What exactly does a compressor pedal do to your sound

Steven Schwartz · From: Longview Washington, USA

I'm a total newbie and I cant really make sense of any of the descriptions of what a compressor does.

Thank you

Gary Watkins · From: Bristol, VA

Noah Miller · From: Rocky Hill, CT

A compressor squashes volume peaks, thus evening out the volume. They're accompanied by a boost circuit to raise the overall level back up.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

Ruins it in my opinion.
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Steven Schwartz · From: Longview Washington, USA

Thanks everybody. That UTube was really helpful for understanding.

George Redmon · From: Muskegon & Detroit Michigan.

I love my Compressor. Either on my Tele, or any steel i'm playing. It's an "always-on" "must-have" if you play anything besides country. I am currently using the Ohmless Yara v2 Optical Compressor.

https://ohmless-pedals.reverbsites.com/listing/ohmless-pedals-yara-yara-v2/13847570

Part of my board.

Chris Brooks · From: Providence, Rhode Island

Steven: my impression is that most steelers (including myself) don't use compressors. Guitar players do.

Steelers want to use the volume pedal and right hand attack to determine their sound--not a pedal that evens everything out.

Per Berner · From: Skovde, Sweden

For pedal steel (with its near infinite sustain compared to a regular guitar), I have never felt the need for a compressor. But my Telecaster needs to be tamed by a little bit of compresion – I won't play a single note without it. Used a Boss for decades, it was really good, but my new Keeley is even better. With a Les Paul-type guitar, which I very rarely play, compression is not really necessary – the humbuckers and the body construction provides longer sustain and less spikiness compared to the Tele.

Anthony Campbell · From: Northwest Indiana, USA

I leave my Cali76 on for either guitar or steel guitar.

I leave the dry blend set at a decent level so unprocessed signal can go through uncompressed.

There's pros to not using them, and pros to using them.

Try it out - if you like it - use it!
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Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Keep in mind, if you put a compressor after the volume pedal in your signal chain, you probably won’t notice the effect unless the volume pedal is full on and left there. The video linked in Gary W’s post is very good, but I would bet that it was done with the guitar volume knob all the way up. I think compressors like to get a full blast of output signal, no matter what purpose you intend for them.

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

Think of pouring gas into a funnel...
It swishes around all over the place going into the funnel, and comes out in an even uniform flow.
You can stop pouring for a few seconds and there is still and even flow coming out.

George Biner · From: Los Angeles, CA

The basic function of a compressor is to "punch up" the sound -- make the whole thing uniformly louder by reducing the peaks -- whole armies of metal guitarists use them to create massive sustain where the notes never die off -- in the last twenty years, most pop records use extreme compression to the point that they have no dynamics at all -- but, when used by sane people, they can even out your sound and make it louder and easier to hear in a mix -- they will reduce the effect of the volume pedal by the way -- and if you ever need to do a screaming, saturated, really loud lead solo to piss off your band, you'll have it handy!
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Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

the thing about a compressor is, 1st, its not an effect, 2nd , it can be !

Compressors are used to tame mild peaks, which folds them back into the sound envelope. We shouldn't even know it's on. Typically if we can hear it, it's too much.

BUT, because we can BOOST the gain on a compressor, we can now HEAR the signal being folded back, SQUASHED somewhat OR squashed A LOT !

In the recording world we can see the peaks being tamed on meters but can't hear it, thats ideal, its a tool . In the Guitar/Steel world , we boost the signal so we can hear it, now its an audio effect.
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K Maul · From: Hadley, NY/Hobe Sound, FL

Like any effect it can be overused. On steel it would go probably first in the chain, and on only slightly so it only has minimal effect on just the highest peaks. Xotic makes the SP, with which you can blend the dry signal in so sustain increases but the squashing effect is not as noticeable.
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Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

Be careful not to conflate studio compressors with pedal compressors. They have different functions within very different contexts. Stomp box compressors are getting really good though. My little rule is to use them for enhancement and not for correction. I don’t use a stomp box compressor but it seems like there is always some sort of high end comp in the signal chain when I’m being recorded.

Don’t worry about not understanding what compressors really do. They remain mystery to some of the best pro engineers. I’ll often ask the engineer what that big blue box with the knobs and VU meters on it does and the answers is usually something like turn the knobs like this and it’s like magic.
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Bill Terry · From: Bastrop, TX

Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

a compressor limits your dynamic range. your level is "squashed" to a point where everything you play is about the same level.

having said that. in the old days, the engineers would tell you.."if you can hear the compressor...its too much"....

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

I use a stomp-box type compressor as "permanently-ON" buffer-amp w/tone control for PSG – before VP and all else, and prefer one with a little slow attack and decay so as not to squash the pick-attack sound but rather make it more distinct without peaking so high that it causes clipping in following amp-stages in my sound-chains.

As few if any stomp-box size compressors have adjustable attack and decay settings, they are either designed/built with suitable characteristics, or they make the PSG sound like "something else". I want a naturally/traditionally sounding PSG regardless of type of music, so finding a suitable compressor took time. All units for 6-strings I have tested over the years have fallen through as unsuited, but the Boss LNB-3 primarily built as "expression pedal" for bass-guitar fits right in there with a very playable effect.

Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

And then, to muddy the water a bit, there are limiters, which are a bit different than compressors.

I believe the Boss LMB 3 that Georg uses is actually a limiter.

I've never used either; but, there are some interesting articles about the differences on the internet.

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

Dave Hopping · From: Aurora, Colorado

If you put the compressor/limiter BEFORE the volume pedal you get micro-precise control over your levels.I just got a Keeley Compressor-Plus, and the only drawback(for me) is the temptation to squish the steel sound to the point it sounds like a Tele with 12 benders! Winking

Gene Tani · From: Pac NW

there's a few different kinds and there's also this website with hundreds of reviews, which I'm sure don't help at all

I bought the LMB3 based on recommendations and am a believer, it gives notes "sparkle" and "bloom" and words like that. The Presonus studio channel is also a nice unit (maybe not real durable) I would like to try a joemeek and dbx 676 sometime

https://www.izotope.com/en/blog/mixing/4-types-of-analog-compression-and-why-they-matter-in-a-digital-world.html

http://www.ovnilab.com/
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Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

K Maul · From: Hadley, NY/Hobe Sound, FL

Yes itâ€™s cool full on for special cases. I use it to add an extra stage to fuzz pedals, too. It seems that Buddy Emmons used a DynaComp quite a lot in the 70s if you check his work on Flying Fish records. So if canâ€™t be ALL bad....right?
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Charley Paul · From: California, USA

I’ve recently begun experimenting with a compressor on psg. I quite like the results. The sound is more polished and feels more controlled and even. It makes the psg punch through a bit more, as well.

I think the two important takeaways when using compression with psg are to have a 50/50 blend of the dry and compressed signals, and to not over-compress.

I like a dry blend because it preserves the attack of the note, as well as the subtleties of the volume pedal.

I think, as pointed out before, if you can hear the compressor squashing the sound, then you need to dial it back. On psg, I like it best when I don’t know it’s there...

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