compressor for high gain sustain

[rorschah]

I'm looking for a compressor primarily to fuel long, drone-y, trance-y, noisy, high-gain stuff - noise that go on forever and forever and ever.

Secondarily, I'll use it for a little chicken-pickin', but that's a minor detail.

Peering at the pedalboard of my favorite for this stuff (the oft-mentioned Boris) I saw an MXR Dynacomp script logo.

I know nothing about compression.

What should I get?

-thi

 

[Cow4prez]

this doesn't make any sense. When you get into high gain area of distortion you automatically get compression. Gain and compression go together. A compressor pedal is not the only way to get compression. You may not get JUST compression. You might get alot of noise also, a double edge effect of compression. Another way to get compression is to hit your distortion with a booster in front.

 

[msp]

i really appreciate the barber tone press

it is verry versitile and sounds much better to my ears ...from heavy overdrive, as a simple boost, chicken picken or even that old school ross squashy sound....depending on your guitar you can dial in all kinds of great comp flavors

i have owned many stomper compressions: ross, analogman bicomp, 2 dynacomps (one of them modded to ross specs) , and some akia (sp?) thing way back when

my favorite is the barber by far and its preatty cheap too (140.00 usd)

(second favorite was the analogman bicomp but only the orange squeezer side)

diamond also makes a good compressor

 

[rorschah]

Why doesn't it make sense? A high gain distortion pedal increases sustain; I just want more sustain without adding more gain.

It's pretty common for the sludge/drone/noise style, I think. If you listen to Boris or Earth, there's high gain stuff with like, one chord played which lasts for a minute or more. I think the effects loop for the lead in Boris is Dynacomp -> Big Muff -> Another Big Muff -> Boss OD-3 -> some delay, for the near-forever sustain. Just wondering what else is out there besides the Dynacomp that can do this, and what the differences in other stuff would be.

-thi

 

[msp]

dynacomps and ross tones are verry similar in interaction imho

if you really like the dynacomp i would go for any clone (keely analogman trex and about a billion others that are the standard 2 or 3 knob compressor and made with high quality parts) the ross clones are probably much better than the factory mxr stuff

but if you want chicken pickin and high gain sustain out of one pedal you may want to look into something a bit more dialable (the sustain knob on the dyna/ross peds are a acumulation of attach releas decay and you may want something that can eq the compressed signal, blend with the origonal signal or separate those control features)

analogman bicomp, barber, diamond, emma (and a few others i'm shure) are abit more complicated but come with a wider tone variation

also some overdrive pedals (barber tone pump for example) have great compression qualities that when doubled up with your current overdrive or distortion can give you tons and tons of sustain

other obvious options for sustain: crank your master tubes in your amp and turn down your pre-channels......then when you do punch in your clean boost or compressor it sends the tubes into true overdrive and really helps the guitar be more interactive (sustain, gain, and harmonics) depending on the amp that is

or maybe even try a octavia pedal (one up) with your overdrive/distortion/fuzz to get sustain too (if you like that hendrix kind of thang)

or even take the cheeze way out.............slap back delay with a bunch of gain

wich is fun for a while too

:BEER

 

[drolling]

Yeah, the script logo's really good for that app. Chickn Pickin, too. Not a tone-sucker in bypass mode- in fact, I kinda like what the buffer does to my guitar tone.

The Boss CS-2's also a good choice. You can really crank up the sustain. It's really good for those fake pedal steel licks, too.

Neither would be my first choice for clean/jazz tones, but you don't need bells & whistles when you're working w/tons of distortion.

They're also pretty much industry standard for the 'nashville' sound.

 

[John E]

Why doesn't it make sense? A high gain distortion pedal increases sustain; I just want more sustain without adding more gain.

It's pretty common for the sludge/drone/noise style, I think. If you listen to Boris or Earth, there's high gain stuff with like, one chord played which lasts for a minute or more. I think the effects loop for the lead in Boris is Dynacomp -> Big Muff -> Another Big Muff -> Boss OD-3 -> some delay, for the near-forever sustain. Just wondering what else is out there besides the Dynacomp that can do this, and what the differences in other stuff would be.

-thi

...but I use an EQ pedal for that... I also use it as a straight boost, but it works well for goosing a distortion pedal... for gainy sustainy leads I run it after a DS-1 with the mids scooped a bit, it just makes my sound bigger fuller more sustainy without squashing to much as a comp would there (Like my CS-3). I use the DOD FX40b, I got it for $20 bucks off Ebay. My rig is: Ibanez Artcore --> Love Pedal Fuzz50--> Boss Ds-1---> Ringer clone---> EQ---->Chorus/Delay---> Winnie Thomas 18 Watt 1x12 Mini Plexi amp (2xEL84).

 

[HBob]

You also might try a noise gate. Sounds nuts, eh? I got a HUSH noise gate recently and it really allows you to run two high gain devices together where trying to do that without the gate would be all squeals. It allows you to get pretty sick stacking pedals or running a high gain pedal into a high gain amp.

 

[Franklin]

Analong Man has a Bi-Comp, double squishing sustain action going on there!!

 

[msp]

Yeah, the script logo's really good for that app. Chickn Pickin, too. Not a tone-sucker in bypass mode- in fact, I kinda like what the buffer does to my guitar tone.

The Boss CS-2's also a good choice. You can really crank up the sustain. It's really good for those fake pedal steel licks, too.

Neither would be my first choice for clean/jazz tones, but you don't need bells & whistles when you're working w/tons of distortion.

They're also pretty much industry standard for the 'nashville' sound.

politefully disagree

the orange squeezer is really the origonal chicken picken sound because the attack/release are set so quickly.......ross is a verry over compressed squishy sound with a slower release and decay setting.................you need attack and dynamics with chicken picken

ross clones that are more dialable like the keely and analogman (or have atleast an attack knob) can help to acomplish this but its not that easy to get that sound with the origonal mxr/ross design (unless you have a sweet clean boost or high end boost infront of it maybee) i have owned both origonal mxr and ross......my analogman bicomp sound much better than either of them................imho

also the amp you use probably plays a bigger part in the nashville sound more than the compressor... tele into a blackface fender

 

[MarkWorth]

i like my keeley COMP

 

[Deaj]

The AnalogMan Bi-Comp will cover alot of territory. The ROSS side does the chicken-pickin' thing right. The Juicer side is my favorite compressor circuit ever. It just sounds so organic! An OS type compressor make a great boost for high gain tones and will sustain forever in this application. The Bi-Comp has a waiting list but I believe the Mini Bi-Comp (same circuits in a smaller enclosure with the ROSS attack control as an internal set-and-forget control) can be had without delay.

 

[bobbtoz]

The Maxon CP9 Pro works pretty good.

 

[rockon1]

Compressor...nah just a Fernades sustainer! Drone on!...and on...and on....!

 

[dinrodef]

There's lots of ways to skin a cat

The fulldrive increases your sustain big-time if you turn down the gain and turn up the boost

I use a zvex super-hardon to beef up my leads and add sustain... find the spot where my amp starts to feedback and just alter my pick attack gets me AWESOME sustain ...etc.