Why Use a Compressor?
I’m a compressor nerd. I know it. In my editing suite for video, in addition to a Mackie ONYX mixer, I have a really old DBX Compressor / Expander because it makes good audio better, and I would prefer to get the audio right when recording than to have to use a stack of plugins in the editor after the fact, even though there are some that are excellent.
When I talk to other players, Compressors rarely come up as a “must-have” pedal and there are still lots of misconceptions about them. Whether you use or even like compressors, is absolutely and entirely your own decision. Whether other people use them, or any other tool is mostly irrelevant. Like I said, I’m a compressor nerd and try as many as I can in the hope of finding the next great thing.
To understand this affliction, let’s take a look at what a compressor actually does, what it does not do, and why it can be so hard to differentiate amongst the many options.
A compressor compresses a signal. Sounds simple enough, but how it does this compression is where the magic happens. The idea is to a signal with a very wide dynamic range, the difference between the loudest and quietest parts and bring them closer together. Typically we are looking for the maximum dynamic range, but very low volume signals can get lost in the noise background and very loud signals could push things into distortion where you do not wan it to happen.
All compressors use an algorithm of some type, in hardware or software or some combination thereof to make the compression happen. Unfortunately learning to get the most out of a compressor takes time and the usual approach of turning everything to full will result in an overly compressed sound that for the most part, you are going to hate because you have effectively squeezed the life out of it.
Moreover different makers take different approaches too compression. The old Ross compressors have established a cult like following and some folks love them. Choice of any signal modifier is always subjective. I am more inclined to like a compressor that sounds like the compressors of old from recording studios that increased sustain but not at the expense of loss of highs, brittleness or the dreaded “stuffed in a box” sound. All compressors of any real use will have configurable parameters. Those with only one knob may work for a particular guitar on a particular tune into a particular amp. I’ve tried a ton and have yet to find one that is really usable. By examining some of the parameters, you can make informed decisions on what would serve you best.
The Threshold defines at what point the compression effect is engaged. This level is actually measured in decibels and the compressor only kicks in when the threshold is achieved. Most guitar pedal compressors don’t express this in dB, but many have a threshold knob. They probably don’t call it threshold though, which is annoying.
The next parameter, which you will likely never find in an effects pedal is the Knee. This is common in studio compressors and it defines how the compressor transitions between when compression is not applied and when it is applied. Simplistically a soft knee makes for a smoother transition than a hard knee. A listener will hear a hard knee, but may not notice the soft knee.
The Attack parameter defines how long the signal takes to achieve the maximum set compression. Attack is typically a knob but the attack duration is actually measure in microseconds. The faster the attack, the faster the compression effect kicks in. If you have ever heard a compressor sound like it’s clicking when you pick a note, the attack is probably set too short, although in some units this happens when the knob is turned up. The TC Electronic Hypergravity compressor gets clicky quickly, one of the reasons that I do not care for it.
The Release time defines how long it takes before the compression effect releases the signal to an uncompressed state. Some folks find a longer release time increases the perception of sustain, although the normal practice is to use as short a release as possible without the compressor producing a pumping sound heard first in the bass frequencies. Like Threshold and Attack, the Release settings are going to very instrument specific with different pickups needing different settings for similar results.
Studio Compressors offer what is called the Compression Ratio, and some pedal compressors offer these as selections such as 2:1 or 4:1. The higher the ratio the more aggressive the compression effect. A 3:1 ratio would be medium compression, reducing the db above threshold by ⅔. 20:1 is very squishy compression and acts like a hard limiter. The way to find the ratio that works in your scenario is to experiment, but be aware that your compressor may not have the option to set this or use some idiotic naming to refer to this.
Compression lowers output because it is performing signal attenuation. Most pedal compressors have a gain control to allow you to boost the output to match the level of an uncompressed signal without any compressor in the chain at all. This gain control is not meant to be used as a boost function although some players use it this way. Personal choice on your part.
There are basically four types of Compressor. The old style tube compressors are slower to respond and tend to colour the sound. Some folks, like myself, love them. Others find them too warm. Personal choice. It is not likely to find a tube compressor on a pedal board or in a gig rack. Optical compressors use a light element and an optical cell to control the compression. Compressors like the Diamond and Diamond Jr, use optical elements. I like this type of compressor for guitar the most. The FET or Field Effect Transistor compressor is the sound that most players know. It uses transistors to act like tubes. The Universal Audio 1176 is the poster child for this kind of thing, and is on thousands of recordings. Jimmy Page used them when producing the Led Zeppelin records for example. VCA based compressors vary enormously in sound, from smooth and subtle to a very hot-rodded compression as found in the DBX 160 compressor used by tons of folks.
When using Compression, a little goes a long way. Professional recordists will often use different compressors at different places in the recording chain, rather than hitting the signal with a big compressor at the end. For a playing guitarist, this is less practical so a pedal or rack based compressor makes the most sense. Finding a compressor that suits your needs means trying them out in your working space, and this means having a good relationship with your seller so you can either evaluate before buying or buy and return in a simple turnaround process. If you are recording in a DAW, look to multi band compressor plugins that allow different compression settings for different frequency ranges, but that’s a different discussion.
I own and use both Diamond Compressors. I have auditioned a bunch of other units and returned all of them, even ones with great reviews in magazines and on websites. Partly this is because compression is subjective and partly because some so called compressors don’t do a good job at all. I have recently found the Empress lineup and have bought and kept their compressor. It’s about the same money as a Diamond Jr. but offers more control for the real compressor dork. I like the Empress a lot, and am comfortable recommending it to the player willing to spend time to learn to use it.
Quick Review : The Bends, the Guitar Compressor from Fender
Fender makes some pretty awesome guitars and amps so when I found a used version of The Bends in my local store, I wanted to give it a try.
For those for whom the idea of a compressor is not clear, or who just want a simple understanding of what compression really is and why one might care, I have a post on the subject coming.
Onto The Bends
The Bends is a traditional guitar compressor in that it uses an analog circuit not based on an op-amp. Unlike many similarly priced tools, it provides a lot of controls to the user including Drive (compression), Recovery (sustain), Level and the most critical to me, Blend, so you can mix the wet and dry signals to suit.
My first impression was that in what I expected would be middle ground, the unit seemed to be doing nothing. One use of a compressor is to provide more sustain and this one really needed the release knob cranked all the way up to really sense any significant change. Even at this point, the sustain, while improved, was not that much better. Considering that this is a new pedal, I expected more than what I would hear from a 30 year old MXR Dyna Comp. Not this time.
The unit is very quiet when engaged. Gradually increasing the drive control increases the amount of compression. Fully wet, the sound is unpleasant with a significant loss of highs. Increasing the blend in favour of the dry signal improves the overall tone, but instead of a nominal thickening as expected, it sounds more like a high pass filter.
When pushing the drive past the halfway point, distortion started to creep in. Compressors should not distort. They may add the illusion of boost at the expense of dynamic range (at least lesser ones do) but distortion is a no-no. This distortion while slight was enharmonic and not pleasing at all.
It was easy to use the Level control to match the engaged volume with the disengaged volume, and also to set it for a little bit of boost if one were to use the compressor only for solos, Personally I would rather use a proper boost pedal after a compressor but to each his or her own.
It was passable with high output humbuckers, but with lower output single coils such as in a Telecaster bridge, or Fender Vintage Noiseless in one of my Strats, I really had to crank the drive to get the compression to engage at all. The operating lamp is white when the compressor is on, and glows pink when compression is happening. In a perfect world you would have a scale to see how much compression is happening, but this is mostly on or off. In addition to the operating LED, you can activate LEDs built into each of the knobs. This is quite nice in a really dark environment, but you will not like it if you are using the unit as part of your practice rig at home because at night, those little blue LEDs are like runway lights. There is an external switch to turn them on and off.
While The Bends has more control options than a less expensive old style Dyna Comp, in my testing it did not sound as good. I felt I lost too much tone, particularly on single coils and did not get enough extended sustain. The distortion in the drive settings made this unit a non-starter for me.
The Bends sells for about $170 here in Canada and is widely available. if you like compressors, you might be inclined to give one a try in an amenable music store, but do some comparisons with other alternatives. I think that you can do better for less money.
Quick Look : Fender Acoustasonic Telecaster
Fender announced the Acoustasonic late in 2018 I think but I only saw one in real life for the first time about a month ago. The concept is very interesting. It’s an acoustic body with a soundhole, although very shallow, that also has a Telecaster style pickup near a definitely acoustic bridge setup. There’s a volume control, a mod control and a 5 position switch. At first glance it appears a bit confused about what it is, but what it is pretty darn agile.
The guitar, according to the folks at Anderton’s Music in the UK was designed by the same fellow who designed the T5 series while at Taylor. Where the T5 was an electric working at being an acoustic, the Acoustasonic is an acoustic working at being an electric. In my view anyway. The header image which is courtesy of Fender’s website, shows four of the variants and goes out of its way to make the point the the Acoustasonic is built in Fender’s California factory. That should mean superior quality, although I have never found an issue with any Fender product out of either the Mexico or outsourced Japan build locations. Being built in America does guarantee one thing, and that is a rather high price tag, relatively speaking.
The body shape is very Telecaster like, made from mahogany, but with a hollow interior that is visible via the sound hole. The sound hole is not merely a hole in the top but is interestingly sculpted into a funnel. The neck is a bolt on, and plays like a Telecaster and has the classic Tele headstock. The top of the guitar is Lutz spruce. There are three pickups. The first is a Fender Noiseless at the bridge, the second is a body sensing pickup to gather percussive rhythms as well as provide some ambience, and perhaps most innovative is the Fishman system. When I first played it, I noticed immediately that it was strung with acoustic strings, being Fender Dura-Tone 860CL strings 11-52s. They were a bit sticky, but that happens in guitar stores. A bit of Dunlop string cleaner and a wipe down would make a difference. The fingerboard is highly figured ebony, and I’m going to guess it;’s Macassar ebony because of the range of colouration in it. As I always do with any guitar, I played it completely acoustically for the first while. For me, a guitar has to have a really nice acoustic tone before considering pickups. Over forty years I have not been disappointed by using this method. What surprised me was the powerful acoustic voice that the guitar delivered. The thin body does not allow for the build of booming bass, but also does not create any tinniness in the high end. On its own, it’s really impressive and it is also incredibly lightweight. You could use this easily unamplified as a campfire guitar. Fender calls the design SIRS which stands for Stringed Instrument Resonant System. Whatever they call it, it works quite nicely.
The body is not precisely that of a Telecaster but is close. It differs in the chamfered upper rear bout which improves comfort and playability. The neck mount is relieved for easier access to the upper frets. The bridge is ebony with a Tusq saddle as are the bridge pins. The nut is Graph-Tech Tusq. The truss rod is a two way unit. The body finish is urethane.
The neck shape is a deep C neck profile, very much like you would find on a common Telecaster neck and has a 12 inch radius. My Teles all have V necks so this is a bit different for me. The satin finish is nice, but I would want to polish it up, and maybe even add some hard wax as I found the sample a bit sticky. I was not fond of the stock strings, but as we all know, string choice is a very personal thing. If it were mine I would likely swap these out for some type of coated acoustic string.
Don’t be expecting the sound of a “true” acoustic guitar. Sound needs space and the thin body does a great job but can only do so much. I played this side by side in an acoustic room at The Arts Music Store in Newmarket Ontario with a Boucher OM series acoustic. Both had mahogany bodies ands spruce tops. The Boucher was magical but only in direct comparison did the Acoustasonic come across as wanting. I should note that while I think the Acoustasonic is overpriced at about $2600 CAD, it was still over $1000 less than the Boucher. All things are relative.
I then plugged the Acoustasonic into one of Fender’s own Acoustasonic amplifiers. Here’s where some work needs to be done. The Acoustasonic needs a well-trained sales professional to take prospective buyers through its capabilities. It’s ability to have many voices when amplified reminds me very much of the Fishman Aura that I have in my acoustics rig. There is a lot in the guitar that is not immediately evident. I had to go online to really understand the capabilities and the video by Fender’s John Dreyer is a good start, but I also recommend the episode of Anderton’s TV featuring Lee and Danish Pete.
Fender calls the five position blade switch the voice selector. Each switch position can have two distinct voices controlled by the Mod knob, where one would normally find a tone control. The combination of the voice selector and mod knob is what makes me think of the Fishman Aura unit. The Mod knob offers an A and B voice and as you sweep from one end to the other, you mix the two voices. This is not click stop movements, it’s very smooth so you have great fine control for the room and the amp.
Position 5A emulates a dreadnought body with rosewood back and sides and sitka spruce top. Rolling into position 5B changes the body emulation to an Auditorium sized body and Alpine spruce top. While the Acoustasonic is really good purely acoustically, this is when you start to get the sense of what this guitar brings to the table.
Position 4A takes us to a small body emulation having maple back and side with an Engelmann spruce top. In my opinion, it is very accurate. Moving to position 4B we move to a dreadnought body with mahogany back and sides and a sitka spruce top, again very accurate in my opinion.
Position 3A is a dreadnought shape but this time with a Brazilian rosewood sides and back and sitka spruce top. Guitar nerds will say that Braz rosewood does sound different from Indian rosewood and I would agree. My D-28 is an old model made with brazilian rosewood and this emulation comes pretty close to it. Position 3B invokes the body sensor pickup so while the guitar emulation does not change, it now picks up your percussive touches on the body and definitely enhances harmonic overtones in a very pleasing way. In my opinion, if I were going for the sound of the braz rosewood, I would probably live in selection 3B just for those overtones.
Position 2A is a mic’d up mahogany dreadnought with sitka spruce top. Rolling to 2B invokes the bridge pickup for an electric tonality. Choice of amp will vary here.
Position 1A is a classic Tele sound and for this you will likely prefer an electric guitar amp. Position 1B is the fat Tele sound. The Dreyer video uses a lot of Fender branded effects here and I think we lose the real sense of the capability with the effects overplayed. I found this position, into an electric amp, (the excellent Fender Pro Junior) to sound very processed and I did not care for it myself.
It’s all these variants that I think requires a decent sales presentation in your music store. You won’t get this information easily at an online store, and unless you know the instrument already, an online buy could be a challenge for you.
There is only one output jack on the guitar, so if you will want to be able to do amp switching, I will recommend a decent ABY switching pedal to be part of your kit. Fender makes one, as one would expect. I use a Radial Bigshot ABY unit and find it to be consistently excellent. Fender’s Dreyer points out that if you do not have an acoustic amp, you can run the guitar directly into your PA rather than getting an acoustic amp and miking it up. I did not try this, but if I get an Acoustasonic for an offsite test, I will definitely do that with my Passport 500.
So was there anything that I did not like? I still think it is overpriced. It needs to drop below $2000 CAD to really get a fire under it. I would like to see a bit more attention to the finish on the back of the neck. I would also like to see a gloss option on the body as well as an option to get the guitar without the printed paper top layer. It feels cheap and looks cheap in real life. Colour is a personal decision but that snot green makes my teeth hurt. The sunburst is decent on screen but the sample that I saw live looked like one of those Gibson sunbursts from the early seventies where the sprayers worked blindfolded, it’s really heavy handed. In terms of getting information about the guitar, Fender’s website is terrible. Other than some pictures and a link to a single video, there’s nothing of consequence there. Perhaps they believe that there is margin in mystery, but it bugs me regardless.
I don’t think this is an every person’s guitar. My opinion, despite its work to be so many things is that the buyer is going to be a narrow vertical market. The price will encourage this. I am also disappointed that despite pricing it the same as their top line factory guitars, this guitar only comes with a gig bag* and not a proper hardshell case. Like the finish, it feels to me like they ran out of money about 85% of the way through the project and started skimping. I liked the guitar, although not enough to consider adding one to my collection. I wish Fender good fortune with it, because it is a step away from just doing the same things that they have always done. I also want to thank The Arts Music Store team for their patience while I did my research and test playing.
*please see my long review published in September 2019 for clarification of this