My compressor/sustainer and a bit of funk rhythm

A compressor doesn't kill noise. That would be a gate. Does the compressor have a gate? At any rate it sounds to me to be more of a technique issue than a gear issue.

Yeah it has a limiter gate built in.

The problem could equally be in the fact that I'm not too hot on fiddling with the controls or what they do as regards compression/sustain.

Compressors make a lot of noise if you crank them to max. I am not a big compressor fan but have one on my pedalboard. I use it primarily to warm up my clean tone. Gives it a fullness. But I rarely turn sustain over 1/2. Not only does it start to make noise higher than this, I notice that compressors really squash your bass notes. Makes 'em sound all rubbery, you lose the bite. Some may prefer this, but sounds very unnatural to me.

Try turning sustain down some, should be a lot quieter.

This isn't me playing, but as an example of the kind of technique beign used:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWM8-wo99aE

If you want to maintain the transient on bass notes, slow down the attack. Between 30-50ms should be ok.

Clazon:

In regards to the "noise" your getting with your guitar. Notice the palm mutes in the video every time he stops. In fact it's not just palm mutes. He's also muting with his fretting hand.

In regards to compression:

It's a good thing to know exactly what a compressor does. A compressor is essentially an attenuator that is triggered at a certain volume which you set(the threshold). So by setting your threshold you decide at what point the attenuator kicks in.

The amount of attenuation is governed by a ratio which also is usually adjustable. 2:1 or 4:1 is usually ample ratio for most purposes. Any more than that and you're really squashing the sound.

There is also the attack setting which controls how fast after the desired threshold is reached that the attenuation kicks in. By slowing down the attack it allows the transient (which is usually much "louder" than the decay of the note) to pass through before attenuation.

Finally there is the makeup gain. This is where the noise really comes in. When you compress a signal it will even out the overall volume but you will also lose overall perceived loudness. So you turn up the makeup gain. Unfortunately when you turn up gain you also turn up noise. So, although you are attenuation the peaks, by recovering the overall volume you are adding noise.

It's a catch twenty two. The other thing you didn't mention is, what kind of pickups? What guitar? If you are using a Strat style guitar, have you considered playing with the pickups in the #2 or #4 position? These positions are humbucking.

hueseph

Great explanation on compressors. I knew about the attack, I keep it to minimum most of the time. Still, with too much sustain I don't like the way is squashes the bass. It's not that is sounds terrible, it sounds like many professional recordings really, but I like the bass notes to have a little bite to them, just a personal thing. I do like the way a little compression warms up a clean tone, makes it sound full at low volume. It also adds some sparkle. If I could find a compressor that didn't squash the bass I would go for it.

If I could find a compressor that didn't squash the bass I would go for it.

Try any of these:
Demeter Compulator
Toadworks Mr. Squishy
EBS MultiComp
BBE OptoStomp
Aphex Punch Factory

The last two are extremely transparent with respect to tone - it's like they do nothing, but they will definitely control your volume spikes. Great for slap bass. :D The first three will give a bit more squish.

All of the above are popular with bass players for the very reason that they don't kill the bass frequencies. In contrast, the famous MXR DynaComp sounded terrible with my bass, though it is well known for guitar processing.

slejhamer

Thanks, I have been considering that BBE OptoStomp, it is good to hear that it works well with bass. I will check that one out. :D