GUITAR EFFECT SC0-1COMPRESSOR ARION REPRICED

ARION COMPRESSOR SC0-1 MADE IN JAPAN 1980' MODEL 9 VOLTS (STEREO)

This pedal produces great sustain.

A compressor is just an automatic volume control. At a basic level, it reacts to volume spikes from your music, and turns down the volume a bit as your levels go up. People (including me) talk about compressors fattening their tone, increasing sustain, making their sound "punchy", or other improvements; while those effects are possible, they are really just side effects that may be achieved, depending on your settings and the particular unit being used. But simply putting a comp in your signal path will not necessarily give you any of those desired effects; you have to make some educated choices.

There are a few core elements to compression; once you understand them, you'll have an easier time setting up any compressor with your rig:

• Input level is critical because it determines the range of signal that the compressor "hears" and reacts to. Some comps don't have an input level control, so you'd have to use the output volume controls on your instrument, preamp, or another pedal to regulate the level going into the compressor. Getting and setting the correct input level is probably the number one problem that frustrates compressor pedal users; the wrong levels will make your new pedal seem like a noisy waste of time.

• Threshold is how loud your signal has to get before the compression kicks in. This is essential because you may not want your entire signal to be compressed. Some units have no threshold knob- for them, the threshold is "fixed" and can only be adjusted by changing the input level of your signal.

• Ratio is how much your signal gets compressed once it passes the threshold. Generally, ratios of 2:1 or 4:1 are considered moderate compression, and ratios of 10:1 or higher are considered heavy compression or "limiting".

• Attack controls how quickly the compression reacts to your signal, and Release controls how long it takes to "let up" and stop compressing after it's triggered. These controls are interactive, and the right settings for them will vary depending on the music and your playing style. You'll have to experiment, but a decent rule of thumb for bass is to start with slow attack and release times, and adjust from there.

• Output Gain controls how much the volume of your signal is increased coming out of the comp, and this is necessary because compression lowers the overall peak levels of your signal. So almost all compressors have a booster at the end, which provides "makeup gain" to bring your signal back up to the level you want. This is what accounts for both the increase in audible sustain and harmonics, and also the increase in the noise floor.

For compressors with only two knobs, "Compress" and "Level", the Compress knob usually controls the ratio and/or threshold, and the Level knob controls the output gain.

How to set up a compressor:

First, be aware that all settings will be heavily dependant on the output level of your instrument, the dynamic range of your playing style, and the results you want from the compression. Settings that work well for one person will not necessarily work for someone else.

Second, be aware that every compressor works a bit differently from others, so you will have to learn the individual features, quirks, and limitations of whatever comp you're working with. Even if you copy specific ratio and attack settings etc., different units will not act identically due to the wide variance in components and circuit design.

Having taken those factors into account, the very first and most important setting to consider is the level of the signal you're feeding into the compressor. Some comps have controls for input level and/or threshold, but many (especially pedals) do not. You need to have complete control over the point when your signal crosses the threshold, or else you are just gambling and hoping that the compressor was designed in a way that just happens to match your personal signal. Too often people buy a comp pedal and hate it because it squashed their signal too much, or it didn't do anything appreciable, and then they say compression sucks. But 99% of the time the problem was that their instrument signal level was not matched to the ideal operating range of the compressor. When setting input level and threshold, remember that raising the input level is the same as lowering the threshold. Also note that the threshold knob on some comps may be "backwards", so that turning it clockwise lowers the threshold, increasing the amount the signal is compressed. If your comp has no input level or threshold controls, then you have to use the volume knob on your instrument, or maybe another pedal that can boost or cut levels, in order to bring your signal into the best operating range for the comp you're using.

The next parameter to consider is the ratio. Of course the usual thinking is that a low ratio (under 5:1) is for gentle compression and a high ratio (above 10:1) is for peak limiting; but even those ideas are dependent on the threshold and the results you want. For example a low ratio and a very low threshold can result in a lot of extra sustain, while retaining fairly natural dynamics. A high ratio and a low threshold results in a super-squashed signal. The ideal setting for peak limiting would be a very high ratio and a high threshold, so that only the biggest signal peaks get touched at all, and they get capped off completely. If you want to rein in a loud/boomy low string, choose a high ratio and then set the threshold so that only those boomy notes cross the threshold and get squashed. It's all interactive with your specific instrument signal, so you have to experiment and balance all these factors together. Some comps have a fixed ratio; in that case, the only way to control the ratio is to select a comp that has the ratio you need.

Attack and release are the trickiest settings, as they are completely dependent on personal taste and playing style and expectations. A slow attack will allow more of your natural note attack though, allowing for the greatest articulation and pick/pluck crispness; but it also allows more sharp peaks (from aggro playing, boomy low notes, etc.) through at the beginning of each note, so you may need to shorten the attack in order to catch those spikes. It's a balancing act. The release time not only affects how each note sustains and trails off, but also affects the attack of the next note you play. If the release time from one note crossing the threshold has not completely passed by the time you play the next note, then the compressor will still be reducing your signal level overall when you hit that next note. This can be useful if you want consistent smoothness and your playing is steady with no long rests; inconsistent playing will result in inconsistent signal levels and weird peaks after a long rest. If you want the comp to react only to each note, you have to choose a very short release time; but this can result in a choppy or unnatural sound, with undesirable artifacts known as "pumping and breathing". So the release time is the parameter that will require the most experimentation to get decent results. As with the ratio, sometimes the only "control" over these parameters is to buy a pedal that is preset with attack/release times that just happen to meet your needs. Also note that some comps will distort bass signals if the attack or release times are too short.

Some comps will refer to "hard knee" or "soft knee". A hard knee means the comp will apply 100% of the ratio you set immediately when any of your signal crosses the threshold. A soft knee means a signal that crosses the threshold by only a little bit will only be compressed by a low ratio; and the higher the signal crosses past the threshold, the higher the ratio that will be applied. With a soft knee, the ratio number you choose will be the maximum ratio applied to only the strongest signals crossing the threshold. A soft knee is generally considered to be a more "natural" sound, more like the response of a tube amp for example, but a hard knee is often necessary for corrective compression like peak limiting.

A lot of pedals only have two knobs, "compress" and "level". Obviously this seriously limits your ability to dial the compressor in to work well for you; but it has two benefits: lower cost and easier to use. As with any circumstance with a lot of compromises, you basically have to suck it up and live with those compromises, or change your circumstances. If you are stuck using a two-knob compressor and you don't get the results you want, the best thing you can do is adjust the level of the signal you feed it. That can really make a huge difference in results, turning a cruddy noisemaker into a useful tool. If cutting or boosting your levels into the comp still doesn't get you what you hoped, then your best bet may be to look for a different unit; at that point you should be able to describe what exactly was not working for you (e.g. not enough peak limiting, mushy note attack, etc.) and ask around for a comp that will work better for you. Another thing to try: remove the compressor from your chain! Listen to your raw signal for a while and maybe you'll find you didn't want compression after all, or maybe you'll find it helps you articulate exactly what you were hoping the compressor would do for you. This will help others make useful recommendations.

Good luck!

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