Compressor/ limiters

[Mlazarus]

Plan:

 to have the led reading "MATCH" whether I play hard with fingers OR thumping and slapping or balanced attack

Problem:

as you know the dynamic range will drastically spike from hard finger playing to popping and slapping. Not good when gigging because you don't have control over the sudden dynamic change unless you use a volume pedal. I know some of you understand the ratio/threshold readings well because of your recording experience. Some of the other notices is that if your settings are randomly fixed, you may get a SQEEZED effect, which sounds muffled and can color the tone. Not to mention the ears are being compressed causing temporary or even permanent hearing loss and ringing. I don't want that!

Question:

How do you set the limiter/compression/ratio/attack and threshold properly to prevent dynamics spikes while preventing the squeezing effect which can cause problems with ears? You know, the head and ear pressure feeling of submerging into deep waters.

Note:

playing loud without a compressor does not affect one's ears compared to using one. Below is the picture of the setting i have for the Series 1. I have the settings to fix the finger to slapping dynamics but getting too much SQUEEZE and "UNDER WATER" pressure effects.

   

[David Houck]

I'm no expert, but here's what I think.  There are others here who are more knowledgeable than I, and if they see this thread and respond, go with what they suggest.

First, read the manual.  Compressors vary widely.  For instance, some have auto makeup gains and some don't.

Looking at the picture with the four knobs, I'm guessing that the three knobs on the left are one compressor and the peak limiter knob on the right is a second compressor.

A peak limiter is sometimes referred to as a brick wall limiter; it sets a point past which it won't allow any more gain.  Your gain staging and the first compressor should be sufficient such that a peak limiter isn't needed, or at most is there for safety.  I would start by turning it off.  The manual should say more about how this particular peak limiter should be used, but I'm guessing you won't need it or will need very little.

Initially, set the ratio around 2:1.  Turn the threshold knob on the left all the way down to -40.  If I understand your plan, while playing finger style, you'll want to raise the threshold until you just start seeing some gain reduction in the meter, then back off until there's none.

Now switching to slap, adjust the ratio until it sounds good to you, probably somewhere between 1.5 and 3 or 4 depending on how you play.  You may then need to lower the threshold until the output level is the same for both finger style and slap.  When you lower the threshold, you may need to readjust the ratio to keep it sounding good.

Then adjust the output knob to get the gain where it needs to be in the signal chain.

That's my guess without having read the manual and played through it myself.  Again, compressors vary widely one from another and have different uses, so reading the manual can be helpful.

[Mlazarus]

Is the gain reduction shown when the red Leds move to the left? All green Leds move to the right. I i understand you, there should be nothing going into the red?

[David Houck]

Gain reduction is shown in the meter on the left.  When the signal first begins to compress the "1" light will come on, then the "3", etc.  The more the signal is compressed, the further to the left that meter will go.

As the signal is compressed, the output level will fall as well (unless the unit has auto makeup, but if it does there may be a switch to turn it on/off).  You can make up for that with the output knob.  You probably want to keep the output level the same as the input level, again depending on how you're setting up your gain staging and where the unit is in your signal chain.  If there's an input control on the unit, you may want to set both input and output so that the meter reads zero for both input and output in your loudest playing.

As an additional thought, for the purpose of evening out the difference in volume between your finger style playing and your slap playing, you might want to consider adding a clean boost pedal to your signal chain right before your amp.  Turn it on for finger style and off for slap.  Then use your compressor to fine tune your slap sound.

And one more thought.  With both finger style and slap, tasteful dynamics can make a bass line really stand out; so be careful not to overly compress your signal, unless of course that's the sound you're going for.

[jazzyvee]

Then there are multi-band compressors that you can set up to work on particular frequency ranges. So for example you could apply more to  tame the frequencies that have more energy where you are playing hard and be more subtle over the others. So the whole bass signal isn't compressed by one range of dynamic playing. That said i haven't heard of one being in a live rig.