I'm considering buying a compressor (probably a dynacomp) to smoothen out my lead playing. More sustain and also a little less dynamics when doing fast runs on low-gain settings. I don't usually do high-gain so there's not as much natural compression going on, so my lead lines tend to fall a little flat. I worry that that's just a matter of technique though, and that if I bought a compressor that would be the easy way out. Thoughts?
See, this is a really interesting question. Some purists are gonna be like, “GET GOOD, SCRUB.”
But I came from playing strictly heavy as balls music. So my technique REALLY struggles with low gain playing. I feel like a lot of those tones really resist my playing and it’s difficult for me to land all my notes with quick passages. So I’m with you.
I don’t think it’s the “easy way out” or anything. Guitar playing will always be a huge spectrum. Style and technique differs so greatly between genres and players that there isn’t a right way to do something. I have a buddy that I feel is WAYYYYY fucking better than me at guitar. He can do Guthrie Govan blues fusion shit like a god and I feel like his overall technique is better. But every time we’ve had this conversation he’s told me that there are things I can do with my right hand down picking that he’ll never be able to get down. Along with some heavy riffage it just doesn’t come out of his hands.
If a compressor gets you closer to landing those notes and smooths out some of those lines you’re struggling with it could be a good way to go. I actually like compressors for a lot of differently things. They are also really fun for squashing settings when you want a really clean tone but want to do a lot of tapping. Shit’s a neat tool and I recommend everyone try them out some time.
