User Manual

Compressor (Cyan) 158
Compressor (Cyan)
A compressor for guitar is mostly used for clean sounds, as the strings of the guitar decay quickly. On distorted
sounds, the distortion itself adds compression as a side-effect; this means the compressor could even be a
nuisance, as additional compression will kill the dynamics and touch-sensitivity of the distortion. Still, there is always
the nice trick of compressing the guitar to the max, then gently driving it just into the distortion of the amplifier, so that
every tone of the guitar gets the same decent amount of distortion.
Clean sounds benefit from compression, as it helps to lengthen sustain of the strings. Another typical application is
to emphasize the attack of the picked strings with the Attack parameter. In the PROFILER, you should use the Pick
parameter in the amplifier module to achieve this effect. It has been optimized for controlling the energy of your pick
and does this job much better than a regular compressor.
The Compressor is a faithful recreation of a vintage stomp compressor. We also added a new parameter, called
“Squash”, to make this compressor even more versatile.
There is no immediate need to readjust the compressor’s volume on clean sounds, as its volume is automatically
adjusted to the unity volume of the Rig.
 Intensity
Controls the amount of compression applied to your instrument. At zero position, there is no compression. In the first
half of the Intensity range the effect will be fairly subtle, as the compressor will only cut the loud attacks of your
instrument. Then, as you increase “Intensity” past halfway, you will start to hear the soft notes getting boosted as
well.
 Attack
Adjusts the reaction time of the compressor. The higher the “Attack” value, the longer it takes for the compressor to
kick in. This will let the first peak of the signal pass unaffected when you hit a string, thus increasing the
percussiveness of your pick.