David Gilmour's MXR Dyna Comp: Squashing Fingerpicked Attack on 'Us and Them'

The MXR Dyna Comp became David Gilmour’s secret weapon from Dark Side of the Moon onward, and its high-ratio setting is most obvious on the arpeggiated intro of “Us and Them.” With the compressor cranked—sustain knob maxed, output level compensating—the attack of each picked note gets flattened into a smooth, almost synth-like bloom. You lose the initial transient, but the sustain stretches each note into the next, creating that liquid, sighing texture against the slow chord changes.

On “Money,” the solo uses the Dyna Comp differently: Gilmour backs off the ratio slightly to preserve the snap of his pick attack against the 7/4 groove. But the real fingerprint is on the fingerpicked verses of “Us and Them,” where the compressor turns his nylon-string-like touch into a consistent, floating legato. The squashed sustain removes any dynamic variance, making each note feel equally weighted—like watching light fade uniformly across a horizon.