Why Studio Compressor Pedals Make No Sense

What about stacking the “rack” pedal following a stomp box comp? If the idea is to replicate a certain sheen or album sound the front end is only part of the sound; you also need the tape return with associated inserts.
I would say this is application specific such as making a stage performance match a recorded one.

How the hell are you still in business with all the bullshit that you’ve pulled?

Didn't Vertex used to sell a line of compressors called the Nyle that emulated an 1176 studio compressor? Kind of a weird change of tune now.

I agree pedal in front is the way to get the feel of a compressor while playing, but I have over the years used a rack compressor in the place of a pedal, the DBX 160XT, it is a feed forward compressor as well, I was using it simply because it had a lower noise floor for the not so quite old Marshall Super Lead a friend gave me when I was a teenager. But I still prefer the spank of the old MXR comps to boost the guitar's signal and sustain and leveling out my playing, the only downside is that if you hit the compressor really hard like I do, you lose the ability to control your dynamics with the volume knob. So to take full advantage of a good pedal compressor I use a nice gate in front of it and a volume pedal after it just to pull back if I need too with the loss of sustain on long notes.

“You’re not using the circuit in the way that it was intended, it sounds different to the established standard and you’re wrong to do so”…

cough*ECHOPLEXJUSTFORTHEPREAMP*cough

I thought it was about compressors not choures

I can’t hear compression

The Blues don’t make theoretical sense. Still amazing. These videos on compressors have major boomer vibes. so edgy bro

And what’s the solution now ?

But you didn't use an Origin Effects compression pedal on this video.

I've been finding with amp replacements like the Strymon Iridium or the analog Simplifier that putting a subtle compression on the guitar brings back some of the touch sensitivity of using a live amp in the room. Typically I use a studio-mode setting with the dry signal mixed in (parallel compression setting). This tends to be one of those "you feel it more than hear it" things but it does also help balance out the strings.

In my experience the orange squeezer type of compressor is my fave voicing for guitar compression.
JHS Pulp and Peel V4 is what I use and I think it’s perfect. Sultans and Peg is all you gotta hear to know what it’s magic is.
I use UAD 1176 in mix down or during tracking. Your take is spot on. The circuit is meant to be either post amp and usually after mic pre or in mix down.

This shootout really doesn't make any sense. You needed to compare a Cali76 with a Keeley or done some crazy impedance switching to have a rack compressor before the amp.

I barely hear the difference and that's only with both my pc volume turned up and my mixer volume turned a little more. I don't hear the price difference. Admittedly I'm a two-bit musical engineering muggle, but from a consumer stand point can't justify it. I get that if you're a professional and you want that 1% difference in sound just like with pickups and guitar wood.

as a guitar player and producer, I had to laugh when I saw the marketing on these studio grade pedals. you nailed it. these will never give the "compressor effect" I love and need in my gtr signal chain. it almost makes no sense to me.

Pedals are overly complicated, and songs aren't getting any better. Guitar tones also aren't getting better. Esoteric pedalboards with hundreds of options owned by players who don't write or perform original music. Holy shit, we have lost the plot.

You know what didn’t make sense to anyone at the time? Why you would take a guitar amp and play it so loud that it distorts the ‘authentic’ tone of the amplifier.

But people loved that stuff and it changed music.

Let’s look forward the future by making content saying ‘How to Maximize the Effect of Studio Compressor Pedals’ instead of ‘This is how the old breed did it and you’re all obviously trying to capture their tone so you’re wrong’

You made a great case why I would buy the pedals 😂😂😂😂😂.

Hey I paid for a $20 Patron membership about a week ago and have received no responses to my question(s) nor have I seen one iota of activity over there whatsoever. What gives?

For a budget player like myself who does not record (yet), I cant help but feel like the differences are subtle enough as to be imperceptible in a live mix. It is however, educational for me. Thank you Mason.

the pedalindustrie know what works and they work it hard 😂😂😂😂

Your hair is pretty

Thanks for this video. So what compressor pedal should I get now? Can you suggest one with a blend knob?

I think you make some great points but I feel it kinda misses the mark when we don’t hear these pedals that claim to emulate the studio compressors, they might still be great compressors to put in front of the amp and give the same punch. Maybe another video comparing the studio compressor pedal and where you would put that in the chain to the actual studio compressor of same name

Obviously this is a guitar oriented channel and the title of the video is clickbaity, but there are good uses for some of these pedals outside of simply guitars

Look here, Sport. I don’t want to use a typical pedal compressor because I don’t want ANYTHING SCREWING up my dynamics before the amp sim I’m using (maybe a Tonex for example, or a UA Ruby) but I want a rack style compressor AFTER THE AMP/CAB sim so that when my guitar volume knob goes down to clean up my amp, it doesn’t get lost, and when I crank it up and pick hard, it doesn’t get too loud.


This is not hard to figure out.

Sack the first two guys. The 2nd guy should buy a tuner. That was horrific.

Dynacomp forever...

Great video. I have a Boss CS3 and I have it dialed in just right, and recently, I tried the Keeley Compressor Plus. It was very good, but it seems to add a lot more top end than the Boss, which sounds a bit warmer to me. Where I live, we don't have a whole lot of access to some of the top names in the business, so if I have the time to go out of town, I can try different things. I think the pedals like the Boss, Keeley, and Ross sound, to my ears, more attuned to guitar in front of an amp, as opposed to basically having a "kitchen sink" pedal that does everything and you have to go into a rabbit hole trying to figure it out.

Lowell George used 2 MRX Dyna Comp pedals sometimes together

For me, as a bass player, these serve very distinct purposes: The pedal compressor right after the bass is set to a high ratio like 8:1, fast attack, fast release, to catch peaks an minimize the output difference between low and high strings. The studio one has a much lower ratio, 2:1 or 4:1 slower attack, fast release and threshold in a way that is almost always compressing making the whole bass tone very stable to always be there supporting the song.

It seems to me that the point of this video is that it’s impossible to get the sound of a studio compressor after the mic on cabinet by placing a comp on the way in to an amp. I understand that.
Are you asserting that people are putting the MAX or the Cali76 in front of the amps by being duped into thinking they are getting that famous studio sound? Even if someone thought that’s what they were getting if they bought such a pedal and liked the sounds they could get… do you see what I’m getting at? It’s entirely unclear to me what point you are making as you are coming into the comments saying you have nothing against the Cali76 or otherwise. If the framing of this video was more about establishing historical context for the normal use of studio style comps post mic it would make more sense. But the content of the video zeros in on the single sound of squashing, which is by no means the only sound front end or post fx comps are attempting achieve.
It’s just a weird video, super unfocused and weirdly combative.

The whole thing about the trend of studio compressors as pedals, is about putting it in front of the amp to create a unique sound. Not somehow duplicating the post effect sound. And it’s been clear in the marketing of these pedals like the MAX or the standalone 1176 are attempting to demonstrate how many diverse sounds compressors can make by experimenting with their placement. Asking the question “would it be cool to do a FET style 76 compressor on the way in” is a question worth asking and the trend is obviously paying off with people really liking the Cali 76 and Max.

sorry if confused here but are there any pedals that claim to be an 1176 etc / studio rack gear compressor?

Join us next week to hear Mason explain why tape delay pedals and Leslie simulators “make no sense.”

The compressor pedal that you’re referencing has a Dynacomp model for before an amp, and if you check out some other videos you’ll see the 1176 & LA-2A were meant to be put after an amp modeler pedal, or at least that was my understanding. I think you maybe missing the point.

I’ve tried probably a dozen of the top compressors as well as the three cheap ones you showed and then I found the UAFX Max. Best pedal compressor ever. Noise is one significant problem I’ve found with those cheaper models and the UA, like the Cali76 has a much lower noise floor. The clarity and dynamics with this pedal are miles above the others. My tone improved at least 20% when I added the Max. I realize the Max doesn’t have the same circuitry as the rack mount units costing many thousands of dollars but for $300, UA emulates it extremely well and again, it’s head and shoulders above those cheap ones.

Dyna comp is very warm. Keeley is very crisp. 1176 did both

They all sound like Shit!

A local guitar player I admire said to me the same you just mentioned when I asked him about why he used both compressors ( pedal first and plug-in at mixing)
"Dyna for the squash and 1176 for compression" referring how the 1176 actually made the leveling of the signal and the pedal was for the noticeable "punch"

So how is the title not click bait?

I'm not a big fan of compressors on electric guitar BUT if I were in the market for one, I'd definitely try to pick up a used (discontinued) Black Finger tube compressor pedal from Electro Harmonix.

It is better to use a pedal before the amp for a more natural sound. Using compression before and after is redundant. Why compress something that is already compressed? Although the 1176 can be good for guitar, it is only useful when you don't have a pedalboard. However, who doesn't play with pedals these days? If I had to shape the sound, I would prefer to use EQ or a band compressor. But here's the thing: 90% of the sound of an electric guitar comes from what you do before and with the amp itself. If your amp doesn't sound good, no amount of added racks will make it sound better at the end.

I have owned 8 different compressor pedals and tried dozens more over the years. It is my favorite effect/processor. I currently use a Cali76 Stacked Edition and it is absolutely the best compressor pedal I have ever used. I use it in conjunction with an active RMC hexaphonic (acoustic) pickup. From the same Godin guitar I send a mini humbucker signal into a Jackson Audio Bloom pedal as well, which has an optical compressor circuit. It also sounds great, especially with the more familiar sound of a magnetic pickup. I understand what you are saying, but now I am thinking of simply running a second studio rack grade compressor in a pedal AFTER my UA Dream '65, as that might just be a perfect combination of both types of compression in a signal chain. This way, I can have a polished studio sound and a switchable over the top compressed tone for songs that work with it. I wish you had shown that in practice in this video, rather than trying to throw shade at Origin Effects, Universal Audio, Source Audio, Darkglass Electronica and others for designing rack units in pedal form. Why not design and build/sell your own instead, or at least explore how to alternatively use this rather recent innovation? I will not be buying vintage amps and rack gear any time soon, but I am deep in the pedal market; as we are in a platinum era of effects and processing.

Interesting video, I preferred the LA-2A overall. But the Keeley Compressor lived up to it's popularity - sounded quite a bit cleaner than the MXR than I expected. My main takeaway was that I don't really like the stock sound of the MXR Dynacomp. But the Keeley is a significant improvement. The Dynacomp sounded quite roughly processed, but in a more unpleasant way than say the 1176 - which definitely changed the character of the signal, maybe added some excitement/distortion, but not necessarily in a bad way. Just happens that today I got sick of trying to find a second-hand Cali'76 Europe that wasn't stupid expensive. Started looking at some of the LA-3 clones, like the G.A.P. one. But in the end, had a dig around, and always liked the Diamond Yellow Opto sound. Somewhere local had a Mooer Yellow Comp clone for £50, tried it, bought it instantly. Because, it does compress effectively, but without obvious artefacts; it's clean/transparent sounding and it's practical: cheap, small, convenient on the pedal board. Before that, had been thinking about the Keeley, because people seem to rate it. But was put off by expecting it to sound quite rough, like the Dynacomp - but it's sound is more refined.

Yea, but people arent putting their Cali 76's at the end of their chain. They are putting it up front, like any other comp. I dont get the point here.

Well.............I still REALLY love my Bass Cali76, and I definitely feel the difference it makes to sound. I've owned MANY other compressors. Probably my favorite before was my Demeter Compressor, but with the two additional knobs of a Wet/Dry blend, and the Low Pass Filter, the Bass Cali76 just brings it to another level.

I'm not someone who is trying to imitate famous tones. While I love the sound of the Dyna Comp, I highly prefer the sound of the classic studio compressors (based on these musical samples). My choice is the Strymon Compadre--Loads of presets with MIDI and two foot switch-able settings without MIDI. And it has a wide range of tonal/dynamics possibilities (PLUS a highly tweakable boost). That said, this was a great video and I enjoyed the playing!

Excellent comparison and great presentation! Love the Keeley in front of the amp, LA2A in the mix for depth. Will have to get a Dyna Comp now, sounded amazing

I’ve seen multiple interviews with Brad Paisley and he clearly says he does not use compressors at all because he gets enough compression from his amps because he turns them up so loud.

If you find a pedal you like, use it. Regardless of what anyone else thinks.