Compression before amp

[thenchel]

Heres what I want to do: Guitar to compressor to AMP to speaker cab to mic to Digi002.
Before I try this, I would like some opinions.
Will the compressor in this chain help me out at all? Because I feel that the sound coming out of the speaker cab ultimately may be need to be compressed with a plug in. I am trying to get the best possible sound before its mic'd.
I am thinking of doing this as I play guitar for live shows as well, not just for recording purposes.

[mindnoise]

HI,

maybe this will help you out:

compression: http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/articles3.htm

regs

[fredstarr]

I dont' believe this will help you, as you're not compressing the sound from the amp, but rather compressing the signal to the amp, which'll be altered anyway. For guitar (i play also) i lightly compress the mic capturing thea mp sound into PT just to prevent spikes or overloads.

The rest can be done in the mix - you may want to compress after the fact using a plug-in to have the performance sit better in the mix, and then EQ to taste.

I'm not sure what you mean by the amp sound needing to be compressed, but I can tell you that compressing the guitar before the amp in the signal chain isn't going to do much at all.

-fg

[thenchel]

thanks, the sound before the guitar is what i was questioning. THANKS!!

[tlester]

Try it... What's the sound you are going for? Compression before tha amp can be a very cool sound. Especially if you are going for a lead sound and the amp is a tube amp. With a tube amp, the more input signal the "dirtier" it'll sound (in a good way) and will have more sustain. If you hit a not on the guitar, it's lound and immediately starts to drop in signal. As the signal drops, so does the "dirtyness" and the sustain. If you compress the signal going into the amp, then as the compressor releases, the signal stays more constant. Therefore, can be dirty longer and sustain longer.

That's a practical reason for compression before the amp, but there are also very creative reasons. I.e. to get some "pumping", to get that funk guiar spank (slower attack, but heavy compression), etc... Here's the bottom line:

Compression before guitar amp is for the creation of the guitar sound.

Compression after the amp is for control.

-Tom

[ouijibill]

Compression before amp works great as long its a really good compresser and not a stomp box.

But getting your guitar signal to line level is tricky.
You need to hit a di then mic pre then compresser then you need to attenuate back to the amp.

Bringing the signal back down to your amp is the tricky bit because unless you have a reamp type box your signal will be noisy.

[lane]

I have just been recording a whole bunch of guitar tracks for a theatre SD job and i have just ended up turning the compressor off. I have a carl martin comp box that sounds reat live but i think what i have been noticing is way too much peaking in the initial transient (right at the pick sound. i am a bit of a 'tard when it comes to compression, i get it with acoustics and drums but sometimes it boggles me, so thanks for that earlier link in this thread. but it can be harder to control the guitar levels going into the 002 if your pick attack is heavy and you're using any compression at all. depends i guess.

[tommy gunn]

DO IT!!!...... but spend some time with it,,, alot of times you can use the compresser to enhance the nuances of your guitar---helps level out the strings and any notes that might be quiet on your guitar----also the attack and release settings can really help you get what your looking for slow attacks and quick releases can really give your guitar punch,,,,slow attacks slow release,, you get a dulled sound with lots of sustain.....


but like it was said earlier don't just put any comp in the line and expect those great things to happen! for the money, and really pretty much a must have studio tool is the RNC (really nice compressor) by FMR audio! it is a really sweat unit and it is very reasonable in price


good luck!

tommyg