|
In this video, we check out my favorite compressor settings within TONEX. Looking to add that final bit of polish to all your presets? Well, this video is for you! Products FeaturedIK TONEX: https://amzn.to/3u0BIOy IK Z-TONE: https://amzn.to/47LljeG GTRS S900: https://amzn.to/48EDiVl If you like the Tone Model used in this video, check out: www.amalgamcaptures.com Video TranscriptHowdy friend, you’re here in the studio with Luke from GuitarIQ.com. In the last video, we were checking out one of my favorite little reverb tricks for adding some nice space, depth, and liveliness to your favorite Tone Models within TONEX. In this video, we’re going to check out one of my other favorite “always on” settings that I use within TONEX—just to add a little bit of polish to the sound. And this has to do with dialing in the compressor section within TONEX to act as a finalizer/finisher type of effect.
Now, compression is one of those things that I imagine a lot of users just leave switched off. Maybe, you know, we're not used to having compression as part of our signal chain. Or maybe we just assume that compression is simply one of those effects we use when we're playing funk, or we're doing the whole chicken picking thing. But the fantastic thing about the compressor within TONEX is, it's not like that vintage uber-squashy Ross or Dyna Comp style of compression. It's much more akin to a really transparent, studio-style of compressor. And that makes it the ideal choice to place at the end of our signal chain. Just to add, you know, the final exclamation point to our tone! So, before we look at the exact settings I'm using to dial this in, let’s just take a listen to what I'm talking about. The signal chain for this little recording that I've set up here was: My GTRS S900 guitar going into the IK Multimedia Z-TONE buffer/boost pedal—I’ve done a separate video on that, if you want to check that out. From there, I'm heading straight into the audio interface. And the Tone Model I'm using today, is this lovely Vox AC30 1964 capture. This was sent to me to check out by AmalgamCaptures.com. They’ve got a host of awesome Tone Models over there. So if you like the sound of this, I'll leave some links in the description to where you can pick one up for yourself. So let's just hear this in action. I’ll toggle back and forth so you can compare the settings I have here. First, with the compressor switched off: [Music] And on: [Music] Off: [Music] On: [Music] Okay, so you can hear there that the compressor is doing a couple of nice little things. Firstly, it’s just smoothing out those dynamics ever so slightly. And secondly, it's giving us a nice little volume bump to the sound. Which can be really useful when we're trying to balance out different presets. Particularly, when we're using quieter, cleaner sounds like this one here. So, as promised, let’s look at the exact settings I'm using to dial this in. Here, I’ve just got this set to the default 5ms. You can certainly experiment with the attack if you want but I find this to be a good all-round starting point. Moving over to the gain knob, I’ve simply got this set to 0dB. Now, these settings—the gain and the attack—are pretty much set and forget for me. I don't really change these from preset to preset. The one setting which might change a little bit is the threshold. Now, to dial in the threshold I simply start with this all the way to the left, and then I'll ease it up until I hear it starting to do something. And you'll notice two things will happen when you hit the sweet spot. You’ll get a slight volume bump and you'll see some compression just start to engage on the gain reduction meter over here. Now, of course, the sweet spot for where you set the threshold is going to depend on the guitar you're using, and the Tone Model you're using, and most importantly how hard you're driving the output of the particular Tone Model. Because, remember, we're placing the compressor in “Post” mode which places it after the amplifier. But from my own experimentation with a bunch of different Tone Models I find somewhere between that -12 to -14 range to be the sweet spot. So they’re the exact settings I'm using: The attack is set to 5ms, the gain is set to 0dB, and the sweet spot for the threshold is usually between -12 to -14. So there you have it, it’s a really simple tip. Try those settings out for yourself and it might just add that nice final bit of polish to your Tone Models. If you enjoyed this video, please click on that like button, or leave a comment in the comments section below, to let me know. If you want to see more content like this, please consider subscribing to the channel to be notified of future uploads. Also make sure to check out my other TONEX videos—I’ll leave links in the description. And finally, before you go, I warmly invite you to check out the website GuitarIQ.com to take a look at the books and other learning resources we have waiting for you over there. Covering everything from fretboard memorization, to chord theory, to warm-ups and workouts, scales, and a whole lot more—that is GuitarIQ.com. Well, that’s it for me. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video! Comments are closed.
|
|