Solid gold beta

[garry warrington]

My compressor ( Rothwell love squeeze, and Pigtronix comp)

seems to make my Solid gold fx beta sound a bit muddy when compressor is placed after the overdrive in the signal chain.

Should i try a dual band comp?

[SumOne]

I'd put the compressor before overdrive. 

[garry warrington]

Still a bit muddy, tried that. Perhaps a different Comp?

I always thought the comp was at the end of a signal chain

[Boodang]

A bit random…. but if you want to sort out your compression properly get a tri band compressor. You can get some fancy rack units but also the tc electronic spectracomp does some toneprints that’ll probably cover your needs for less $. 

[garry warrington]

is the spectracomp tri band?

[LukeFRC]

3 hours ago, garry warrington said:

Still a bit muddy, tried that. Perhaps a different Comp?

I always thought the comp was at the end of a signal chain

The Beta has a bit of a bass boost … so maybe a compressor with a high pass filter…?

[SumOne]

4 hours ago, garry warrington said:

 

I always thought the comp was at the end of a signal chain

 

 

This from Origin Effects website:

 

 

"... where do you place the compressor in your signal chain? 

The Official Textbook of Pedal Placement™ states that, apart from vintage fuzz and wah, compression should always be first in the chain. For typical guitar use – that is to say, using your compressor as an obvious effect – we certainly agree. Compression reduces the dynamic range of your signal, squashing the peaks and preventing any notes from jumping uncomfortably out of the mix. For clean sounds, like those used by Funk or Country players, this is just what you want – a nice, even clean tone without slicing anyone’s heads off. 

If this is how you like to use your compressor, it will work best first in the chain. This is partly because the next pedal is likely to be an overdrive. Overdrive will also dramatically affect the dynamics of your signal, clipping the peaks and eliminating any difference between loud and quiet notes. As such, placing a compressor after your drive would not allow you to bring out all the snappy, funky bits of your playing – your overdrive has got rid of them all already!"

[Boodang]

7 hours ago, garry warrington said:

is the spectracomp tri band?

There are some tri band toneprints for the spectracomp. 

[ped]

9 hours ago, SumOne said:

 

 

This from Origin Effects website:

 

 

"... where do you place the compressor in your signal chain? 

The Official Textbook of Pedal Placement™ states that, apart from vintage fuzz and wah, compression should always be first in the chain. For typical guitar use – that is to say, using your compressor as an obvious effect – we certainly agree. Compression reduces the dynamic range of your signal, squashing the peaks and preventing any notes from jumping uncomfortably out of the mix. For clean sounds, like those used by Funk or Country players, this is just what you want – a nice, even clean tone without slicing anyone’s heads off. 

If this is how you like to use your compressor, it will work best first in the chain. This is partly because the next pedal is likely to be an overdrive. Overdrive will also dramatically affect the dynamics of your signal, clipping the peaks and eliminating any difference between loud and quiet notes. As such, placing a compressor after your drive would not allow you to bring out all the snappy, funky bits of your playing – your overdrive has got rid of them all already!"

Is it me or is that contradictory? Also I think it’s talking more about using compression as an effect, as opposed to how most bassists use it, as an overall tone shaper keeping everything in check in perhaps a more subtle way. Both OD and Fuzz will flatten your signal, so it doesn’t matter if comp is before or after that, I think after is better because you can let the fuzz and OD respond to dynamics which the best ones do really well.  

[SumOne]

33 minutes ago, ped said:

Is it me or is that contradictory? Also I think it’s talking more about using compression as an effect, as opposed to how most bassists use it, as an overall tone shaper keeping everything in check in perhaps a more subtle way. Both OD and Fuzz will flatten your signal, so it doesn’t matter if comp is before or after that, I think after is better because you can let the fuzz and OD respond to dynamics which the best ones do really well.  

 

Yeah, they do say 'apart from vintage fuzz and wah' and I guess it depends on how much overdrive before it steps into that territory, and they are talking about compression as an effect.

 

Personally, I don't use much compression at all unless I'm playing a clean sound, then it can be good subtlety, or as a noticeable squish effect. But if I use effects I'll put more like a Limiter with a high threshold at the end - just in case there's something like an overly 'peaky' envelope filter that needs taming. 

 

I think, @garry warrington, you might want a compressor with clean blend, or change the compression settings lower, or if you are using the Beta with a lot of overdrive perhaps you don't need a compressor at all (as it'll be compressing your signal anyway). The Beta does tend to be quite muddy sounding. 

[Supernaut]

Isn't the Beta itself acting has a compressor once it overdrives? 

[dannybuoy]

Yes and no… drive will squash but it doesn’t shape the envelope of the attack to make it punchy like a well set compressor.

 

I put a Spectracomp at the start of my chain, before my Beta.