Cool compressor use

    Hi,


    As some of you know, I've been fooling around with Michael Britt's Dumble profiles for some time. One of the sounds I'm after is the sort of clean sound that Larry Carlton has. A very warm and fat smooth clean sound for a humbucker set-neck guitar. Very defined with a clear and fast attack without being obnoxiously sharp.


    After a while I got 86% of the sound but not the feel. For this kind of sound I used a compressor before the amps when I used amps. It was either a Frantone Sandwich or a T-Rex Squeezer.


    So I put a compressor in stomp slot A of the KPA and set that up. Much better. Then I realized when I'm in the studio. I use my compressor before the amp and then the engineer use one compressor at the desk post amp. So I put another compressor in effects slot X and set that up.


    Bingo! I'm there. This is the sound and the feel I want. And it really lets me play the way I want to. It fattens it up and tames the peaks without impeding my dynamics. Great!


    Then, I remembered that Lowell George used two compressors in series so now I'm experimenting with that. Compressors in slot A and B and EQ in slot D for some pre-profile tone shaping and then a compressor in slot x. As I have all stomps and fx switchable by MIDI CC from my Rocktron All Access I can not use these three compressors in any combination depending on the sound and feel I want.


    I'm signing off as a happy man!


    Cheers,


    Mats N

    That sounds good, as i am into some kind of funk metal nowadays. heavy, but funky!
    will check this out ASAP. thx, Mats :thumbup:

    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.

    Quote from nightlight

    Yes, try out the compressor within the amp block for really musical results. It might help you free up one (or even two) FX slots on the Kemper.


    Yes, freeing up the slots is why I mentioned it.

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

    I use a compressor before the stack to shape the tone - after the stack is more for balancing out the tone a bit. I use very mild settings after the stack - pre-stack I adjust according to the tone I wish to receive. If the noise level after the compressor pre-stack is too high, I often use a gate after it. The KPA trademark compressor (in the amp section) is still something I need to experiment with.

    I need to spend more time tweaking my tone. I've not really done that for quite a while, and with all the new profiles I also want to find other options to kick things up a notch :D

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

    +1 for the compressor in the Amp section. I would love to see the Amp section compressor level midi programmable as well. I.E. when I roll in more gain using midi CC 72 it would be sweet if I could also roll off the compressor level at the same time.

    Quote from Booyah

    +1 for the compressor in the Amp section. I would love to see the Amp section compressor level midi programmable as well. I.E. when I roll in more gain using midi CC 72 it would be sweet if I could also roll off the compressor level at the same time.


    This is a great idea. Perhaps should put it in the section for Feature Requests...

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

    Quote from Zappledan

    Hey Mats, did you try using the compressor settings in the amp module for this?


    Yes I did, and I also use it but what that compression setting does is different from the stomp compressor.


    For example in this this Dumble rig I start out with the amp compression at 2.1. Then I add one, two or three compressors depending on what sound and feel I want.
    And as I use fairly mild settings with a clean sound, noise is not an issue for me.


    Cheers,


    Mats N