# 2 compressors, 1 Pedal board



## Starquasi (Feb 11, 2009)

I'm thinking of having dual compressor board. One would be always on, set for an low compression setting, and placed just after my main crunch/rhythm overdrive box. This would balance the clean/dirty volume. 

The other would be after the first compressor and used for all those "squashed" chicken pickin' solos I try to play.

Anyone have an experience using two compressors on their pedal boards? Which compressors do you use?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Probably the first time I've ever heard of anyone feeling the need for more than one compressor on a pedalboard (although I suppose one could count the Analogman Bi-Comprossor as two different compressors). That doesn't mean it's "wrong", just the sort of fine distinction that a great many players never get around to make, probably because they have a hard time grasping compression in the first place, in comparison to their studio brethren.

If you were part of the DIY world, then it would be as simple as adapting an existing circuit to have two presets, the same way we now see tremolos with 2 preset speed/depth settings that can be selected by stompswitch.

Compressors CAN have different feels, partly as a result of the way in which the sidechain extracts the envelope, partly because of the control element they use (LDRs, OTAs, FETs, etc.), and partly because of the time constants they use. The majority will have compression amount, and output level, though including gain-recovery time (usually labelled as "Attack") and other control options (clean-compressed blend, tone) has become more apparent in recent years. Still, even with all those controls, not every compressor absolutely nails every conceivable sound one might want.

The major distinction is likely to be the time constants. The MXR Dynacomp, Ross, and similar 2-knobbers, have usually gone with a long gain-recovery time, making them optimal for hanging onto a single note, with a bit of finger vibrato, for a long time. Crappy for chicken pickin, though, which demands a very fast recovery time. That's where the Orange Squeezer comes in, and that's why Analogman has the Bi-Comprossor (a squeezer and Ross in one box).

The other major distinction is likely to be the extent to which the pedal will work to avoid the nearly inevitable treble loss that comes with heavy compression. There I am a little less informed, except to say that different pedals do better and worse jobs at fixing that generic problem.

But in general, wanting to have 2 compressors on your board is no less insane than wanting to have a mild overdrive, a distortion, and a ful-on fuzz on the same pedalboard...with all of the same weight, signal routing/patching, powering, and physical locating headaches.


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## georgemg (Jul 17, 2011)

I personally get by with one but Keith Urban has four in his set up (or at least did at one point - he seems to change his rig a lot). In the Premier Guitar Rig Rundown on YouTube for Keith's effects set up, his tech talks about the differences and how they layer them for different sounds. It might be worth checking out for some ideas.


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## ElectricMojo (May 19, 2011)

I've played a lot of Compressors lately.
My 2 favorites are the Wampler Ego Compressor and the Analogman Juicer.


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## Starquasi (Feb 11, 2009)

Thanks for all the replies. I currently use a Keeley 2 knob on my board. I'm using it for a soft compression (high attack/low release type setting).

The reason I was thinking about 2 compressors is that, like I mentioned, I would like to keep one on all the time to balance the clean & mild overdrive sounds. I find that I like having the always on sound, but sometimes i need to squish a little more.

I have access to a couple different flavours of compressor right now (Keeley 2 knob, Analogman Bi-Comp, Boss CS3) so I'll be setting up a test in the next couple of days and I'll report back some results.


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