Rocktron Prophesy II - Manual (Page 27)

2 7
Application Notes: Compression
Compression is most often used when playing with a very clean tone, like in the Clean American or
Texas Blues voicings. Since there is very little or no clipping (distortion), the guitar signal will
remain very dynamic, which means that there is a lot of variance in volume levels. For example,
when you strum a chord or pick a note, it sounds very loud at first and then dies out quickly. What
compression will do is narrow the dynamic range of the signal, meaning that your strum or pluck
will not be as loud and the decay of the chord or note will be louder. The result is greater sustain
and a more even volume level.
Since the Vintage British and Mega Drive voicings have more gain, there is more clipping of the
guitar signal (distortion). This clipping of the guitar signal is actually a natural form of compres-
sion — this is the reason your chords and notes will sustain much longer using high gain than
when using a clean channel. Compression is not usually used with high gain settings, although
you can use it if you really need to get even more sustain and/or for a less dynamic effect and
sound.
Using different guitars:
It is also important to note that if you switch guitars during a performance and those guitars have a
different output level, you should quickly use the INPUT LEVEL control on the face of the unit to
set a proper input level for each guitar. This will allow your preset Compression threshold settings
to work the same for all guitars.