Bassists! What are some of the compressor units you guys recommend and own!

T

tilugu

New member
Hey guys! Im new to this forum and was wondering what sort of compressor pedals you guys purchase and are a must in your pedalboards!

Care to share?

Personally i like the white finger but its expensive lar. I've used the Digitech bass squeeze and its fine. How bout you all out there?
 
ok i personally use a Vox Snake Charmer.. which is actually more expensive than the white finger ;p but still not the most expensive out there.

ok now for the important stuff.

basically, it does as it says on the box: squeeze every tone out of my guitar. besides controlling annoying peaks of the dry signal, i find that it allows for a richer sound, in particular when i mess around with chording on the bass.

on a whole, i think compressors are really tricky to use. for example, having a very quick gain reduction while attempting to play a smooth, running bassline might sound weird. unless it's pleasing to your ears ;p

i bought mine on impulse. am still learning how to use it.

in any case, welcome to soft (:
 
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Hey and welcome! haha. hmm im new to this compressor stuff as well but i realized the importance of compressing recently. really helps you get the sound and it does make it warmer.

eh for me im considering getting a good compressor. i heard the reviews for white finger are quite good too. think ebenex carries them. i was thinking about the aphex punch factory and the demeter ones but heard they're expensive. also apparently the mr squishy of toadworks is pretty good but lacks sustain. haiya spoilt for choice arent we. hahahah
 
i think when you are new to compressors you'd want something that you can really hear is working. like a dynacomp and its boutique variants

i own an ebs multicomp. very transparent, very quiet, very awesome. and i got it second hand off bro frenchtoast
 
The only compressor I have now is an EMMA TransMORGrifier which is not on my board (up for sale actually). It's a pretty transparent compressor. If you are interested, it me know. :)

Personally, I'm not a big fan of compressors though I would like to try the Multicomp and Compulator...
 
I still haven't figured out why the need for a compressor... the only situation that I can imagine where it'd be useful is if you're either... a. Slapping throughout a song or b. Thrashing away with a pick at your bass and need some kind of volume regulation.
 
Some old timers told me your fingers are your best compressors, but then again, have never put a comp on my board long enuff to find its true benefits.

A good comp however does tighten your sound that little bit which in the big picture really helps the overall band sound. It eases out any volume peaks or touches that are too light which happen in the heat of a gig. As long as your bassline is meant to be consistent, it can help do that and the band doesn't sound out of whack when the bass is a lil off the job.

Back to the thread, I recommend sansamp bass compactor if you need a good and cheap one. Not the most transparent unit in the world but it does its job if you don't over crank your compression ratio and its price is reasonable.
 
rottenramone said:
i have a compressor and its great to even out the volume and sustain of your notes.
Click to expand...

That's where I get lost - isn't music supposed to be dynamic and have loud and soft parts in the same song? If you use a compressor, then you're pretty much at the same volume all the time right? I've also never held a note to the point where I wished it'd still be ringing 8 beats down the bar.

Maybe I just don't need a compressor for the music that I play :p
 
Oh yeah, on my compressor unit (DOD FX80-B) there's a knob for "release", what does it do? does it make my note sustain longer or something?
 
cherns said:
That's where I get lost - isn't music supposed to be dynamic and have loud and soft parts in the same song? If you use a compressor, then you're pretty much at the same volume all the time right? I've also never held a note to the point where I wished it'd still be ringing 8 beats down the bar.

Maybe I just don't need a compressor for the music that I play :p
Click to expand...

yeah, as long no need to make it too over the top compressed lah. let's say you pluck then slap, there will be a huge dynamic difference, so u can use the compressor to level things out a bit.
 
yeah i agree with ramone with the slapping and plucking part where the vol difference can be rather huge. i like the sustain that a compressor shapes. nice
 
well other than the peaks during slapping and popping, transparent compressor freaks probably appreciate how a compressor can put back harmonics that are missing in the tone...

personally i like transparent compressors that don't drown out the attack. i like to use effects that take away the limitations on my equipment, putting control back into my fingers :D

but if you are lost by the idea of using compressors, the concept of 'transparent compressors' is probably gonna confuse you even more :mrgreen:
 
and oh! the irony! at any live show where you're put through a FOH system you're probably being compressed to the max anyway ;)
 
That's precisely it. Wherever you gig/play, the signal usually goes to the FOH system where compression will already be applied. Seems redundant to try to shape your tone with a pedal compressor.
 
thats why i dont bother with things like eq at gig. at most you will get a sweet, sweet sounding... monitor
 
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