Compression: When To Use Or Not Use

[Tim]

I am trying to figure out “compression”. I understand what it does both with compressing a sound and producing a common volume from easy or hard picked notes or chords. It can also be used to add sustain to a note or chord. I am having a problem understanding when to use it.

Case in point! I was at a practice session last night. I had compression selected on the AD30VT. There was a time when the musicians where asked to play very lightly while and individual was speaking. I was playing some arpeggios over a keyboard player who was playing chord progressions. My guitar volume was way down low and the notes where on the brink of note being heard or breaking up. If I struck the string hard the note was heard. If I lightly picked the string it could not be heard. The hard picking (at that particular time) was too loud.

So the question is: When do you use compression and when do you not use compression?

As always … thanks.

[Robert****]

Hey Tim, you can use compression to even out the volume so that light picking and hard picking end up being pretty much the same volume. A bit of compression often makes it easier to play with a clean sound. I don't use compression with distortion or overdrive - it's not needed and can sound very artificial.

[Tone2TheBone]

Tim,

I agree with Robert. Compression is best used with a clean sound. Creates a smooth even level when picking. On the Vox, compression sounds and reacts cool with a lot of the clean models in that the harder you pick the attack is compressed BUT the gain it produced on the attack still manages to come through sweetly. This is typical of a real tube amp when all the tubes react to picking attack as tubes/valves naturally compress in their own beautiful way. I really gotta hand it to the Vox's "Valve Reactor" in this case. What we mean by "even level" when using compression is that the actual volume output should stay about the same. An uncompressed signal would cause a sound meter to peak in the red as you play with an aggressive attack. With compression the sound is usually pretty consistent in output level.