Before ya blame my technique...which it is, I suck But I use it on and off to help me balance string volume. Ongoing battle
As stated before, a compressor makes soft sounds louder and loud sounds softer. It can also add sustain. Have you ever noticed that playing leads is easier with distortion? That's because distortion pedals and amp distortion compress the signal. Your volume is evened out, and the guitar sustains more. I use a compressor for clean leads for this reason. I also use it for fast or hard strumming. Funk players use them this way. I also like to use it for dotted eighths delay, like U2 and Pink Floyd. I don't use it all the time.
Why wouldn't you want one? Do you already have too many pedals? I refuse to believe that - it's not possible.
I make DIY pedals and a working guitarist I know asked me to make a Compressor for him. I’d never used a compressor before. I built a Ross compressor clone and honestly couldn’t tell if it was working. I gave it to him and he said it was awesome. He was playing mostly Teles at that point. And he’s actually a good player, which I’m not. Recently I built a clone of a different compressor and used it also with a Tele, and I can definitely hear it. It certainly makes quiet notes louder and louder notes quieter, and affects how the guitar sound responds to your attack. I do use it a lot with the tele.
You don´t really need compression playing death metal if you have enough gain. It will just add volume (as you found) and increase the noise floor. Most likely that and not the fact that the mids were scooped.
A studio compressor is necessary but the pedals are hit or miss. I have a nice one and I never use it; it works great for smoothing out the high notes and rounding out any spiky treble and making the volume uniform but it kills dynamics and makes the wound strings sound so dull.
This is what I use it for .... To compensate for my sometimes too heavy, sometimes too light attack when finger picking. I finger pick alot.
Mine's always on. It just sounds more full and balanced that way. It's not so much an effect as a pre-effect, and it keeps the boosts and gains from exacerbating any lack of balance in the attack. Like, if tone is in the fingers, and our fingers are imperfect extensions (especially with arpeggios, lead play, etc) and the compression pedal helps calibrate all that before any of the imbalance gets amplified.
The Wampler Ego changed my attitude towards compressors. I use it as a subtle “always-on” effect - instead of the dreaded “squash” it actually adds life and fullness to the sound. It’s nice for lead and whatnot but honestly really shines on chords and ringy lines.
This is how I use my Dyna Comp Deluxe... Always on with single coils, knobs around noon. I play 100% clean, and it adds a sweetness and clarity to both chords and single note lines. It's pixie dust, just brightens up and enriches the sound... Adds sparkle. You don't even notice it until you switch the pedal off and things get suddenly duller. I do use it occasionally with humbucker guitars, but primarily on my single coils.
