This is why you need a COMPRESSOR

compression it can be used in so many ways that I decided to make this video I will go over some of the most seen usages from the use in the studio the thing I always use when I record guitars or the actual use of a compression pedal on your pedal board which I'm always a bit in debate about whether or not I should put one on my board but aren't will constantly doing that about everything [Music] before we decide when or where we'd like to use compression we need to understand what it actually does with the sound here I've got a recording channel provided by the kind folks from Diggler audio on ER parts from preamp and EQ is a brilliant compressor that will help us demonstrate both compression actually does so let's record some acoustic guitar and now I'm recording without any compression at all [Applause] [Music] and now let's turn on the compression [Music] all right brilliant the bigger the waveform the bigger the amplitude the louder so now we see both waveforms look totally different and they sound different this is the first one with no compression with compression so what the compressor is actually doing it's squashing the sound to get rid of the loud peaks and transients a transient is the initial attack of a sound so a clap has a very loud transient where a hum like hum is a very brief transient so we can see the peaks from waveform 1 are way higher than the peaks from waveform two if you look at the meter when I'm playing you see it's moving and the numbers on here represent the amount of decibels that's taken away from the sound so from just a tiny bit let me give an example [Music] - quite a lot [Music] but by playing like this we're not only getting rid of the peaks but we're also lowering the overall volume so let's have a look at the squash together again what if we bring up the volume with 60 B so now the peaks of this clip are roughly at the same height and the peaks of this clip but let's have a listen at the difference so that no compression [Applause] [Music] compression [Music] so now we brought up the overall volume and it sounds much beefier more fat because the ringing part of the chord is brought up by 60 decibels let's do one more example but now let's totally turn the compression to like 10 [Music] so now it sounds more controlled more in balance but also less changes in the volume so we lowered the beaks in volume and we brought up the quieter parts squashing it together and that's basically what a compressor does but why would you want that well there are many reasons why it would benefit the sound the guitar is a perfect example of an instrument where the initial attack of the sound again called a transient is way louder than the rest of the recording so the chord ringing is way less loud than the initial attack not as much as with drums for example but still the transients are loud so sometimes you want to tame those Peaks a little bit you're controlling the sound a little more so we can hear everything the guitar is saying even the quieter parts and we're not getting blown away by the louder parts so speaking about understanding on my vocals right now is a fair amount of compression too because sometimes I'm moving away a little bit further away from the mic or getting a little bit closer to the mic and I want to be roughly at the same volume that's why I always put some compression on my voice there's that now about the labeling all compressors have different labeling and work slightly different but the basic idea is always the same the threshold determines when the compressor actually starts working if you play guitar very quietly the compressor does nothing then if you really dig in it starts reducing the volume of the peaks and then there's attack it basically determines how fast the compressor starts working when the signal is coming through so if you want to get rid of the initial part of the guitar the transient you set the attack to fast let me give you an example so if you like to switch to fast this sounds a little bit flatter and you see that second hit is louder whele [Music] just so compressed with a fast attack right then there's also release that determines how fast the compressor goes back to zero after being triggered and last but not least heirs ratio and the ratio is the amount of reduction it applies to the signal for any given increase in guitar signal so the louder the guitar the more gain reduction a low setting will reduce to volume slightly whereas a high setting will completely squash that sound let me give you an example sales in a listen how boring and lifeless this sounds [Music] that's not what we want but that's compression too so over compressing people call this a sausage sometimes because the visual represents a little bit the shape of a sausage so with how can we use a compressor battle for the electric guitar does it work the same well let's find out so the workings for an electric guitar are definitely the same but the uses can vary a compressor pedal can be used more as an effect too than just a production or a mix technique so here I've got the callee 76 and this is the perfect example of a pedal type compressor so the thresholds of this pedal is dialed in with an input volume so the hired input the easier it compresses and the output determines how loud it gets sent to the next battle so then there is of course attack and release as we discussed and ratio so a common thing you see a compressor pedal used for is when playing a rhythm guitar to make sure we're getting a nice balanced smooth out for example like this [Music] so now I am playing with real dedication a hundred percent let's see what the waveform is doing and now 25 for 20% you see it's almost as loud as the first one because the compression is squashing the loud signal and pulling up the loud the quiet signal [Music] still pretty loud now do the same with no compression probably high peaks now very quiet you see so this is with no compression difference between loud and weak is pretty pretty astonishing and this difference is almost nothing so that's what the compressor is doing when playing rhythm and now we can also decide how much attack we want because for a funky rhythm we need those transients to get the groove don't we this is attack as fast as possible so almost no transients [Music] and now let's turn the transients back in by dialing back the attack sounds way more lively so perfect for rhythm guitar to keep the attack a little bit higher takes the compressor longer to kick in anyways moving on so when you're compressing too much old life gets sucked out of the sound and this is something you should avoid if it's not an interesting choice a good solution to this is the blend knob that's incorporated in this pedal so we can mix the dry signal so the guitar with no compression at all with the sound of the compressed signal so now we've got a super compressed sound kills me but let's dial in some of the original guitar [Music] see everything is compressed now in 50% parallel compression so now we're still getting a sweet attack of the guitar but also the full-bodied compressed signal there's a lot of pedals that don't have a blend knob so then you have to fiddle around with the attack knob to get some of those transients back so but if you really like that super compressed sound you can use that as an effect by itself so you're generating way more sustain that way bumping the volume of the trail of the guitar sound let me just record it so you can see how it looks like you see an out without compression but look totally different Oh [Music] you see degrees is pretty quickly and over here the over driven or distorted guitar signal is already highly compressed by itself the overdrive is a result of cutting down the peaks of the audio signal I mean nothing can be more spiky and ear-piercing than a super loud clean guitar tone isn't it so dining in a compressor to an O driven sound is something that needs to happen with care and one thing to consider is the placement of the compressor pedal in the chain I usually put it in front of the overdrive to control the clean sound so let's say we put a compressor after the overdrive now what we have is that we can still use all the dynamics the guitar has to offer and use the natural overdrive dynamics but still keeping the volume control after the overdrive so if you play around with getting cleaner tones with volume port for example or picking lightly this might be a solution so let me demonstrate that so now is the overdrive in front of the compression nice controlled but when I turn down the guitar a little bit nice clean sound [Music] and when I put the compressor in front of the overdrive it will bring the quiet sound back up so it still it's over driven by the pedal now we've got more control over the over driven sound so also fun to experience with so of course the best thing for you is to go out and check it yourself how you like it some people just don't like the compressed sound others can't live with it without it I mean yeah without it so I'm a bit of both world I guess always been in debate whether or not I should put one on my board but that's just a thing heat artists do as I told you so I have a great day everyone thank you so much for watching this compression video and don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell thing if you want to be notified my videos it would mean a lot thank you so much you have a great day and see you next time Cheers

Channel: Paul Davids

Views: 665,591

Keywords: compressor, compression, paul davids, guitar lesson, guitar, acoustic, electric, tegeler audio, cali76, transient, attack, release, ratio, parallel compression, punchy, beefy, fat, strum, peak, sausage, compressor pedal, what does compression, how does compression work, why you need compression, compression 101, pedal, guitar sounds, guitar tone, guitar effects, pedal demo, decibel, meter

Id: RfHA4OPfoi8

Length: 13min 38sec (818 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 23 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Clancy-2]

I already understood compressors, but I watched this anyways. Great information. He does a fantastic job taking the time to illustrate it. Thanks for sharing 👍🏻👍🏻