How to Use a Compressor When Recording

One type of guitar effect that many guitar players struggle to get to grips with is the humble compressor. Love them or hate them, they have a multitude of uses in a recording situation.

A compressor, at it’s core, is a type of effect that levels out the dynamic range of a guitar part. It makes quiet parts louder and louder parts quieter. It can be used to subtly shape your tone and add sustain, or it can create tight, squashed funk tones.

The St James Compressor

The compressor in the St James Suite sits inside the Pre-FX block. This is a simple 2 knob compressor that is a great starting point for anyone new to the world of compression.

The Comp knob controls the threshold of the compression. This is the imaginary volume ceiling where compression starts to take effect. The lower the ceiling (by setting the control higher) the more compressed the tone with less dynamic range. The higher the ceiling (by turning the control lower) the more headroom you have before compression takes effect.

This control also has a built in makeup gain which boost the signal to compensate for any overall volume lost by compression.

The Blend knob is a wet/dry blend where you can have totally dry or 100% compressed, and you can also set this I the middle for Parallel Compression which is when you mix a compressed signal with a non-compressed signal.

The two position switch allows you to change between Fast and Slow attack times. Slower attack times are more dynamic and articulate, great if you’re playing lead guitar or any clean passages where you want some note bloom but with a little control. The Fast setting is a much tighter, snappier compression which is great for snappy single notes and funky chords.

Compressing Clean Guitars

Compression on clean guitars is a mainstay for many guitarists. Adding compression can give a new life to your clean tones.

Slower attack times with lower compression settings work great for slightly fattening up clean guitar parts. This is great for strummed rhythms or any guitar part that you want to just add a little vibe to. It keeps the overall dynamic range fairly intact while just taming any parts that are too loud or quiet.

Faster attack times with higher compression levels are perfect for snappy picked notes or funky rhythms. The higher compression settings makes every note a uniform volume and removes a lot of the dynamic range. This gives you a very uniform sound to your playing. The fast attack settings also mean the compression kicks in right away so it feels tighter to play.

Compressing Overdriven Guitars

When it comes to adding compression to overdriven guitars, you don’t want to compress as heavily as you might with a clean guitar. When you push a tube amp to the point of overdrive, there is already an element of natural compression happening inside the amp. This is why overdriven sounds feel easier to play than clean sounds. The natural compression makes it feel more forgiving.

You can use a slower attack with a low compression to add some sustain to your lead lines or a faster attack with a medium compression level to tighten up any riffs that you need to capture some articulate picking on.

Try not to over compress your overdriven tones because they will feel very squashed and lose their organic sound.

Parallel Compression

Using the Blend control you can unlock the world of Parallel Compression. This is when you take a blend of your existing, dry tone and a compressed tone and blend them together. The result gives you a fatter sound with more sustain, but retaining a lot of the dynamic range and organic feel of a non-compressed tone.

When setting up parallel compression, start with the Blend at 12 o clock, this gives you a 50/50 split between wet and dry. If you want it to be a little drier and more organic, dial this back to the left, if you want to add compression push it to the right. Find the perfect blend that feels and sounds good for you.

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About the Author

This article on how to use a compressor when recording was written by Leigh Fuge. Leigh is a professional guitarist and content creator and also works alongside musicteacher.com to create guitar focused, educational and entertainment content.

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