I was wondering how many Stick players play with a compressor. I am just curious what are the general preferences?

I have been playing with a Boss compressor placed at the beginning of an analog pedal chain. I found that it is almost necessary to bring up the volume of harmonics and various techniques. I took out the compressor to improve my playing. Later, I added a Korg Pandora at the end of my chain as a headphone amp. Now I am back to compression. I have been experimenting with preset effects (including digital compression) after a short chain (Preamp>BigMuff>Phase90>Delay).

Now, I'll be experimenting (and polling) for a while.

I use an AnalogMan compressor for the bass side and usually only with the MXR Phase 90.
Yeah,THAT SOUND.

Isn't that essentially the original Elephant Talk sound (DynaComp>Phase90)? I have been reading a lot of great reviews of the various AnalogMan Compressors.

Yes Rob , that is it ! The Analog Man compressor is my favorite . I also have the Keeley and the reissue of the MXR "script" comp, the AM is by far the most useful with the addition of an attack control,it also does not color the tone with treble like the Keeley .

Sorry to disagree, but the AM clearly does cut off a fair amount of bass frequencies when used on the bass side.

Olivier

I usually use just a little bit of compression at the end of my signal chain. My Trace Elliot Amp has a built-in two-band compressor which sounds quite nice with the Stick.

I only rarely use heavy compression. If I do it's either as a sound effect for that squished sound with more than endless sustain, or to tame the peaks of heavily used filter effects.

Nothing to be sorry about,however I did say "it also does not color the tone with TREBLE like the Keeley ."

In my setup ,with a Marshall Super Bass half stack ,I do not notice any bass cut when using the Analog Man, but with a proper bass amp that may happen.

I Voted for rack analog because my favorite compressor I use live is the tube limiter in the SWR SM-400 amplifier head.

But, when mixing recordings, I'm a huge fan of multiband compressors like the WaveArts MultiDynamics. These are incredibly helpful for bringing out the essential elements of the full-range signal in a dense mix, without bringing out conflicting sonic elements.

Hi,

I use two DBX160A (one for each side of the Stick), not as a pumping effect, but as a subtle optimizing of the basicly clean sound. Real easy to use.

4:1 Ratio with maximum of 4db reduction playing the 7th and 8th string around the 7th fret on my Grandstick.

The sound gets clearer, more focused and a lot easier to handle while practise, recording or just having fun.

Cheers

I like a light touch of compression for my Stick tone. I play through a laptop so I guess the poll alternative "Rack Multi-effect (digital)" would best cover my rig. But actually I don't think it matters as much whether the effect's active components are "analog" or "digital" (except for taste in sound, of course) or if the effect is mounted inside a floor box or stuffed into a rack. What I find more interesting is how we use compression; stuff like...

- if you compress only the Stick input or if you also compress other effects
(i.e. using the compressor as an integrated part of a signal processing chain. Ex: going "STick-->Reverb-->Compr-->Amp"),
- if you compress both sides individually,
- if you compress both sides together (carefully balancing "a musically pumping sound"),
- if you apply multi band compression (to each side separately or/and to the summed both side output signal)

I do all of this (and some more), but not at the same time and not in the same effect chain patch. My applied use of compression tends to change with the music and my interpretation of it; just as your use of well pre practiced playing techniques do vary with the interpretation )