where to place a rack compressor...

[eiopago]

hi,
i finally managed to get myself a decent rig.
my question is, i have a rocktron voodu preamp, a marshall 20/20 power amp and a rack behringer pro-xl compressor/limiter.

where should i place the compressor?

between the pre-amp and the power amp or after the power amp ( between it and the speaker cabinet)? ( if i want it to use it as a limiter to protect the speakers?

thanks in advance

[Infernal Death]

Absolutely not between the power amp and the speaker cabinet. This will surely fry your compressor. It's made for line level usage and can't handle the juice your power amp is putting out.
So better put it between pre and power amp, although i have to say if i were you i would put it in the trash can where most behringer equipment belongs to but that me .

Flo

[Axewielder]

I've wrestled with this myself. The compressor really needs to come first, definitely before the preamp. Since rackmount compressors are designed to take line-level signals from mixers and not an instrument-level signal, there is your catch-22. My belief is that you really need to use a guitar compressor pedal in front of your rackmount preamp if you need compression and your preamp doesn't have it built-in.

[Newc]

Actually, you will need a dedicated Peak Limiter between your preamp and power amp. If you have a switch to choose between Compression and Peak Limiting, set it to Peak Limiting, but if all it does is Compression "but if you set it like this it pretends to behave like a Peak Limiter", get something that is dedicated to peak limiting.

[jtr]

Between the preamp and the power amp.

[emperor_black]

I thought a compressor is something that "smoothens" out your playing. Hence, it increases the volume of notes that are lower in volume and vice-versa. Hence, I always put my compressor first, before the preamp.

But that is only half-true according to this article on harmony-central where he talks about the effect at depth.

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Articles/Compression/

[AdRock]

If you really want to use a compressor then get something besides the Behringer, it's crap. As said above, it belongs in the trash. If you really want it to sound good with a compressor then get a 3 band compressor. This will seperate the compression into three sections, highs, mids , lows. Only the section that needs compressing will compress. Example: If you're playing some chunka chunka down low on the neck and it starts to compress it will also compress the high end of the sound. Then you end up with the sound breathing. You don't want to hear it breathe.

[Newc]

( if i want it to use it as a limiter to protect the speakers?

thanks in advance

I guess I'm the only one who saw this?

[Infernal Death]

I guess I'm the only one who saw this?

Well i saw it too but i never came across the need of having a peak limiter in a guitar rig. And i don't know anybody who did. So why bother ? (this question is of course for the thread starter, but it seems like he isn't reading anymore ?)

Flo

[Rsmacker]

He's probably wondering why his Compressor is smoking and sparking after he put it between power amp and cabinet.

Got to agree with Infernal Death, why bother?