Questions about guitar compression

[Keel]

So I have a Keeley C4 compressor, and I really like how it doesn't affect my tone at all. However, I feel it isn't really compressing my signal that much. Or at least not as much as I want. I need to not only decrease the loud, but I need to increase the quiet as well so to speak. There is still too much dynamics, and I want every note to be the same volume, regardless of how hard I hit the string. I'm playing through a VHT special 6, clean all the time. I do a lot of 8 finger tapping, and going back and forth between tapping parts and picked parts you can hear a huge difference between the volume of the picked sections and the tapped sections. Am I missing something? Can the keeley pedal do what I'm hoping for? Ive kind of been thinking about getting a clean boost and then running that into the compressor and setting the sustain low, because thats the threshold ratio control right? I've tried researching this but came up with nothing. Any help is appreciated

 

[GunpointMetal]

So, even with the attack set low, the sustain set high, and then the level balanced with the bypass signal all of your notes aren't being "squished"? Having not used that particular compressor, usually the higher you set the "Sustain" the louder the quiet notes get, and the lower the attack setting, the sooner it clamps down on the initial note strike, which limits your dynamics.

 

[Keel]

It is limiting my dynamics, but it just seems to be making the loud notes softer, while not doing much to increase the volume of soft notes. Its definitely better than no compressor, but I want my guitar to sound flat. No dynamics.

 

[budda]

No dynamics sounds like a bad idea.

What about working on your tapping? The much more difficult but more fruitful decision.

 

[fob]

No dynamics sounds like a bad idea.

What about working on your tapping? The much more difficult but more fruitful decision.

And to add to this, If your notes are too quiet/unaudible unplugged, then a guitar compressor won’t make that problem go away. Obviously I don’t know your skill or what’s happening, but the issue can almost definitely be resolved by more practice. Effects are effects, not audio band aids. Maybe try a different compressor as well? Give a few a try if you can.

 

[Keel]

No dynamics sounds like a bad idea.

Why though? I just want my guitar to be on or off, since thats how I have my dirty tone set up. I'm trying to get the same effect with my clean setup. Maybe it is an issue of needing to hone my tapping, but even with easy stuff that I know I'm playing well I still have the problem. Its not really that bad, and I'm sure that stuff I see on the internet is post processed up to sound perfect but I just want that tone out of my amp. Its particularly noticeable with stuff that spans multiple octaves. Like, hammer on the third fret of the E string and tap the 17th fret of the high E and no amount of compression is making them level. Maybe I just need a lighter left hand?

 

[fob]

Why though? I just want my guitar to be on or off, since thats how I have my dirty tone set up. I'm trying to get the same effect with my clean setup. Maybe it is an issue of needing to hone my tapping, but even with easy stuff that I know I'm playing well I still have the problem. Its not really that bad, and I'm sure that stuff I see on the internet is post processed up to sound perfect but I just want that tone out of my amp. Its particularly noticeable with stuff that spans multiple octaves. Like, hammer on the third fret of the E string and tap the 17th fret of the high E and no amount of compression is making them level. Maybe I just need a lighter left hand?

You should be able to acoustically hear the initial impact of each note I think. Obviously the higher registers can pick up higher harmonic frequencies just cause of the tension so acoustically they’ll be harder to hear on an electric guitar, but you should still hear the fretted note clearly for at least the first second. With an amp, you should be good after that.

Also maybe your action and all that isn’t properly set up on the guitar you’re using and it’s causing a premature loss of sustain or not even allowing the impact you should have when tapping.

 

[GunpointMetal]

It is limiting my dynamics, but it just seems to be making the loud notes softer, while not doing much to increase the volume of soft notes. Its definitely better than no compressor, but I want my guitar to sound flat. No dynamics.

Well, I mean thats exactly what a compressor does. It compresses loud things down to the level of the softer things and then you use the level to bring it back up to the original volume. Try bypassing the compressor, cranking the attack super low (or higher, which ever one is faster/jumps on the attack sooner on that pedal, guitar compressors are often set-up the opposite way of a studio compressor), cranking the sustain all the way up, then bang on a loud multi-string barre chord at about the heaviest normal attack you'd use when playing, activate the compressor and adjust the level so the volume when on/off is the same when you're hitting those loud chords. If you're getting the same attack volume with it on, dial the attack the complete opposite way and try it again. Ideally you'd set the attack to just the first few ms of the note strike come through unaffected and then the compressor "grabs" the following sustain and evens it out. If you output level is balanced to your bypassed string attack, it really shouldn't sound much different in volume. If that doesn't work, I'd follow the above suggestions and look at your technique.

 

[budda]

Why though? I just want my guitar to be on or off, since thats how I have my dirty tone set up.

Dynamics are what make music interesting.

Time to practice.