiting and compression are the same principles applied differently ... compression normally uses lower ratios with lower thresholds; limiting higher ratios with higher thresholds. The CS's are actually AGC units (automatic gain controllers), not quite true compressors really, so they work just slightly different. The thing is the overall effect is pretty much the same. Pick up a copy of the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Manual availble from HL for a full run down of all this stuff (a tons more stuff that every player needs to know). What you want is a limiter ... to cut down the loud parts, but not bring up the soft parts.