How David Gilmour Uses Stacked Compression
These are some of the compression setups I find myself using for David Gilmour type tones. If you want some inspiration for different ways to use compression for guitar, there should be something for you here.
Heavy Compression
The MXR Dyna Comp is probably the compressor most associated with David Gilmour. I particularly like this type of compressor for heavy compression. Heavy compression really squashes the signal, you can really hear it pumping the volume and it’s good if you want a deliberately ‘processed’ type sound.
Compression > Lightly Driven Amp
When you combine a pedal that gives a fairly heavy compression with an amp that’s just on edge of breakup, the compression sound that is coming from the pedal is a little less noticeable. It’s causes the signal volume to stay right on the cusp of sending the amp into overdrive, which is a lovely place to be and the compressor pedal helps the signal stay at that level, no matter whether you play gently or really dig in. And the amps valve compression evens everything out nicely.
There’s also a mid boost that happens with a lot of these guitar pedal type compressors like the Dana Comp and through a really clean amp it can sometimes make them sound a bit harsh and aggressive but now it’s going through an amps natural valve compression the amp is responds nicely, just evening it out. I really like this sort of tone for the iconic guitar solo in Another Brick In The Wall Part 2
Medium Compression
David Gilmour is also known for using the Boss CS-2. I find compressor pedals like this a little easier to tune in to something a bit more subtle, what I’d call a medium compression. It’s more subtle than the typical Dyna Comp sound but certainly not a transparent compression, I can still really feel the compression. But it’s a nice sound. This is the sort of sound that I think is good for evening out clean funky percussive rhythm parts like in Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 or to fatten and even out clean articulate lead lines like in the lead playing near the start of Shine On You Crazy Diamond parts 1-5.
Parallel Compression
The Origin Effects Cali76 is a bit of a more sophisticated studio style compressor. It’s able to do parallel compression where you mix the clean signal back in with the compressed signal. This way you can have quite a highly compressed setting that might be a bit over the top on its own, but then you can mix the clean sound back in to make it sound more natural and transparent but still adding a fat thickening sound from the compression.
It’s a great way to use compression if you don’t like the sound of those more traditional guitar pedal compressors. It feels a lot more natural to play, I particularly like it with picked chords to help keep the guitar sounding full and stop it from falling to the back of the mix too much.
Stacked Compression
When it comes to stacking compressor pedals, I find it works best when you use more mild settings on each pedal. It creates a heavy compression that is at the same time quite transparent. It's very different to the sound of something like the MXR Dyna Comp on its own doing a heavy compression that pumps a lot more and is a lot more obvious.
I like this dual compression sound as a fattening effect to solos that have a little bit of drive in them like the solo to Money, it evens the amount of input that’s being sent to the overdrive pedal so you have a more consistent amount of gain and notes higher up the neck never get thin, which can sometimes happen particularly on guitars with single coil pickups.
Stacked Compression with Fuzz
If you use stacked compression along with fuzz and overdrive, you’ll probably find that you won’t need as much gain on the overdrive and distortion pedals, which in themselves are a type of compressor as well.
Great for a psychedelic, infinite sustain, synth fuzz type sound. I like to use this for the guitar solo in the song Time.