Compressor Sound

[rasco22862]

Hi, i recently built the tonepad dynacomp.  My question is if someone can explain me what is a compressor, and what is that make it so special?, because im a little confused with this project, i mean i listen a little more sustain, and also the sounds changes, not too much, i listen it with more balance or something like that.

Thanks

[Processaurus]

Its special because most guitarists don't have a clear idea of what a compressor does  , its not as immediately identifiable as, say distortion.  Its an automatic control over volume, when you play quiet, its normal, when you play louder it turns you down, but on a very fast, note by note basis.  Kind of like if you're watching a movie late at night and you turn it up to hear what people are saying, but have to turn it down when stuff starts blowing up, so you don't wake the sleeping people up.

They're great for clean sounds especially because clean guitar has a fast decay to each note, it adds apparent sustain (by turning you up as the note trails off) and also limits the occasional unintentionally loud note/chord.  They're especially handy if you go back and forth between playing chords (which with 6 strings going at once, are louder than 1) and single note lines, because then it will turn up the quieter parts.  Also if you go back and forth between using a pick and fingerpicking it can be handy.

Playing in a loud, busy band, it can do a cool thing of making your clean guitar sound more apparent, but not louder exactly.

Distortion is the crudest form of compression, thats why a compressor after distortion won't do much, because the signal level is already clipped to a steady volume by the distortion (you know if you have a gained out distortion sound, you can play as loud as you want, and it just won't get any louder).  Before a distortion it will make it sound smoother (and noisier, usually, if things are set to extremes) and have more sustain, without a super gained out tone from the distortion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_level_compression

[rasco22862]

thanks very much for the explanation, now i love my dynacomp. I noticed what you said in the sound, and is very useful!,

Thanks again!