The TG Guide To Effects: Compression

Meet the unfairly maligned Swiss Army Knife of your pedalboard

Compression: it’s on every recording you hear, but remains something of a mystery to many musicians. First, let’s look at what it does. A compressor reduces the dynamic range of your signal, squashing the louder peaks and forcing your guitar sound to a more consistent level. When the sound goes above a certain level (the threshold), the volume gets turned down. Studio compressors do this with a range of controls – threshold (how much of your signal will have compression applied to it), ratio (how much compression is applied) attack (how quickly the compression kicks in after reaching the threshold level), release (how quickly the signal level returns to normal after being compressed), output or ‘make-up gain (this adjusts the outgoing volume of the signal to make up for the gain reduction applied).

Guitar compressor pedals come in a few different forms, some with simplified control layout, others with studio-style controls. The MXR Dyna Comp, for example, features just output and sensitivity controls, while others offer control over the attack, or a blend control to mix your effected signal with your dry sound.

With a few different settings, you can use a compressor as a complete problem-solver: boost your volume, add pick attack, fatten your sound, get more sustain and a lot more!

you can use a compressor to boost your volume, fatten your sound, get more sustain and a lot more!

1 Sustain This will add more compression to your signal, so cranking it up will make the effect more noticeable both in terms of feel and sound 2 Attack The attack control governs how quickly the compression kicks in – it’s measured in milliseconds....