Do I need a compressor?

Onpar

Does anyone here use a compressor for gigging. It is something I have never tried but keep seeing compressors on pedal boards. Could you please advise what they would bring to a live situation?

meltedbuzzbox

Nothing

Strangefan

In a studio and if you have a shit load of fx but really not Needed in my opinion 

Gulliver

I have a compressor as an always-on pedal - it just makes everything better.  The only thing it doesn't improve is my Fuzz Face, which is the only time I switch it off.

Slimbert

They're a bit marmite to be honest both as "thing" and as individual units.

A lot of people don't like it nor have any need for it.

Of those that do like or need a compressor, nearly all are quite choosey about which compressor they like. Most people who use it often or all the time use a decent quality one.

I think it's one area that's worth spending decent money on. For the odd occasion I need some compression I use a ThorpyFX Fat General. It's expensive, but I think it's worth every penny.

I think some people are guilty of trying a cheap (meaning crap) compressor pedal, or not spending enough time dialing it in properly, and then decide they don't like it.

Whereas if they used a good quality/sounding one and/or spent some time using it properly they might think differently.

That said, most of the time I don't use it and don't feel I need to. I'd say the majority would never use one outside a recording setting.

fastonebaz

Every compressor I've tried to use live just hissed alot.  A bedroom levels it's ok.  Gave up on them eventually.  If you mainly play clean it might be ok

ICBM

Onpar said:

Does anyone here use a compressor for gigging. It is something I have never tried but keep seeing compressors on pedal boards. Could you please advise what they would bring to a live situation?

Frustration.

At least if you’ve already learned to control your dynamics with your picking or your guitar volume knob...

richardhomer

I think a compressor that isn’t obviously doing very much to the sound, in reality probably isn’t doing much at all - so a waste of time live. 

In recording situations, studio compression sounds better.

I only use one very much as an effect - in other words - you can tell it’s ‘definitely’ doing something to the sound. 

Teetonetal

what style of music are you playing?

I've found a compressor massively useful for slide, country, rockabilly etc
Never needed one with drive.

merlin

Teetonetal said:

I've found a compressor massively useful for slide, country, rockabilly etc
Never needed one with drive.

Same, works great with my lapsteel. Drive compresses anyhow, as do valves when they're overdriven so no need....unless you like it as a boost or for singing sustain. 

stickyfiddle

Teetonetal said:

what style of music are you playing?

I've found a compressor massively useful for slide, country, rockabilly etc
Never needed one with drive.

This, for me. I don't use one often, but for jangly clean rhythm they can be great just to keep everything at the same level.

Likewise for slide it's good to have a bit of punch as sustain can be a bit "challenging"

Fez

I use one with a Strat but not with humbuckers or drive. I have a Marshall Ed the compressor on my board Which I have often thought to replace with something "better" but never redllr been able to justify it.

Johnnyseven

I have a Diamond and it's always on with slight compression and a volume boost to provide more saturation from my drive pedals.

nonesuch

I always like to have a compressor on when I'm playing clean sounding chords or arpeggios. I find it really helps to even out your volume, which I think is a good thing. Others may disagree.

stratman3142

I use a compressor in my live pedal board. I set it so that the level when I'm playing 'normal attack' clean chord rhythm is about the same with it on or off, and it gives about 2 to 3dB boost when I'm playing 'normal attack' single clean notes.

1) I have it on when I want to rapidly change between clean chord rhythm and clean single note picking lines. It helps the single note lines pop out and I don't have to continually ride the volume pot, or have to rapidly switch a clean boost in and out

2) The compressor is pre my OD/distortion pedals. I sometimes switch it in to give more sustain, especially for extended legato lines. It also fattens and smooths the distorted tone a bit, but at the expense of picking dynamics (which is OK for legato).

3) Also, following on from (2), if I want to use controlled feedback on a note and it's starting to die too quickly, I switch in the compressor.

These days it's all done within my Helix LT, which I use in stompbox mode.

earwighoney

Teetonetal said:

what style of music are you playing?

I've found a compressor massively useful for slide, country, rockabilly etc
Never needed one with drive.

For slide or fingerstyle, if the pickups of the relevant guitar do not have anything in the way of natural compression I find using a compressor pedal to be near enough essential. 

thomasw88

I've had a bunch, but tbh don't really think I need one for live.   

slacker

I've had the keeley compressor for about 10 years I use it rarely, it adds a certain something to slide or for the 60s beatles/birds thing. 

Cirrus

I use one mostly to thicken up my Strat. In my last band, I'd do most of the gig on a humbucker guitar, switch to my strat and find that because my amp and pedals were set up/ gain staged for the humbuckers, single coils would be too quiet. Plus they're also more dynamic, so as well as being quiet the notes would vanish into the noise of the rest of the band much quicker.

So, a compressor meant I still had the twang of the strat but that it hung with the humbucker guitar in terms of volume and sustain. If my playing was busier it probably wouldn't matter, but since I often play quite open, sparse parts it helped hold the notes and hanging chords where I needed them to be.

The thing about a compressor is that since it controls volume, it doesn't really make sense until you've got something to be too loud or quiet relative to - so I only think it comes into its own when you're playing along in an ensemble, if you need one at all.

exocet

I use one live with a Strat for the following - always with the blend set around 50% Wet v Dry.

1. Beefs up tone as mentioned above. (Clean or Dirty).

2. Clean Boost - set the output level higher.

3. More sustain without increasing the overdrive gain ie a low gain tone but with higher gain sustain.

Without the blend control, I doubt I'd use it anywhere near as much.

vale

i don't like them because they take the fine control of my dynamics out of my hands, and that's something i want to keep supertight control of, because i consider it part of 'my art'.

if you want consistent attack-vol-sustain and you feel your touch doesn't deliver that, they they may help you achieve that in an artifical way. and they can work in interesting ways with some effects that like a consistent attack dynamic of a particular instensity. but generally i avoid.

the only way you'll really know one is if you try one for a while and you get on with it.
you can pick up a very decent joyo compressor (joyo jf-10 Compressor = mxr dyna-comp clone) for less than £20, and if you don't like it flip it and lose practically nothing. so try.