COMPRESSION MAY BE the least understood of effects. The easiest way to comprehend it is to think about turning a simple tube amp up. As you increase the volume, the amp gets louder and the tubes begin to distort. Past a certain point, however, the distortion increases but the amp ceases to get any louder. That is compression at work. The tubes have placed a cap on how loud the signal can get. This effect can increase the apparent sustain of your guitar, and a compressor pedal performs a similar function, but without the distortion.
Cutting my teeth in the clubs of Manhattan, where any kind of volume is frowned upon by the people who live upstairs, I relied on an MXR Dynacomp, the only compressor pedal available at the time, to supply sustain at low volume. While the Dynacomp offered only two controls - volume and sensitivity - the Crazy Tube Circuits Golden Ratio compressor offers the tweak-ability of a studio rack compressor or a sophisticated plug-in simulation.
This story is from the July 2022 edition of Guitar Player.
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This story is from the July 2022 edition of Guitar Player.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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