I have a Boss CS2 and I have had it for a very long time. It is the only pedal compressor I have ever used. I hadn't used it in a long time but for the past several weeks started using it again. It is OK but it really takes away the high end. Sometimes I just want some sustain but without the "squish". 

The compressors with the blend or mix control look intriguing. I really love the demo of the Suhr Koji Compressor from the Suhr site in particular. There isn't a before and after of the guitar tone but it sound like it is adding some sustain, evening out the chords but retaining the brightness of the strings.

If you have or tried a compressor like this, what do you think? Is there enough there to justify adding (or replacing with) another compressor?

Would experimenting running my guitar into Sonar and doing some parallel compressing give me an idea of how these pedals will sound?

Thanks

Hey bro,

The key is, you don't try to sustain with a compressor. If you want real sustain, you grab a pedal that will give you sustain. If you need th signal compressed, you geta good compressor instead of the CS2.

You could try a CS3 which is the one I have that I told you about....but it all depends on what you're trying to get out of your tone.

P-comp will not sound anything like a pedal...totally different animal there with a totally different routing. Personally, I hate p-comp on everything other than drums. I think it sounds terrible on guitars...but that's just me. Good luck man.

-Danny

Or get one of these.

Would experimenting running my guitar into Sonar and doing some parallel compressing give me an idea of how these pedals will sound?

Yes. That's exactly what the CS2 is offering: parallel compression. Parallel compression is upward compression, meaning quiet sounds are raised in volume.

i had a dynacomp for 10 years.
 
then i tried a barber tone press, and was absolutely sold.

i a/b'd it against a Keeley compressor.

here's my review:



got to a-b a Keeley compressor against a Barber tone press

 :D 
both of these, are guitar player magazine editor's choice award winners.

my luthier, bought a keeley comp.

i bought a Barber tone press.

we got together last night and a/b'd the two-- same rig, same guitar, same settings, etc.

gotta say, they're both amazingly good sounding compressers.

both are pretty transparent.

both are dirt simple to operate.

both have true bypass. you don't hear them in line at all, when the effect is off.
all other compressors, i've ever tried, sucked tone when off.

both have led's to show when the effect is engaged.

both are made very well.

the barber is bigger, and a bit heftier, than the keeley. i like heavy, myself, but if it was an issue of fitting a smaller pedal on a pedalboard, the keeley has the upper hand.

 
$219

the keeley, is based somewhat on the mxr dynacomp.
i had a dyncomp, til about a month ago, so i'm well versed in the feel of that classic comp.
the keeley, is more transparent, and not quite as noisy, as the original mxr dynacomp.
the keeley has more aggressive settings on the sensitivity, and gets pretty noisy when dimed (completely understandable with high settings of ANY compressor).

-but the middle settings sounds really nice, and even at really low settings, you can get very transparent compressor settings. Still, you can hear a certain amount of 'pop' at the harder pick attacks, and this is very much in line with the classic dynacomp sound....and it still sounds 'squished' to my ears...... it's more obvious that this effect is on, even on mild settings, than what is achievable with the tone press.

it has an 'attack' control, inside the box, that can be tweaked to a degree, but is somewhat a nuisance to get to and mess with...
we left this set on the factory setting for this test.
 
the barber Tone Press, can do this same sound, but has a completely other side as well....
 
it can do "Parallel compression".
and it works.

website defines it best:
Barber developed a one-of-a-kind and quite proprietary continuous “blend control” circuit and combined it with a discrete “Class A” FET mixer circuit to allow you to continuously blend the natural signal of your carefully selected guitar with a “phase-corrected” classic compression circuit.

basically, i can dial in the amount of compression (sustain) i want, then take the blend knob and dial in the straight, dry unaffected guitar signal along with the compressed signal.
this allows me to set the compressor so i get exactly the amount of 'attack' i want, and it comes through without being squished.

when i first plugged it in, it almost seemed like the compressor was not doing anything...
because you hear all of your original attack, and with typical compressors, you hear the compressor working on the signal right away. i had to leave that session, come back later with a different mindset, before i really became aware of how this thing really works.

--with the tone press, it's very subtle how it's working, and doesn't mess with the basic tone and dynamics as much, based on how you set the blend control. but you still get all the compression you want, it's just way more dynamic.

it seems to enhance the tone as well, meaning, it doesn't 'take away' any of the treble or bass response. you can turn the blend all the way to the right, and get the 'dynacomp' sound if you want it.

but i'm finding, the unique sound of this compressor has allowed me to dial in a much more natural sounding effect.

it sounds perfect for strats.

i back it down a bit for humbuckers....... which is as easy as just dialing the 'blend' knob back a notch or two.....

a side benefit of this pedal...
you can use it as a class A 'clean boost'.......... with 8 db of boost, and the blend all the way to the left.

there is a 'color' trim pot inside the box. you can tweak this to give a more round vintage sound. i like it in the factory 'full on' setting.

 
$139.95 

for the price, i think it's a no brainer.

YMMV

bitflipper

Would experimenting running my guitar into Sonar and doing some parallel compressing give me an idea of how these pedals will sound?

Yes. That's exactly what the CS2 is offering: parallel compression. Parallel compression is upward compression, meaning quiet sounds are raised in volume.

Bit, can you explain this to me when you get a minute? How would his CS2 be able to do p-comp? It has no wet/dry so you can't get enough control over the squashed sound to really experience true p-comp, know what I mean? It won't be the same as what he hears in Sonar due to NOT having wet/dry control. The squashing sound he hears when using this comp pedal can't be controlled other than "you hear it, you don't hear it" where with p-comp, the wet dry allows you to mix the squashed sound in with the dry sound. I'm not doubting you bro, I just don't understand how the CS2 can achieve this.
 
The other thing is, he has 2 ways he can do it in Sonar. He either can run the the bus comp right on the guitar channel or run it using an effects send in a bus which gives slightly different timbre results. To me, none of these would be remotely close to what he would get using a pedal like the CS2 through his amp. Of course if he had an effects loop which would be the equal to his "send" in Sonar, he could grab the additional coloration...but I just don't see how that pedal can come close to real p-comping even though it offers upward compression. Without the control over that dry wet signal, he's stuck with squashed. Unless I'm totally missing something here? Fill me in brother. :)
 
-Danny 

the short answer is, yes, they're special.

Sorry, Danny, I mis-spoke, or rather mis-read the OP. The CS2 does not have a wet/dry mix control, that's what the OP was wondering about: whether it would be useful to get a compressor that did have it. Obviously, you need that wet/dry mix knob to get parallel compression, unless you physically split the signal chain and used a mixer.

bitflipper


Sorry, Danny, I mis-spoke, or rather mis-read the OP. The CS2 does not have a wet/dry mix control, that's what the OP was wondering about: whether it would be useful to get a compressor that did have it. Obviously, you need that wet/dry mix knob to get parallel compression, unless you physically split the signal chain and used a mixer.

Whew, lol thanks for clarifying Dave. No need to be sorry....I thought maybe I was losing it because you know me, I don't think I've ever disagreed with a post you've made in all the years I've been here. LOL! I'm forever a bitflipper fan. :) But I thought maybe there was something that I just wasn't getting on this one. :)
-Danny

I was asking about a compressor with a wet/dry mix. Sorry for any confusion.

Gotta run but I will read all your posts more closely tonight.

Thanks