Who Uses Compression Pedals for Solos?

[Hellion]

Re: Who Uses Compression Pedals for Solos?

A compressor is cool for clean solos, for added sustain and smoothness.

But with overdrive/distortion, a compressor is useless. Distortion compresses the signal pretty heavily anyway, and a compressor before distortion will only give you more noise and hum.

I hear lots of beginners using compressors to make up for bad picking dynamics. It's a crutch.
Sustain, dynamics, punch... It's all in the fingers, really.

Distortion doesn't compress the signal. Distortion clips off the tops and bottoms of the signal. I've never heard of anyone using a compressor to "make up for bad picking dynamics". Sustain is a result of gain and resonance. Fingers don't really help on that part of it, sorry. I use a compressor to increase the useable signal to the amp so it hits the pre just a little harder. That's what they're for.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Who Uses Compression Pedals for Solos?

Compression used with heavy od makes it even, most 80's stuff uses alot of compression.
A 19" unit DBX compressor was almost as common as the JB that sat in their guitar

 

[BornToShred]

Re: Who Uses Compression Pedals for Solos?

Distortion doesn't compress the signal. Distortion clips off the tops and bottoms of the signal.

This is true. But by clipping the waveform, distortion makes the dynamic range more narrow. A compressor does the same thing, not by clipping the signal, but squashing the peaks of the signal (lowering their volume).
A noise gate does the exact opposite (lowering/muting the silent parts of the signal).

Both (distortion and compression) decrease the dynamic range of the signal, (evening out the loud peaks of the waveform) so essentially, distortion does produce compression. In addition to producing more high harmonics (which is heard as distortion).

I know a thing or two about audio.
Find a website with some good articles on music production and audio if you want to know how a compressor works.

I've never heard of anyone using a compressor to "make up for bad picking dynamics".

You've never heard a beginning metal guitarist?
Tons of kids do it.

Sustain is a result of gain and resonance. Fingers don't really help on that part of it, sorry.

Yes. But good finger vibrato can prolong sustain. It's all in the wrist.

 

[mjsever]

Re: Who Uses Compression Pedals for Solos?

I use a compressor, but only to raise my volume for solos. I turn the attack knob all the way down so I can still dig in and get the pick sounds I want, and leave the sustain knob about halfway so it's not too squashed. This may reduce some of the subtleties of playing, but not too much. Plus, in a live setting, subtleties are often lost anyway and the battle is really getting people to hear the things they should be hearing. Recording is a different story altogether.

 

[BS123]

Re: Who Uses Compression Pedals for Solos?

I use a compressor 100% of the time. Of course, I play Country so it helps. I like the compressor because it gives a bit of extra girth and "hair" to my sound. In fact I have two compressor in my effects chain. One is on all the time and the is activated when I'm doing a solo that requires a lot of hair. I don't use much distortion. I perfer to be clean in my tone. I like it because it brings the soft picking levels up and "squishes" the hard pickiing levels down so there's even volume. The attack isn't the same but the volume level is. However, some players don't use compressors for the same reason I do.

 

[jmv]

Re: Who Uses Compression Pedals for Solos?

IMO, whether or not a compressor works well for you is completely subjective to your particular guitar and amp, as are most pedals. If you switch guitars, it may seem completely wrong, even though it was dialed in perfect for another guitar. If you can borrow several pedals, see which one works best with your main setup.

And born to shred is right.... distortion is the same general process as compression, except it doesn't have the setup to keep it from clipping, which are found in all compressors.

 

[BluesGuyJ]

Re: Who Uses Compression Pedals for Solos?

Think of 80's rcok. The lead guitarists of Tesla or the Scorpions. They more than likely used these types of pedals, or you will be able t achieve those types of sounds with these pedals. They help with making some really nice mid oriented lead tones.