Are Compressors "Cheating"?

[marnold]

Are compressors "cheating"? I would assume that most people would answer either "no" or "what?" to that question. My thought came in when I was recording the clean tracks to demo my Area 61s. A quick look at Audacity told me that my dynamics were not even throughout my playing. Compression would have taken care of that, but I wanted the pickups to speak for themselves. My issue is that if you are always using compression when playing clean (high gain adds compression all on its own), won't it make you sound better than you really are? Should people practice without compression so that they can work on their dynamics? I suppose it is like playing with high gain. A lot of distortion can cover a multitude of sins.

 

[Spudman]

Whatever works to make a person sound great. That is the desired result after all, right?

 

[hubberjub]

Like any effect it should be used in moderation. Compression is one of those effects that sounds best when you can't tell that it's on. That being said, I do love the squished sound on Reelin' In the Years and there are a lot of country players who wouldn't know what to do if their compressor kicked the bucket in the middle of a solo.

 

[Tone2TheBone]

I've always though using ANY kind of pedal was cheating. But even the people who get paid good money cheat so why not give in too. I say compress sir compress.

 

[Robert]

Well, playing with 4 fingers on the fretboard is really cheating, if you consider what Django Reinhardt had to work with. It's all a matter of perspective.

 

[oldguy]

Demo'ing your pickups w/o compression is different than live playing or recording, Matt. You were trying to give us an honest representation of the sound of the Area 61's w/o effects. Chasing tone is a different matter. Imagine EVH's early playing w/o a variac, or phaser, or delay. Or Jimi's sound w/o a fuzz face, octavia, wah pedal, or univibe. They were an ends to a mean, not cheating.
If we follow "cheating" to it's logical conclusion, everyone needs to play acoustic, non-amplified guitar. Otherwise you're adding something to the signal chain. Even hot pickups are making the player sound better than the original.
Demo's of gear should represent the honest sound of the device. E.G. if you're making clips of a great sounding amph, you shouldn't have to add overdrive, delay, reverb, etc. with pedals to make it sound great.
If that's the gear you use live or recording, tho, then that's "your" sound.
Your point about becoming a competent player instead of trying to hide behind an effect is correct, IMO. Effects are like icing on a cake, they sweeten the sound. They won't make a mud pie much tastier............ancake:

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

That is hilarious.

If you follow that path then every damn thing between the strings & your ears is cheating.

Time to go acoustic.

 

[marnold]

Perhaps "cheating" was too strong of a word. Maybe "dangerous for a newbie"? I have no problem using effects or with people who use effects. It just seemed to me that a compressor could be one of those effects could allow someone to learn to play very sloppily but the compressor would cover over those sins. That's why I brought up the issue with high gain because it can cover over a lot of sins too.

I guess I was just struck by how I was not playing with as even of a hand as I thought I was. The only way I noticed it was by looking at the graph in Audacity and noting the varying loudness. I expected the middle position to be that way because it's 1/2 the output of one of the pickups alone. It did teach me that I probably should record myself more often.

 

[Blaze]

Go and have a look at this vid..
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=N8lMJG_M3zM