Learn How Compressor Pedals Work! (ft. Walrus Audio Mira)

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Video Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:23 What is an Optical Compressor?
01:04 What does it sounds like?
02:22 Initial Control Settings
03:39 Ratio & Threshold
04:45 Making Up Gain
05:22 Light Compression
06:10 Compression Release
07:12 Compression Attack
07:54 Adjusting Attack & Release
08:24 Heavier Compression Settings
10:21 Retaining Pick Attack 1
11:34 Retaining Pick Attack 2
13:56 Conclusion? Cool!

[buckdown]

i want EVERYTHING explained to me the way Bill just did. With kindness, patience, and utilitarian detail. I own the Mira (which is secretly one of the greatest guitar pedals possibly ever made) and am a professional producer - so nothing in here was anything i didn't know - but the way Bill explained it helped me organize the knowledge better. I reset my Mira during this video and while i did'nt land too far away from where i started - i landed somewhere BETTER..

a good bit of advice is always to start your day with a tutorial video on something you think you already know.

[ArielElijah]

I’ve been trying to crack compression for years and this is the best explanation/walkthrough I’ve ever seen! Thank you so much!

[glennmichaelthompson]

After using an MXR Dyna Comp for decades I picked up a Mira from Walrus Audio.... what a difference! The MXR was used occasionally, while the Mira is versatile enough to use almost all the time. I could see some players using it as an "always on" pedal. Your video is a great introduction for anyone not sure how compression works.... kudos to you, Bill!

[MrHillboxx]

Really helpful and even outstanding teachingwise🙏

[martin_schwarz]

Great video, you explain the functions really well. I bought a DeepSix V3 the day before the Mira was released, but it's also a great sounding compressor. Many guitarists simply and sadly don't understand how compressors work. Your video might help to change this! Kind regards from Vienna/Austria, Martin

[GlennMichaelThompson]

I love my Mira compressor! I bought it from Walrus during a sale they had... so ended up with the Mira and their Slötvå Multi Texture Reverb for less than the price of a single pedal. Since getting the Mira I rarely plug in my old 70's MXR Dyna Comp (although it does see some use, the 9v battery is a bit of a hassle).

[jonahlouque]

Best Compressor video I've ever seen!

[GaveMeGrace]

I’m adding this to my wish list—Thank you Bill!

[macsarcule]

Thanks Bill! Awesome compressor video! ✌️😌🎸

[johnhowardnardine]

Really excellent explanation: pedagogically very sound . Still trying to wrap my head around compression and this helps quite a bit. Thanks 🙏🏻 Oh, and this pedal is currently on heavy discount: $103. Just grabbed it. Going to save this video for when I need a refresher. 😊

[darchangel]

I have the EQD warden compressor which is also an optical compressor and I love it. I play metal and leave it on all the time... Evens out chugging n tremolo picking.

[markhammer]

I bought my first compressor pedal - a Univox Uni-Comp, the cheapest and simplest optical compressor likely ever made - in 1978, and have never been without one, and often more than one, since then. A few points of clarification:
1) Compressors do NOT create sustain. They create the *illusion* of sustain by amplifying the signal as the guitar string fades out, making it seem like the string is still as loud as it was a little while ago. In a sense, it can only show off whatever natural sustain the instrument itself has.
2) Compressors react to the initial pick attack, and quick reduce gain in response to it, slowly bringing it back up again. Unfortunately, much of the harmonic content of a guitar string is in that pick attack, with mostly note fundamental and lower-order harmonics after that. One of the results is that many compressors seem to "dull" the sonic result. They actually don't. They simply turn the spotlight *off* that initial harmonic bite, and shine it on the smooth followup. One of the best innovations in compression, regardless of the type of design (optical, OTA, FET, etc.) has been the Blend control. This allows/provides a mixture of the compressed and uncompressed signal, such that the harmonically-rich pick attack can be heard, in addition to the gain-adjusted compressed string decay. Nice touch!
3) Attack. One of the key elements in the feel of compression and a compressor is how quickly initial gain is resumed or "recovered" after being quickly turned down in response to a sudden transient. Very slow recovery of gain can create the sense of longer sustain. The price you pay for this is that if one picks quickly, the attack of subsequently-picked notes can seem to be lost, or at least quite dull. A number of companies adapted the basic Dynacomp circuit, and made the gain-recovery time variable from stock to much shorter. This tended to make the attack of quickly-picked notes more audible, so they labelled that control "Attack". It does *NOT* alter the attack, but adjusts the speed of gain-recovery and only makes pick attack more audible under some conditions. (I was thrilled when Fender *finally* labelled that control Recovery in their Bends compressor. At long last, truth in legending!)
That said, there IS such a thing as true Attack control, when it sets how quickly the gain-reduction is *applied* (rather than recovered from). That usually only occurs in tandem with a Release control, in a design that is more complex in how it derives the control voltage/current.

[robertclarkguitar]

Looks interesting 🤔!!! Going to check this out after the video.

[gojero]

It is weird to turn knobs counter clockwise. (Only the Treshhold? Confused now) But this is a great pedal! Sounds great 👍🏻
Problably to much for my use, maybe Deep Six fits more. But Deep Six is no Mira 😬😆

[theodorsloth]

The reason why studio compressors have so many knobs (attack, threshold, decay, ratio, soft/hard, release ...) is they are used with very different signals from many different instruments. If you always use a compressor with guitar, then probably there is no need for them all. This is the reason why the MXR Dynacomp with its two knobs is such successful until today. I am convinced that most guitarists would tweak the knobs of their complex compressors as such that it works very similar to the good old Dynacomp.

[PageandPlantLife]

Your tone here reminds me of "thru and thru" by the rolling stones

[genepozniak]

Is the graphic on the pedal from the movie, The Rapture, or Childhood's End? 😂 But, seriously, I'm very intrigued by this pedal, and your explanation was very helpful.

[samseitz]

Did I sense a new album tease at the end there Bill?

[headbangerministries]

I've been looking for a pedal compressor do you happen to have a video on the WARM Audio pedal76 compressor pedal? It has a meter on it. I'm currently using the PreSonus eureka but it needs repair and I think the repair is going to cost as much as a brand new pedal so I'm looking at trying something new.

[DeadFlowerBlues]

This compression video was amazing thankyou so much! Question do you always run your compressor before overdrives? Or do you sometimes run it after?