Parallel Compression?

[Craig V]

Hi,

What is parallel compression?  The only pedal I've seen that uses it is the Barber Tone Press.  Is it just as simple as mixing the original guitar signal with the compressed signal?  Has anyone tried this with the Ross or Orange Squeeze design?

Thanks.

[Mike Burgundy]

Older tube compressors were actually limiters and had the option to blend in the original signal to become some sort of compressor.  Newer comps sometimes also have this option to soften the compression and make it more natural. Compression -in-parallel-to-the-real-thing, I guess you could call it.
There are also "multi-band" compressors, which chop audio into different frequency bands, and compress each band differently according to your settings. That's parallel compression.
I'm guessing it's one of these two, but I'm not quite sure which. Where'd you run across that term? The rest of the text could shed some light.

[Craig V]

Heres a link to the Barber Tone Press:

http://www.barberelectronics.com/tonepress.htm

Here's the text if you don't want to go to the site:

The new Barber Tone press is a guitar compressor like no other! Barber introduces parallel compression. Parallel compression allows players to blend in natural guitar signal to their compressed signal, this innovation blows away dealing with attack, ratio and release knobs of other so called "studio compressors". The Tone Press is a great leap beyond the two knob clones. Imagine using gobs of sustain and not having to hear your attack getting squashed! Imagine a compressor for every type of player...now imagine only paying $139.95 for the best guitar compressor ever offered...Barber parallel compression will change the way you think about compression and guitar sounds.

[lovekraft0]

So it simply has a mix (sorry,"blend") control added? That would be easy enough to do with any compressor. Personally, I like having all those icky control knobs, so I can set the sound I want, instead of having to settle for someone else's settings mixed with the dry signal, but to each his own.
I don't think I'll be getting rid of my RNC for this "innovation".  :wink:

[gdoube]

http://www.recordinginstitute.com/R2KREQ/excomp.htm

...talks about a similar process.

[Mike Burgundy]

How about having all those icky controls AND a blend? Subtle compression with slower attack does sound different than harder comp with blend - even more shades!

[StephenGiles]

The What compressor does this, and I have increased the compression ratio to counteract it!

[Mark Hammer]

People use compressors and limiters for different things.  Some people are far more concerned with the beginning of the note, needing gain reduction to keep transients from either distracting the listener, corrupting the clarity, or damaging the equipment.  Other people are far more interested in the tail end of the note, using compression as a way of creating "long goodbyes".

Both are reasonable uses of the same general sort of device.  Of course, to achieve the "long goodbye" sustain, you may have to sacrifice the initial attack, and that can be a problem.  The dry/wet blend allows one to keep the initial attack, but still make use of the "long goodbye" from the compressed signal after the dry signal has waved, gotten in the car and driven off.  As well, compression, especially heavy compression, has a tendency to erode high end, not because of tone-sucking but because of what dynamic changes do to the apparent bandwidth.  Introducing some dry signal can retain some of the brightness of the original.

The dry/wet blend is a simple way to achieve some of the things that are often attempted via fancy tonal adjustments and compensations, and complex envelope detection.

[StephenGiles]

Absolutely Mark, I remember there was a compressor in Everyday Electronics in the late 70s/early 80s which did just what you describe. I don't still have the article unfortunately - but ........temporary distraction.....Keep your Distance by Buddy & Julie Miller.......great track on the radio!.......there's always a chance that it will turn up. It was all transistors.......ZTX something or other, I'll possibly lurch up to the attic just in case it's hiding away up there.
Stephen

[Craig V]

I just had a thought (thats rare...).  To achieve the parallel compression that we are talking about, we could use the Splitter Blend from runoffgroove and put a compressor in the loop.  Yay or nay?

[Mike Burgundy]

Yay. You might not get too spectacular results - I enjoy tricks like these for acoustic guitar and vocals, but electric guitar is usually a little more ruogh'n tumble. Try it out and do tell, though!

[PeterJ]

Doesn't that Guyatone mini-compressor do the same thing, but with a one-setting switch instead of a variable blend?