Re: stupid compression pedal question..

["Todd Pafford" <calenlas@gmail.com>]

I'm of the opinion that using a little compression to provide a nice
strong signal to the rest of the system is a good thing.  However, if
you're running through tubes at any point and are relying on your
expressive guitar playing to drive those tubes, then the compressor
will just flatten all that expresivity right out and produce a flat
response from those tubes.  Also, since you mention an envelope
follower specifically, a compressor in front of an E.F. will severely
limit it's expresiveness.  The bottom line is that a compressor
minimizes the dynamics of your playing.  Any device that you desire to
be influenced by your playing dynamics should precede compression.

Ideally, I guess, a signal chain would look like:
guitar -> tube pre / envelope follower -> compressor -> loopers /
delays / everything else -> compressor / limiter (to rein everything
back in)

In all cases, too much compression is undesirable unless you're
specifically aiming for a super compressed sound.  Ultimately, you'll
have to experiment to see where in your signal chain the compressor
works best for you, how much compression to apply, etc.  There are no
rules for this stuff, it's all personal taste.

Todd


> > I'm fiddling around with compression pedals in my guitar playing. Also 
>in
> > the mix are distortion, delay, envelope filters, and chorus/flange type
> > stuff. I've read everything from the compression pedal shoudl be the 
>first
> > item in the chain to it should be the last or it should follow a
> > particularly volume/tone sucking effect.
> >
> > Assuming I'll at very least always have a distortion-> envelope
> > filter->Delay/looper where is the best place for me to place the
> > compression pedal?  Does this change if I am using a different 
>instrument
> > (drum machine, bass, saxophone, whatever).
> >
> > If you can let me know why you chose that would help a lot too.
> >
> > Thanks for any/all help!
>