How to reduce compression on distorted rigs

  • Hi.
    I find that distorted rigs have to much compression. I don't refer to just extremely high gain rigs. There are thousands of really god sounding rigs with various gain, but I struggle to find ones that give me distorted sounds and a minimum of compression. I often end up choosing Rig by playability, not the sound quality. Has anyone come up with a way to reduce compression?
    -I mostly use guitars with PAF style humbucker or P 90. Montor out-ISP Stelth- Guitar cab
    /Hans J Umea Sweden

  • As always, your question is about using the right profile.
    Compression is a function of mainly preamp distortion.
    As a rule of thumb, choose a profile which has less preamp distortion (and thus less saturation and compression) and go from there.
    Playing such profiles LOUD will definitely get you in the ball park.
    Marshall JCM 800 style profiles are a good example of such profiles.

  • I'll echo Ingolf's comments about finding the right profiles, especially choosing ones that suit your taste. Personally while I think mbritts profiles sound great (and I've bought a lot of them) they're often a little compressed for what I want, especially in a live setting, in comparison to TAF profiles which I've found to feel more open (to me). Both very good and have their use cases but definitely have different feels.


    Apart from that it's worth checking the Compression setting in the AMP section, and some times the Definition parameter in AMP as well. While definition isn't really compression it can change the feel and overall tone of the profile significantly. After that the tube size and sag will have an effect but I often feel if I'm needing to tweak those (other than to fine tune) then I've chosen the wrong profile for what I need.

  • From the Amp Menu you can adjust the "Pick" a little to the right . It basically does exactly what you're talking about according to the manual


    Pick


    The “Pick” parameter allows you to control the level and sharpness of the pick attack independently from the sustained portion of the sound. The result is also independent from the amount of distortion. You can use this parameter to make clean sounds even more percussive without having to use a compressor. With fully distorted sounds, you can revive the attack phase of any notes that get drowned in the natural compression caused by distortion. If you set “Pick” to a negative value, it will soften the attack, resulting in a more fluid sound.

  • Yeah, I find I go for less gainy profiles for my hi gain stuff as I hit heavy gauge strings pretty hard to get the punch. Also, check for baked-in OD pedals as sometimes they can just ruin a decent profile (presumably for the reasons InGolf described above) unless they've got the right kind of settings. I had to sift through lots of stuff I didn't like to get the profiles I play.

  • Parallel path.


    You can't have classic distortion without "compression"-like effects. It's simply because it works by amplifying the signal till it clips, that means the quieter bits are still going to be loud.


    Many amp manufacturers have tried different things to help bring better touch dynamics and articulation to highly distorted tones. For the rest of us though the common practices are - simply reduce the gain (most people use way too much), increase the treble pre-distortion and reduce the mid's, mix in some clean signal with the dirty signal, or counter-intuitively reduce the gain and add compression.


    You could also try sidechained effects to a dry signal, using it as a volume control. I don't think you'll get much joy out of effects like an expander due to the clipped nature of the distorted signal. However judicious EQ may help reduce the flubbier signals coming out of the amp.

  • Oh I nearly forgot : Disable and super important - lock the noise gate in the input section. Noise gate is the enemy of articulated sensitive tone and volume control.

  • Love the info guys! Like Magnavox TV commercials in the early 90's... Smart, Very Smart!

    If you use FRFR the benefit of a merged profile is that the cabinet is totally separated in the profile.


    For my edification only... ;) Kemper/Axe-FX III/ Quad Cortex user

  • Hi.
    I find that distorted rigs have to much compression. I don't refer to just extremely high gain rigs. There are thousands of really god sounding rigs with various gain, but I struggle to find ones that give me distorted sounds and a minimum of compression. I often end up choosing Rig by playability, not the sound quality. Has anyone come up with a way to reduce compression?
    -I mostly use guitars with PAF style humbucker or P 90. Montor out-ISP Stelth- Guitar cab
    /Hans J Umea Sweden

    I struggle with this as I am playing my powerhead through a recto cab, using profiles designed with V 30 and recto cabs..Even usin g "Live ready" profiles...There is a bit of compression that affects the overall dynamics, especially when playing live and loud with a competing 50 or 100w tube head (Boogie MKIV in my case).This is the only area I feel the Kemper doesn't shine (it shines 110% everywhere else).. Playing loud helps, it's usually at low to mid volumes...