Re: Guitar Compression was :Re: ...reflections...

[Charles Crosman <dulanith@gmail.com>]

I appreciated your take on matters of compression Bill. Likewise, you mentioned the Pigtronix PT which had very recently come into view and piqued my interest. Your offering here has me more likely to opt for a Keeley now. So basically this is just +1 and tanks heaps for offering this much. Charles

On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 10:53 AM, William Walker <billwalker@baymoon.com> wrote:

I went through a period of several years when I was anti compression and would not use it for all the reasons  previously mentioned here.
 Oh it destroys dynamics, and  makes all of the levels the same yada yada rabble rabble, rabble. The reality was that I was using compression in the wrong way and yes it was robbing me of dynamics. These days I won't leave home without it. Why?  because like it or not we live in a digital freaking world and digital devices are not very forgiving when overloaded, I include in this group any DSP or Looper or DAW for that matter. When I was first using compression, an MXR red comp way back when I was making the mistake of jacking up the sensitivity to the point of rendering everything completely over compressed and lacking in dynamic range. That god awful pumping effect that cheap compressors do and even good ones when not set up correctly. These days I use a keeley on the front end of my signal more as a slight  boost and signal massage, with very little sensitivity, and with the internal trims set for the highest headroom .  If recording I'll also use a Carl martin at the end of my signal chain for some discreet limiting, and I'll also use a UA plugin LA-2 sim when recording. I don't get any radical dynamic limitation, I still have a dramatic degree of quite to loud dynamics, and I have the added benefit of the limiting that helps avoid clipping other things in the chain not to mention a bit less need. to change  my gain stages when switching between instruments with widely different out put levels.
 I do agree that over compression sucks, or rather pumps, and I'm not particularly fond of the Adrian Belew/ Jamie West Oram, 80's compression aesthetic  where all dynamic range is killed, but I do feel that compression when used sparingly is a good thing. with that in mind the M-9 does a very decent LA-2 compression model  they call tube compressor. BTW I went to try the pigtronix philosophers tone and my first impression was that it was not capable of subtle compression, and the grit control was completely useless to me. Something I'm missing or maybe it was a crappy amp they had me plugged in to. Any thoughts , I sure do love its compact size and its gotten great reviews. any feed back? does it have internal trims like the Keeley to reduce its sensitivity.
 Thanks
 Bill