Dynamics

The dynamics family reshapes how loud a signal is allowed to get, in two opposite directions. A compressor narrows the gap between a note’s loudest and quietest moments, making a hard pick attack and a light one come out closer in level. A noise gate does the opposite job at a different threshold: it silences the signal entirely once it falls below a set level, removing hiss and hum that would otherwise ride along during a pause between notes.

The types in this family

• Compressor (rank 40): A compressor before the gain stages evens out what they are fed, so a drive responds the same way to a quiet note and a loud one.
• Noise gate (rank 69): A gate removes noise where the noise is made, and the gain stages are what make it. Gating before them gates a signal that is not noisy yet.

Where it sits in the chain, and why

The two types sit at opposite ends of the chain for reasons that follow directly from what each does. A compressor belongs before the gain stages, evening out the input those stages receive so a drive pedal responds consistently to a quiet note and a loud one instead of amplifying the difference between them. A noise gate belongs after the gain stages, because that is where noise is actually introduced — gating before a fuzz or a distortion pedal gates a signal that is not yet noisy, leaving the real noise the drive adds completely unaddressed. Moving a compressor after the drive block instead is a common, deliberate alternative that levels the finished distorted tone rather than what feeds it.

Power notes

A compressor’s power needs vary by design: some simple analog compressors draw very little, while compressors built around more elaborate circuitry draw more. A noise gate is typically a simpler, lower-draw circuit, since its job is a threshold decision rather than continuous signal shaping. Neither generalization should stand in for the pedal’s own printed rating when sizing a supply.

General guidance for the family, never a specification for any individual pedal — always confirm voltage, polarity, current draw and isolation from the maker’s own documentation before wiring a real board.

Every rank and reason above is quoted straight from pedal-chain-planner.js's PEDAL_TYPES — the same taxonomy this site's chain planner runs and docs/gearwarrior-pedals-contract.md documents. No second table.