Compressor VST 4 sustaining guitar

[apakhira]

I tried using soome compressors 4 sustaining my guitar, like Classic Compressor, Blueline, etc. but there wasn't any perceptible difference in sustain. it only added more noise. Could u please suggest some good compressor VST plugins 4 this purpose, possibly free? Or maybe i'm setting it wrong (I set Release to full in each of the VSTs). Help me on that too.

[duncanparsons]

Are you setting it right?

You want a fairly lowish threshold, a medium to heavy ratio, and a good dollop of makeupgain. This will bring out background noise, so you may want a solid gate infront of it.

HTH
DSP

[Jafo]

You want a fairly lowish threshold, a medium to heavy ratio, and a good dollop of makeupgain. This will bring out background noise, so you may want a solid gate infront of it.

Yes, these are excellent tips.

There are a few tools you might use in addition. First, try lowering your pickups a bit -- having your pickups set too high tends to shorten vibration time. Also, develop your fret-hand technique; a little vibrato can make a big difference. You could also try a bit of distortion, which adds compression as a side-effect (pun unintended).

[apakhira]

I am using distortion and vibrato. But i have a dumb question: should i place the noise gate b4 the compressor (ie directly after guitar input) or after it? Is the Blueline Noise Gate good enough. And was i right about the release time to be long? Another thing: do u mean 2 say most VST compressors will serve my purpose?

[AKJ]

maybe you could try dominion (free), it is not a compressor but you can do transient shaping (and thus increase the sustain)

akj

[apakhira]

thanx. i'll check it out.and please help me on the other queries..

[Lunch Money]

apak-- despite what certain stompboxes would have you believe (Ibanez "Compressor/Sustainer" for example), the sustain from a compressor is not as significant as you might think, and it DOES produce artifacts toward the tail end of the signal. Naturally, the only way to truly increase the sustain of a guitar is to install a feedbacking or physical vibration device like the Fernandez sustainer or the Sustainiac.

There are other clever ways of doing it in a host, too, such as identifying a stable snippet, finding good loop points, and looping it or cross-fading and looping. This won't work in realtime, naturally.

Back to the question at hand, though:

The gate should go AFTER your distortion and stuff in this case. Really, a gate can go in different places depending on your needs, but here if you put the gate too early in the chain, it's gating your raw guitar signal, really, when what you want to do is dial in the gate to the spot that sounds about right POST distortion/compression.

Greg

[A3ntar]

There is two devices I know of that can sustain notes very good ( if you don't have the right hands techniques ).

1) The ebow ( http://www.ebow.com/ ) used by many pros
2) The Fernandes Infinite Sustain system ( http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sea ... 0020583305 , http://www.fernandesguitars.com/sustainer.htm ) also used by many pros, including U2's The Edge. Check the video and sound clips on their website.

Here is also another nice website that sell a sustaining device, and explains all you want to know about sustain: http://www.sustainiac.com/aboutsus.htm

[apakhira]

Thanx. i guess i didn't know how Noise gates r meant 2 be used. i thought they were supposed 2 reduce background noise (guitar hum,etc.) coming directly from guitar. i stand corrected now.
btw, cud u help me on this, tho its out of topic..
there's a solo played by John Petrucci in the "Home" towards the end, which sounds synth-like maybe like a mixture of saw and square waves. Do u think that cud be replicated using a HP filter with high resonance? Just a guess..can't think of anything else..

[Sascha Franck]

Hm, usually you don't need any compression on distorted guitars anymore, as they're compressing per se.
If you still can't get enough of sustain out of your setup, it's probably more of a hardware issue. Your axe or your amp might not be up to the task of delivering enough sustain.
Adding a compressor afterwards will only give you good results in case the signal is great in the first place.
Using a noise gate in front of the compressor might work, but as we're dealing with overdriven sounds it might as well just cut away too much of the tail - which would be what you'd want to enhance.

[bduffy]

I find when going for the wacky sustain that increased noise is inevitable, so I get the sound I want, turn off my CRT monitor, track it and put a lowpass EQ on it to get rid of the less pleasant tones. I usually wind up filtering off top end from guitars anyway, esp. if they're distorted. I usually just use the noise gate so I don't have to hear the FFSSHSHH between takes.

[apakhira]

So what does Santana use 4 his super-long sustain? is it a sustaining device like u said, or is it just his gear?

[Improv]

So what does Santana use 4 his super-long sustain?

Tube amps and controlled feedback.

[duncanparsons]

In concert, Santana will mark out places on stage with black tape where the sweet spots are for sustaining. He then positions himself to take advantage of them, hence being able to keep trhe same not playing for 33 bars when he needs to...

Shame he can't mark out places so that his bends actually reach the notes he's aiming for..

DSP

[Sascha Franck]

Shame he can't mark out places so that his bends actually reach the notes he's aiming for..

At least I'm not alone with that opinion...

On a serious note, it's rather easy to get controllable feedback out of quality guitars and amps. My Anderson does so almost at living room levels.